Electrification could be the future of performance cars and Porsche is setting the bar for everyone else.
The video above comes to us from the official Porsche YouTube channeland it features a look at a record attempt being made by the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid sedan. To be exact, the turbo-hybrid Panamera headed to six tracks around the world with plans to “set the benchmark lap record for the fastest luxury four door hybrid sedan”. Based on that wording, we believe that these six tracks did not have an official lap record for a luxury four door hybrid sedan, but with the growth in this segment, Porsche jumped out ahead of the competition by establishing track records all over the world.
Future of Performance
While there are skeptics of the push to electrify performance cars, Porsche and many other automakers believe that it is the wave of the future, and that future is approaching quickly. Hybrid sedans have often been viewed as being unpleasant appliances to drive, but with the German automaker putting so much emphasis on driving dynamics in all of their vehicles, they want to make it clear that the Panamera hybrid offers comparable performance to the non-hybrid models. To do so, Porsche headed to six tracks in the Middle East to establish the benchmark records for this budding performance segment.
The Team
The Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid that traveled around the Middle East to set lap records for the fastest luxury four door hybrid sedan was piloted by Las Kern, Porsche AG Test and Development Driver. Kern is the same man who ran a 6:47.25 last year in a Porsche 911 GT2RS at the Nurburgring, which was the standing production road car record until the Lamborghini Aventador LP 770-4 Superveloce Jota reset the record in July of 2018.
The Map
The six tracks visited by the Porsche PanameraTurbo S E-Hybrid included Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the Buddh International Circuit in India, the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa, the Bahrain International Circuit in Bahrain, the Dubai Autodrome in the Dubai and the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
On a dedicated page on the company website, they have video of all six record runs in individual videos. Some of them are available on YouTube, but you can watch the entire record run video-by-video by clicking here.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
