The 1000bhp Porsche Mission R Concept Is A Preview For The Cayman's EV Destiny

It’s looking increasingly likely that the next-generation 718 Cayman and Boxster will both be fully electric. That’s some way off, we think, as Porsche will no doubt want to stretch out the current internal combustion versions as long as possible. Regardless, the German company has given what is effectively a very early preview of its future small plug-in sports cars.

Officially, the Mission R “provides an indication of what the future of one-make series with all-electric cars could look like,” but we reckon it’s more than that. It’s slightly shorter than a 718 Cayman but a lot wider with a girth of nearly two metres, but tone down the aero and reduce the track width a bit, and we could easily see this sitting in a showroom alongside the incoming all-electric Macan. Don’t forget - the Taycan wasn’t hugely different from the wild Mission E concept that preceded it.

Any road-going take on this would be a damn sight less powerful, of course. The Mission R’s two newly developed electric motors are good for a whopping 1078bhp combined when the car is set to ‘qualifying mode’. The 0-62mph time is a mere 2.5 seconds, and the top speed is 186mph.

In ‘race mode’ this drops to a still very potent 674bhp, helping eke out 30 minutes of hard track driving from the 80kWh battery pack. That’s plenty long enough since the average Carrera Cup GB race lasts around 25 minutes.

The bodywork features a Taycan-inspired front end, a 911-like rear and a silhouette unlike anything Porsche makes currently, with a gently sloping roofline. On the aero front, there’s a drag reduction system comprising three controllable louvres on the outer front intakes and an adjustable section on the huge swan-neck rear wing.

Much of the bodywork is made from natural fibre reinforced plastic, a material largely derived from agricultural byproducts including flax fibres. Sound familiar? It should - Porsche already uses this stuff on various bits of the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Also of note is the carbon roof structure, which acts as an ‘exoskeleton’ that combines a safety cage and a roof skin.

Inside, there are a lot more screens than you’d typically find in a racing car. There’s one on the steering wheel, another just above that shows feeds from the trio of rear-view cameras and a touch screen to the right to show various things including the driver’s biometric data. The whole driver’s cell monocoque can also be used separately as an esports simulator.

The Mission R is a fully working concept rather than a full-scale model, so we should hopefully be seeing it tearing up some race tracks in near silence very soon.