Porsche's 718 Cayman GT4 e-Performance: A fully electric customer race car prototype with up to 1,088 horsepower

This isn't a Porsche you can drive on the road. This also isn't a Porsche you can buy, but rather a prototype of what a fully-electric Porsche customer race car could be in the near future.

This is the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 e-Performance and like its name suggests, it's built atop the chassis of the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport (albeit 14cm wider than the donor car). It's powered by two electric motors that are capable of churning out a combined peak output of 800kW. In other words, it's a fully electric, track-only Porsche that produces up to 1,088 horsepower.

The GT4 e-Performance traces its beginnings from the Porsche Mission R concept, which was co-developed by Porsche Motorsport and Porsche Style design studio as a precursor to the brand's customer electric race car as well as the next-generation Cayman EV.

Cosmetically, the Mission R and the GT4 e-Performance are vastly different, with the latter taking the body shell of the 718 Cayman but under the skin, they share the same running gear and technology components.

In true motorsports fashion, the exterior panels are made from composites. The car rides on centerlock rims wrapped in Michelin tyres made from sustainable rubber. The GT4 e-Performance also does away with conventional wing mirrors, opting for cameras housed in the recess of the front wheels to reduce drag.

Mounted aft of the rear canopy is a massive swan neck rear wing with a multitude of adjustment positions for multiple angles of attack. Beneath the rear wing and housed in a custom fabricated carbon fibre enclosure is a full-width light bar that works as tail lights and doubles as a charging indicator for the car's battery 80kWh battery pack.

In the cockpit, the driver gets the full suite of safety enhancements that one would find in a typical Porsche Carrera Cup car: No insulation, a race-spec steering wheel, roll cage, racing nets, full bucket seats and a five-point harness. Features that make ingress and egress difficult for the uninitiated (take it from us, we tried) but would no doubt protect the driver from any mishaps on the track.

While the Porsche GT4 e-Performance is capable of churning out its headline 1,088 horsepower figure, the car can also be dialled back to a steady 612 horsepower for up to 30 minutes - the same duration as a Porsche one-make cup series. On the track, the AWD dual-motor powertrain sounds remarkably similar to that of a Formula E race car. The car also accepts a maximum charge rate of 370kW under fast charging conditions thanks to its 900V electrical architecture, which can replenish the car's state of charge (SOC) from five per cent to 80 per cent in about 15 minutes.

The GT4 e-Performance will be on display at the Porsche NOW pop-up located at Guoco Tower from Sept 12 to 17, 2023, just as the upcoming weekend's F1 festivities end. 

Visitors may also try their hand at driving the GT4 e-Performance on a virtual track by taking part in a time-attack challenge on a racing simulator set up by Legion of Racers (LOR) within the store premises. Drivers who clock the fastest lap times each day will stand a chance to win exclusive prizes.

ALSO READ: Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 delivers daily delight with simple yet rewarding recipe

This article was first published in CarBuyer.