Porsche opens up its archive for new exhibition
The 919 street would have brought Le Mans magic to the road
How would you fancy a 919 Le Mans racer that you could take to the shops? Or a 911 capable of tackling the Safari Rally? What about a futuristic take on the classic camper van, all wearing that famous shield with the Württemberg coat of arms on the nose.
No, we’ve not gone mad. Porsche beat us all to these ideas, and a new 2021 exhibition will throw open the famous brand’s design archives to make public a host of previously private concept cars.
Ranging from hypercars and road specials to SUVs and racing one-offs, Porsche’s research and development department has been constantly creating fresh designs, some of which made it into production, and many that never even came close.
To coincide with a new book called Porsche: Unseen, the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart will give a home to 15 never-before-seen concepts – which were all created between 2005-2019 – displaying everything from the initial sketches to clay or plastic models of varying scale, and even the finished article itself, if it had been lucky enough to get that far.
It promises to give an insight into Porsche’s development and thought process within its Weissach design base.
“People all over the world love the timeless and innovative design of our sports cars, and visionary concept studies are the foundation of this success; they provide the pool of ideas for
the Porsche design of tomorrow,” said Porsche CEO Oliver Blume.
Owing to the way of the world at the moment there’s no fixed date for the exhibition to begin, but the book is available now for £61.