PORSCHE

Porsche Mission R 2025

The Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles is sandwiched between two arteries: the Harbor Freeway and the San Diego Freeway. From my seat – the driver's seat of the Porsche Mission R – I can't see the busy highways, but I can hear them. Tire noise, the monotonous hum of fuel engines, a roaring V8 here and there: it all penetrates my helmet and even seeps through my earplugs.

It feels strange to be here in a super-advanced electric race car. My zero-emission laps around the Porsche circuit in a moment are less than a water molecule on a white-hot glowing hot plate. Los Angeles has a huge smog problem. The exhaust fumes from millions of cars collect in the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Basin and cannot escape the surrounding mountains.

California has been trying to do something about it for a long time and has by far the strictest emissions regulations of any US state. The acceptance of electric cars is also higher than in the rest of the United States. California has seven and a half times as many EVs as the number two: Florida. Perhaps that is why Porsche introduces us to the Mission R in Los Angeles. The 'City of Angels' could use some electric cars and sympathy for 'the plug' is already there.

The Porsche Mission R provides nervous power...While I fiddle with my racing gloves, the Mission R is buzzing at the charger. Its 82 kWh battery is built low in its chassis; a bit like the screeching lump of nerves at the bottom of my stomach. A nervous current runs through my veins, as if the charging plug of the Porsche is also connected to my nervous system. The realization that I could put a 10 million euro prototype in the crash barrier makes my fear sweat extra cold.

Suddenly, a Porsche technician pokes his head inside. He adjusts the Mission R's pedals to my height and hands me the detachable steering wheel. Before the man gives me a thumbs up, he clings to the belts with his full weight. The vertebrae of my spine snap together like the teeth of a zipper. I can't go anywhere. A message comes over the on-board radio in genuine Arnold Schwarzenegger English. I have permission to enter the track.

Tapes that stick like Pattex superglue...Cautiously I roll to the starting point, where I enthusiastically let my right foot land on the power pedal. Immediately, without delay, the Mission R shoots forward, as if fired from a cannon, which in turn is hit by a freight train. I am startled. And immediately lift my foot. Nondeju! How am I going to control this electro racer on this narrow, twisty Mickey Mouse track?

The official specifications do not do the Mission R justice: a 453 hp electric motor at the front, a 653 hp strong copy at the back, from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and a top speed that is over 300 km/h. I take it for granted, but can hardly believe the numbers. In the sense that my already exasperated stomach suspects a million-billion-billion nauseating horsepower.

Autonews