Porsche brings new 911 RSR and Cayman GT4 to FOS

Alongside the 911 RSR and Taycan, the Porsche Museum has contributed a strong selection of classics which will take visitors on a journey through the evolution of lightweight sports car technology.

Leading the classics is the 1968 909 Bergspyder, the lightest Porsche racer ever made, tipping the scales at just 420kg. It epitomises the essential Porsche DNA, with two seats, a mid-mounted ‘boxer’ engine and a lightweight construction to ensure the highest possible performance and efficiency. One of just two units ever built, the Bergspyder’s UK debut at Goodwood will be just the second time in more than thirty years that the model has run.

Another Bergspyder making a debut on the Porsche stand is the 2015 Porsche Boxster Bergspyder (981), the result of an experiment by Style Porsche designer Grant Larson and his team to see how light they could actually make a road-going car. To achieve this, they removed the second seat, followed by the roof and the windscreen, and then made the engine visible in a Boxster for the first time. The fully-roadworthy car’s flat-six engine develops 388hp and 446Nm of torque.

And with 2019 marking the 50^th anniversary of the iconic Porsche 917, a fleet of 12 models will feature at the festival, recalling the car’s legendary 1970 wins at Le Mans, Spa and Daytona in a World Sportscar Championship season in which it dominated the competition. Piloting number 23 – the winning Le Mans 24 Hours car – were Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood. And Attwood will be reunited with that very Porsche as he takes on the hillclimb at Festival of Speed.

Joining the 917s in the classic cohort is the 1976 Porsche 935 ‘Baby’, driven to victory by Jacky Ickx at the Hockenheim, and the lightweight 1970 Porsche 908/03 Spyder, which was only ever entered in four races and won three; including its premiere in 1970 at the Targa Florio in Sicily.

Looking to the future, the new 2019 911 RSR will make its world debut, supported by Porsche factory drivers Jörg Bergmeister and Gianmaria Bruni. The 911 RSR is the successor to the car with which Porsche has won the GTE-Pro and GTE-Am categories of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2019. Joining the RSR in the echelons of Porsche Motorsport is the 911 GT3 R and the 911 GT3 Cup race car from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, which share a 4.0-litre flat-six engine. The latter will be driven at Goodwood by 2018/2019 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior race driver, 18-year-old Dan Harper.

Making their world premieres in the Supercar run is the entry-level street car, the 718 Cayman GT4 Coupé, which, for the first time, shares a base with the open-roof 718 Spyder. Both models feature advanced aerodynamics, an accomplished GT chassis and a 414hp, 4.0-litre, naturally aspirated flat-six engine, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.

The open-top 911 Speedster, of which only 1,948 examples were built, will feature on the Porsche stand, while making its dynamic debut at Goodwood is the non-road-homologated 935, which shares a twin-turbo 3.8-litre flat-six and seven-speed PDK transmission with the street-legal 911 GT2 RS. The exterior, meanwhile, pays homage to historic Porsches, including the 1976 935 and the legendary 935/78 ‘Moby Dick’. And reminiscent of the 917 and 909 Bergspyder is the laminated wood gear shift lever.

And perhaps most excitingly of all is the Porsche Taycan’s dynamic debut in the First Glance category, with a camouflaged prototype of the all-electric model due to fly up the hill on Saturday, with Australian Mark Webber at the wheel. The four-door EV is propelled by two electric motors with a combined output of over 592hp (440 kW), meaning 0-62mph takes less than 3.5 seconds.

Finally, the last Porsche to make its dynamic debut, also in the First Glance category, is the latest Cayenne Coupe, a four-door, four-wheel-drive family car with a 335hp turbocharged V6.