The Porsche GT4 ePerformance is an electric prototype car prepared for sports. He took part in many competitions – with success – including: Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it premiered in 2022. During Porsche e-Performance Day on the Silesia Ring track, a record driving time of 1:33:31 was set.
When Porsche announced its electric car – Mission E, the Taycan prototype – it was known that it would be an extraordinary car with sports performance (not only in acceleration). However, it should be remembered that Porsche is a strictly sports brand, so we expected an electric car that would be able to compete on an equal footing with truly sports cars of this brand, such as the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. The announcement was the Mission R shown in 2021, and a year later – in June 2022 during the Festival of Speed Goodwood – the final result was presented: the Porsche GT4 e-Performance prototype, which is based on the 718 Cayman GT4.
We could see both of these cars during Porsche e-Performance Day at the Silesia Ring track. An event focused exclusively on Porsche electric cars. Yes, there are so many models, variants and prototypes that it is possible to organize an event on a race track only with electric Porsches. More on this subject soon.
Porsche GT4 ePerformance
The theory was simple: take a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, dismantle the combustion engine and gearbox, and install electric units with a battery in their place. The practice was, of course, much more complicated. First of all, the Porsche GT4 ePerformance has drive on both axles, and there are three batteries: in place of the combustion engine, under the hood and in front of the passenger’s legs. However, there is no gearbox, which could be expected considering that the GT4 e-Performance accelerates to ~300 km/h – and with this aero package generating solid downforce.
Let’s start with the batteries, because they are the heart of an electric car. The capacity itself is not impressive: it is 80 kWh gross (roughly 65 kWh net). This is enough for approximately 30-40 minutes of track riding. The power of the battery itself is around 1,000 kW – which is even more than the two electric motors installed in the GT4 ePerformance. The Porsche expert I spoke with mentioned that this high power is available even with a relatively low battery SOC, such as 30-40%. What is also important, the “battery” absorbs an equally large current during braking! And this is the reason for using the front engine.
The point is that most of the work during braking is performed by the front axle, so in order to enable large energy recovery during deceleration, it was necessary to use a powerful front engine that would be able to absorb this energy. As a result, the battery receives electrical energy with a power of… 1000 kW during braking, which is an abstractly high value. For comparison, the new generation Porsche Taycan and the Audi e-tron GT based on it consume 400 kW at peak (for a fraction of a second), and the charging itself can take place with a power of ~340 kW temporarily. Let’s now relate this to the possibilities that the Porsche GT4 ePerformance offers during acceleration and braking.
The electric GT4 ePerformance offers, or rather its engines, around 800 kW (1,088 hp) of power in qualifying mode. Exactly this amount can be used during acceleration and this amount can also be transferred to the battery during braking. Such power with the relatively low weight of the entire car – about 1,550 kg – translates into acceleration from 0-100 km/h in 2.3 s, and 0-200 km/h in… 5.6 s. For comparison, it is very fast. BMW M8 Competition it does it in 3.1 and 10.1 seconds, respectively – and it has 625 HP. As I have already mentioned, the battery is ~200 kW more powerful, so you can relatively easily increase the power of the entire car by changing the electric motors.
Things get interesting when braking. Civilian cars are able to generate g-forces of 1.0 – 1.2 G, which roughly corresponds to the acceleration offered by a nearly 1,000-horsepower four-wheel drive car. In the case of sports cars such as the GT4 e-performance, you can count on up to 2× G. Therefore, in the case of the Porsche GT4 ePerformance, it is not possible to recover all the kinetic energy (the car brakes very effectively), but a significant part of it can still be accumulated in ” battery”. And this is where it turns out how important it was to use a powerful front engine. Without it, energy recovery during braking would not be possible at such a level, and Porsche reveals that the total amount of energy consumed during the race simulation is close to 100 kWh, which is well above the net capacity of the installed batteries (remember: 65 kWh), which only confirms recuperation efficiency in this car.
One of the interesting design features is, of course, the place where the rear engine is mounted: it is located behind the rear axle. The same “patent” was used in the electric Macan. This allows, among other things, lower the center of gravity and better manage the weight distribution of the entire vehicle. The second is the lack of a gearbox/gearboxes for both engines. Achieving high power in this type of units at a high speed range is extremely difficult. However, Porsche engineers managed to achieve this, because the GT4 ePerformance accelerates to ~300 km/h and does not lose its spirit even close to this speed. And this – apart from the high battery power – impressed me the most.
A ride on the right seat in a Porsche GT4 ePerformance
You can be an efficient driver, but driving a really fast sports car (and not a sports car) around a race track is far beyond the reach of a person without experience in motorsport. A professional racing driver, Klaus Bachler, vice-champion in long-distance races in the FIA GT3 category, showed what he can do behind the wheel of a Porsche GT4 ePerformance by setting a time of 1:33:31 on the Silesia Ring track, and on a straight line he accelerated to over 270 km/h. So that this time was not “hanging in the air”, my ride behind the instructor in the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT (~1100 HP) was probably around 2 minutes… This gives some perspective on the capabilities of GT4 ePerformance and the driver himself.
What was it like in the right seat in the Porsche GT4 ePerformance? Apart from the difficult entry into the car – an everyday occurrence in sports cars – it was above all noisy – for an electric car, of course. The specific acceleration was not a surprise, nor was the fact that the grip was lost even at about 100 km/h on all four wheels, but the way the car handled the corner in a very balanced way made a great impression on me. The pace at which Klaus Bachler exited the corners was truly impressive. There was a fight on the steering wheel – the track was already wet during the runs – but still, in such conditions, such overloads in the corner were incredible.
At the end
There can only be one conclusion: having experienced the possibilities offered by Porsche GT4 ePerformance, I have no worries about the lack of emotions in ELECTRIC sports cars. Porsche engineers showed what possibilities today’s technology offers, and considering how quickly it is developing, we can expect big changes in racing series soon. Having the opportunity to drive the Taycan Turbo GT and GT4 ePerformance in one day, I noticed the transfer of technology from sports to civilian cars. In the case of Porsche, this is not an empty slogan, as many may have thought.
Source: antyweb.pl
