About a year ago, Porsche took car enthusiasts by surprise with the unveiling of many concept cars that had been kept a secret for quite a while. From a Safari interpretation of the 911 and Macan to even an electric minivan, the lineup was nothing short of amazing. But perhaps the most interesting of them all was this – the 919 Street.
Envisioned as a road-legal counterpart of the Le Mans-winning LMP1 racer, the electrified hypercar was conceived in 2017 using the same 900-horsepower hybrid setup of the track-only 919. YouTube sensation Supercar Blondie had the chance to spend some time with it after Porsche shipped the one-off machine from Germany all the way to Dubai just for this video.
Gallery: Porsche 919 Street clay model
Bear in mind this isn't a car per se. It's a fullsize clay model as the project was abandoned, with no plans for a production version that would've been a successor to the 918 Spyder. A new hypercar from Porsche won't arrive before 2025, which is a shame because the 919 Street would've been a veritable crowd-pleaser. Of course, there's more to a car than its design, so we're certain the peeps from Stuttgart had good reasons not to pursue the project any further.
Adapting the hybrid powertrain for a road car would've likely required a ton of work what with emissions regulations and reliability concerns. Just ask Mercedes-AMG about the many hurdles it had to overcome to put the Formula 1 engine from Lewis Hamilton's car into the One hypercar. The LMP1-spec engine alone takes 45 minutes to fire up, which obviously isn't ideal for a road car.
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We are certain the makers of the Carrera GT and the 959 before it will make it worth the wait until the next flagship car, whenever that comes. Compared to the 918 Spyder, we're expecting even more electrification, and we wouldn't be too surprised if the internal combustion engine will be entirely ditched given Porsche's EV push.
Source: Supercar Blondie / YouTube