Porsche GT4 e-Performance impresses racing fans at Watkins Glen
Thick clouds hang over Watkins Glen as the practice session for the IMSA Michelin Pilot challenge wraps up. Mechanics have just unplugged the charging cable from the 800 kW (1,088 PS) Porsche GT4 e-Performance. The 80 kWh battery is fully charged: more than ample for the brief time window of 20 minutes. The all-electric test vehicle is ready to roll. The only thing missing? The driver. Jörg Bergmeister was scheduled to do the demonstration laps, but the towering driver from Langenfeld, Germany, has yet to arrive in the US, the flight of the long-time works driver having been delayed due to inclement weather in the Düsseldorf region.
“So I had the unexpected good fortune of doing the first drives,” Klaus Bachler recalls later, with a smile. Now, the Austrian driver, a regular in the Porsche 911 GT3 R with Pfaff Motorsports in the IMSA series, is waiting in the wings. He gleefully hops into the cockpit of the GT4 e-Performance, buckles up, and sets off around the 5.472-kilometre, former Formula One circuit. The sizeable crowd is transfixed by the powerful whistling sound as the electric racing car tears down the start-finish straight, meanwhile at turn five (the Outer Loop) the marshals raptly wait for the car to make its first pass, having been notified of the imminent spectacle by a Porsche Motorsport employee.
Porsche GT4 e-Performance impresses at Watkins Glen
Bachler rips through the chicane before turn five, flying past the engrossed marshals in his Blue-Black GT4 e-Performance for the first time. “Amazing” say six mouths in unison; the stopwatch is counting. First lap: one minute 49 seconds. The Austrian racing pro is feeling his way towards the limit.
