Porsche opens its vault of rare and never before seen prototypes

Porsche has lifted the veil of secrecy off of a series of concept models and studies made between 2005 and last year members of the public and media have never seen or known about until now.

Released under the “Porsche Unseen” designation, the initial batch consists of eleven models under four categories; Spin-off, Little Rebels, Hypercars and What’s Next, with more reportedly set for revealing within the coming weeks.

What’s Next

Vision Race Service

Year: 2018

Arguably the most curious creation dreamed-up, the Race Service made it as far as a 1:1 hard model that pays homage to the original Volkswagen Transporter used at race meetings.

Fitted with an electric drivetrain and designed to represent not only the Transporter but also a “futuristic space shuttle with exciting proportions” according to Porsche Chief Designer Michael Mauer, the central driver’s seat van remains a concept with no plans to put into production anytime soon as a Porsche.

Spin-offs

Boxster Bergspyder

Year: 2014

Designed as a tribute to Porsche’s successes in hillclimbs during the 1960s, the aptly named Bergspyder actually made an appearance last year and today resides in the Porsche Museum as a one-off driveable prototype.

Derived from the last generation 718 Boxster with its roof and windscreen removed completely in a design harking back to the 550 Spyder as well as the 910 Bergspyder that dominated the 1967 and 1968 European Hillclimb Championships, it ticks the scales at 1 130 kg and is motivated by a 290 kW version of the last Cayman GT4’s 3.8-litre normally aspirated flat-six engine.

Little Rebels

Vision Spyder

Year: 2019

Unsurprisingly a tribute to the 550 Spyder with its category description being derived from the Little Bastard moniker film legend James Dean applied to his personal 550 after starring in the movie Rebel Without a Cause in 1955, the 1:1 hard scale Vision Spyder mirrors the 1500 engine RS Spyder Hans Herrmann drove to a class victory and third place overall in the daunting Carrera Panamericana in 1954.

Fitted with a slanted window and roll over bar, the Vision Spyder does without a roof and further features a squared-off rear facia seemingly inspired by that of the 964 generation 911, but with a prominent rear diffuser and full-length, thin LED light bar. Despite appearing production ready, no plans are in place to introduce it as a modern-day 550.

Little Rebels

904 Living Legend

Year: 2013

The oldest concept, whose name takes after that of the original racer made between 1964 and 1965 that won its class at Le Mans, Monza, Spa-Francorchamps, Sebring and the Targa Florio, the 904 only made it as far as a 1:1 hard model whose looks, while similar to the original and the Alpine A110, actually comes as a result of the Volkswagen XL1 that ended limited production after three years in 2016.

Like the XL1, the Living Legend would have used a two-cylinder engine in a V-design and weigh less than 900 kg had it entered production, though it would likely have been a petrol unit of sorts given that the offering from Wolfsburg made use of a 35 kW 800 cc diesel engine combined with a 20 kW electric motor.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.