Skip to main content

Nothing to see here: Porsche 919 Hybrid cruises London streets

Imagine seeing one of these in your rearview mirror.

Porsche gave London commuters quite a surprise when it unleashed one of its Le Mans-winning 919 Hybrid race cars onto the streets of the British capital. The car was driven by Mark Webber, the ex-Formula One driver who won the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship in a 919. The drive took place early in the morning on public streets, meaning other cars shared the road with the high-tech hybrid.

Recommended Videos

Webber, who hails from Australia, got to do quite a bit of sightseeing. The route took him from Park Lane to the River Thames, past London landmarks like Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Parliament, and the London Eye. The 919 isn’t exactly built for city traffic, but the stunt seems to have gone off without a hitch.

Read more: 2017 Porsche Panamera revealed

Please enable Javascript to view this content

While there was a time when race cars built for the 24 Hours of Le Mans shared at least some DNA with road cars, that time is long past. The 919 Hybrid and cars like it are arguably the pinnacle of current racing technology. The Porsche is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged V4 engine, which gets part-time assistance from an electric motor. The motor draws power a lithium-ion battery pack, which collects energy recovered from brake and exhaust heat.

The 919 Hybrid has had a pretty successful career so far. It won Le Mans in 2015, its second year of competition, and then again this year. That victory came at the expense of Toyota, which suffered a heartbreaking defeat when its leading TS050 Hybrid broke down with only a few minutes of racing to go, making 2016 one of the most dramatic Le Mans races in recent memory.

Porsche staged the London drive to promote a somewhat less exotic machine: the new Panamera 4 E-Hybrid. It’s a plug-in hybrid version of the second-generation Panamera luxury sedan, replacing the old Panamera S E-Hybrid. While both it and the 919 are hybrids, you’ll never mistake the Panamera for a race car.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2025 Awards
Top Tech of CES

Las Vegas is overrun. Every billboard in town is shouting about AI, hotel bar tops now sport a sea of laptops, and after hours The Strip is elbow to elbow with engineers toting yard-long beers.

That means CES, the year’s biggest tech bacchanalia, has come to town, and Digital Trends editors have spent the last four days frolicking among next year’s crop of incredible TVs, computers, tablets, and EVs. We’re in heaven.

Read more
Sony and Honda’s Afeela 1 EV makes more sense at CES than in the real world
Afeela 1 front quarter view.

The Sony car is almost here. After its creation via a joint venture with Honda in 2022 and two years’ worth of prototypes, the electronics giant’s Afeela brand is finally taking reservations for its first electric vehicle, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2026.

But will it be worth the wait? Coinciding with the opening of reservations, Sony Honda Mobility brought updated prototypes of the Afeela 1 (as it’s now officially known) to CES 2025, representing what California customers (Afeela is only taking reservations in that state) who put down a $200 refundable deposit can expect when they take delivery.

Read more
Bose wants to dominate car audio, and I heard its next-gen 3D automotive speakers
Bose logo on a speaker grille

Bose’s automotive audio business is huge, and it’s set to get even bigger. The company has been making big plays in car audio for some time now. The audio company works with premium brands like Porsche, building high-end speakers that allow drivers to experience high-quality audio on the road, whether they’re carting the family around in an Escalade or weaving around the highway (don’t do that) in a Porsche Macan.

But while it has a solid selection of audio brands under its belt, the world of personal audio is also evolving. Mercedes-Benz showed off its Dolby Atmos system at CES last year, and now, a year later, plenty of other brands are joining the trend. At CES 2025, Bose walked me through its current lineup of automotive audio products, as well as a sneak peek of what’s to come.
Immersive audio
The big trend in all areas of personal audio right now essentially boils down to supporting 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos. Consumer home theater products are increasingly offering up-firing and side-firing speakers that can bounce audio around the room to simulate height and surround effects, while headphone brands are increasingly developing spatialized audio tech that can convert stereo audio into simulated spatial audio.

Read more