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Porsche Cayman GT4 e-Performance.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail

I would imagine this is how a pinball feels. Strapped into the passenger seat of this race-prepared Porsche Cayman GT4, the G-force assault is beyond any I’ve ever experienced. Left, right, forward and back – the short, tight and twisty track compresses the accelerate-brake-turn-repeat sequence into a rapid-fire pummelling. There’s no long straightaway to provide any meaningful moments of respite. Nor is there any escape from the shrill, satanic shriek of the powertrain.

It’s hard to imagine anything further removed from the effortless, silent swiftness we have come to expect from electric propulsion. And yet, this one-of-a-kind Cayman is indeed electric.

By the middle of this decade, the next generation of Porsche’s midengined Cayman two-seater and its Boxster sister car – collectively known as the 718s – will be going fully electric. But don’t look for any clues to those cars in this Cayman. The future electric production 718s will be on a completely new platform; this GT4 e-Performance is a one-off race car, cobbled together in the body of a present-generation Cayman.

Officially, this electric GT4 is a tester and demonstration car for potential racing team customers to compete in a one-make series – in which every driver races the same type of car – similar to the Porsche Carrera Cup.

What’s less clear is whether the production race cars will actually be based, like this prototype, on the current Cayman, or on a GT4 Clubsport version of the next-generation electric Cayman. Porsche wouldn’t say, but reading between the lines, the latter seems more likely.

Porsche is not new to electrification. It introduced a Cayenne hybrid, as well as the plug-in hybrid 918 hypercar, back in 2010. Plug-in hybrid versions of the Panamera and Cayenne soon followed. On the motorsport side, the 919 hybrid racer won the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) World Endurance Championship three years in a row in the mid 2010s. And since 2019, it has sold the Taycan EV.

The GT4 e-Performance, however, borrows most of its hardware from the Mission R GT race car concept that Porsche revealed last year. Two electric motors, one on each axle, can produce up to 800 kilowatts (about 1,080 horsepower) in qualifying trim, but are limited to 450 kilowatts (about 610 horsepower) in race mode. Battery packs are inserted in three locations where they could find space – including the passenger-side footwell, where it forms a 900-volt ottoman for passengers.

Equally unconventional is the part of the briefing where we are required to learn how to safely exit the vehicle in the event of a battery malfunction: First, climb out onto the door sill, then jump out, and whatever you do, do not touch the car and ground at the same time. Something to do with the 900 volts.

At racing speeds, the 65-kilowatt-hour battery pack is good for about 30 minutes, the duration of a Carrera Cup race. Lap times, Porsche says, are on par with the 911 GT3 cars in the current Carrera Cup series. But the GT4 e-Performance can only perform as well as it does, said Bjorn Foerster, the project manager for GT4 e-Performance, because it’s able to recuperate about 50 per cent of the energy it uses through regenerative braking. (For perspective, a small production car with a similar size battery has a range of about 400 kilometres).

Equally crucial was the special “thermal-management fluid” that provides cooling for the battery packs, motors and control electronics. Developed by Mobil, the oil-based fluid prevents thermal derating – a reduction of available power meant to protect the batteries from overheating. “This means that in racing mode, the full power is available for the desired period of half an hour,” said Foerster.

At this point, he adds, nothing about the car or the series is carved in stone. “Over the next two years of the demo phase, we’ll try to figure out if we really need such a high-performing car, because it’s expensive to operate as a GT customer race car, or maybe we can adjust it to be more affordable.”

Also to be determined is the format of the series itself. “Maybe we could just copy and paste the Carrera Cup format, which is kind of boring, but may be the right way,” Foerster said. Over the next two years, those decisions will be informed by input from all the stakeholders, including dealers, drivers, event organizers and customer teams.

It’s all a steep learning curve for a team of engineers who are, as Foerster puts it, “only race-car guys.” But, he adds, “by 2030, Porsche wants to be 80-per-cent electric on the street side. Motorsport also wants to be relevant, and so we want to follow the same path.”

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The GT4 e-Performance borrows most of its hardware from the Mission R GT race car concept that Porsche revealed last year.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail

Porsche in Formula E

You could be forgiven if, like me, you didn’t know Porsche has already been racing electric cars for several years. Perhaps we’d have heard more about Porsche’s foray into Formula E – FIA’s electric-car equivalent of Formula One – if its three seasons so far had yielded more success than one race win and a best championship ranking of seventh.

Next year Porsche will be starting with a clean slate and on equal footing with the other teams, some of which now have eight seasons of Formula E experience under their belts. That’s because the series will introduce radically new technical standards.

The new third-generation designs will be smaller and lighter, but also more powerful (up to 350 kilowatts from 250 in qualifying mode.) The batteries are smaller, but the new standards compensate for that by allowing more regenerative braking, courtesy of a motor/generator added to the front wheels. Regenerative braking is now so powerful that the new cars won’t even have conventional hydraulic braking on the rear. As well, mid-race recharging up to 600 kilowatts is enabled for 2023.

That all said, “software engineering and data handling will be key,” said Martin Fuechtner, Porsche’s technical director for Formula E.

Porsche isn’t beating its chest about its race-winning prospects next year. Instead, it officially describes the Formula E campaign in terms of a shared path to a sustainable future. “Porsche is expecting its commitment to Formula E to yield technological synergies and concepts for future series production models.”

The new season starts Jan. 14 in Mexico.

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