[Auto] Charging to glory: How a Porsche Taycan set 13 EV records.

[S9OUL.]

An old colleague had suggested that we try setting some electric vehicle records: among other stunts, a speed record for reversing a milk float. An interesting idea, but although I do have form for going backwards fast, I would rather do something more relevant. I had just driven Porsche’s new Taycan and was mightily impressed. Perhaps, I suggested, Porsche might help us establish some records with that car.

Porsche did more than help: within hours of our phone call, it had started to put into a place a formidable campaign. Rather than rack up speed records with the Taycan, it instead wanted to concentrate on endurance records. And not driving the car on an airfield or even on the unchallenging and rather boring two-mile bowl at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. Porsche fancied Brands Hatch or Silverstone: a circuit at which it has won many races, particularly in the Group C sports car era of the 1980s.

There have always been employees at Porsche who have excelled in motorsport outside of their day jobs. Herbert Linge, who started at the company as an apprentice mechanic during the war, became a top-flight sports car racer in the 1960s. Jürgen Barth, who played an important part in developing the 911, won Le Mans in 1977. And Fritz ‘Huschke’ von Hanstein, a Mille Miglia and Targa Florio winner, also ran Porsche’s public relations department.

 

 

Rob Durrant, who works in the Porsche GB press office, is a former racer and in this project was proven to be a master logistician. Covid-19 scuppered an earlier date set for our record-setting bonanza and a clashing event put paid to the revised date, but eventually the stars aligned and we were booked in at Brands Hatch. There’s plenty of Porsche history at the Kent circuit: there was the famous BOAC 1000km in 1970, won by Pedro Rodríguez and Leo Kinnunen in a Gulf Porsche 917, and the 1984 BAe 1000km won by Jonathan Palmer and Jan Lammers in a Canon-sponsored Porsche 956.

Durrant first scanned the records (which you can see on the Motorsport UK website) and picked out 12 that could be set, all from a standing start. We would first aim to establish a record for 50km, then continue all the way to 1000km, posting en route records for imperial distances and for the distance covered in hours.

The plan was to run two cars simultaneously: a Taycan 4S and a Taycan Turbo S. The former was to be wrapped in Porsche Salzburg colours, the latter in Canon colours.

It gets better: the 4S is in this livery because in the 1970 1000km, a Salzburg Porsche 917 came in third, with Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood sharing driving duties. Attwood is here today, sharing the 4S with me and Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Harry King.

 

 

The Canon-liveried car is being driven by Durrant, Palmer and James Dorlin, who is the current Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion. I’ll be doing a stint in this car, too

Now you can see how the sense of occasion had me slightly rattled as I almost managed to set a record for the shortest ever record attempt. Durrant took the first stint in the Canon car and started next to me on the grid at 7am. This was part of my problem at Paddock Hill Bend; it was also dark and wet.

Half an hour later and I’m beginning to get a bit more settled in. I’ve never driven on a more slippery race track. The Taycan is wriggling and slipping out of every corner, with its Porsche Stability Management system (aka Porsche, Save Me!) working hard to keep us on the asphalt.

Durrant did a reconnaissance at Brands earlier and has spent hours on the abacus working out an ideal lap time and energy consumption. For the 4S, it works out at a time of 1min 8sec and a consumption of 70kW per 100 miles.

He has also created a diagram of Brands with the speeds for which we should aim at each corner’s apex. For example, Paddock Hill Bend should be taken at 62mph, Druids at 42mph, Graham Hill Bend at 50mph, with light acceleration up to 65mph on the Cooper Straight, before lifting and coasting into McLaren before Clearways at 52mph and then accelerating to 85mph for the Brabham (or pit) Straight.

 

 

It sounds easy, and it probably is for my professional team-mates. King and Dorlin are respectively 19 and 21 years old, Durrant is relatively young and Attwood is probably the quickest octogenarian on the planet, as anyone who has seen him drive his BRM P261 Formula 1 car at Goodwood would agree. What we’re doing today is obviously not a race, but the point is that you don’t want to let your team-mates and the whole team down.