Porsche Vision 357 concept: 75 years of Porsche sports cars

2023 is a 12 months of many anniversaries for Porsche. Not only is the venerable 911 celebrating its 60th calendar year, but the organization is also eager to foreground 100 many years of the Le Mans 24 Hour, the gruelling endurance race that has been received by Porsche extra than any other company. Probably most critical of all is the 75th anniversary of Porsche’s quite initial sports activities vehicle, the 356 No.1 Roadster – correctly the birth of the present day organization.

(Graphic credit: Porsche)

Celebrations of this milestone have incorporated a spectacular new electronic artwork inspired by Porsche’s brand name intent, Pushed by Dreams, developed in collaboration with Lusion and Wallpaper*, and premiered in London in January 2023. But the enterprise has long gone more, with this exclusive 4-wheeled birthday existing to itself, the Eyesight 357.

Porsche Vision 357: an unashamed athletics auto

(Graphic credit history: Porsche)

The Porsche Eyesight 357 is an unashamed sports motor vehicle, crafted atop the most hardcore model of the brand’s existing compact two-seater, the 718 Cayman GT4 RS. Michael Mauer, Porsche’s vice president of style, describes the structure review as ‘an attempt to combine the past, current and long term with coherency, that includes proportions that are reminiscent of its historic archetype and specifics that visualise the outlook for the future’.

(Image credit: Porsche)

The Eyesight 357 captures some of the monolithic, clamshell-like detailing of Ferry Porsche’s first, VW-derived athletics vehicle, stripping the acquainted silhouette back again to its essential proportions and selecting to emphasise the curve of the roof as it flows down more than the pronounced rear wheel arches. 

There is a refound simplicity, an solution misplaced to yrs of revisions, refinements and legislative compromises (an component of the venture the design and style crew ended up pleased to wholly ignore). The gray paintwork is a different nod to the company’s early years, a time when the radical simplicity of the primary 356 was a correct breath of refreshing air.

(Impression credit: Porsche)

Does this strategy herald a new style route? Mauer is adamant that the 357 signifies a possibility to ‘play all around and explore’, and the decision of a combustion motor could possibly elevate eyebrows. Maybe only a company that is as actually cozy with electrification as Porsche could make these types of a self-consciously retrograde choice notice the tiny dinosaur decal just forward of the rear wheel arch. It’s a deliberate nod to fossil fuels.

(Picture credit score: Porsche)

The most probable impact the 357 will wield is in Porsche’s method to lights. By making use of LEDs and blending the variety of the headlights into the bodywork, Mauer and his crew may have specified a hint as to the upcoming of a single of the company’s most famed visual signatures. With EV versions of the Macan and 718 Boxster and Cayman waiting around in the wings, all eyes are on Porsche to see how it evolves the electrification journey it began so correctly with the Taycan. 

(Picture credit history: Porsche)

‘I’d be lying if I didn’t say we could have accomplished it on the electrical platform,’ Mauer claims. ‘We desired to keep away from people getting this as the next generation 911.’ For now, just take the Vision 357 at confront worth a reward the design and style department has given to by itself. The strategy will be a essential exhibit at the new exhibition, ‘75 Years of Porsche sporting activities cars’, on clearly show at the VW Group’s Forum in Berlin.