In July 2023, Porsche’s e-fuels team leader said the logo would produce combustion 911s for as long as possible. This is because the German logo is fighting against at least all the developed countries where most of its cars are sold.
Several U. S. states The U. S. government will ban ICE in just over a decade, and most automakers will comply with regulations by going all-electric. As we now know, it intends to split 80/20 by 2030, meaning that 80% of its sales volume will be electric, while 20% will be combustion. A not-so-subtle way of saying that only the Porsche 911 will now bring the torch of combustion.
But how exactly does Porsche intend to circumvent the bans it faces?Its technique spans several fronts, ranging from the evolution of the 911 to its other fuel. And then there are the dozens of patents filed through Porsche to make the combustion engine more efficient. . We’ll take a look at them all.
Porsche announced its artificial fuel partnership with Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF) in 2020, and two years later, production officially began at the eFuel plant in Haru Oni, Chile. We’ve already explored artificial fuels in detail, but you know they can force any combustion car on the planet and it’s a carbon-neutral gasoline car.
A Porsche 911 is already more environmentally friendly than any EV currently in production by simply using this fuel. To demonstrate how effective its synthetic fuel is, Porsche set a new record by climbing a volcano in a highly modified 911 Carrera 4S running a stock engine fueled by the liquid gold. It also used the same synthetic fuel to power 30 classic 911s at the 2022 Goodwood Revival, proving that it’s good enough for any car, no matter how old.
Despite those efforts, the man-made fuel has suffered a significant setback, as Germany’s shipping minister failed to sufficiently protect himself from his European counterparts. Fortunately, this is a minor setback as the European Union’s ban on ICE left room for artificial fuel after Germany and Italy refused to implement it. From the EU’s point of view, artificial fuel is not a long-term solution, but as long as this loophole exists, Porsche and others will be able to prove its feasibility.
The price of synthetic fuel is still sky-high, but it will come down as soon as mass production starts. The good news is that the first industrial-scale synthetic fuel facility will be built right here in the USA, helping make this eFuel more affordable and widely available.
A hybrid 911 might seem blasphemy to some, but we know it’s coming. A 911 GTS with the telltale yellow window sticker photographed at the Nürburgring in September 2022, and will most likely disappear once the 911 receives a very extensive facelift.
The hybrid will be a perfect style for refueling while ramping up production of the aforementioned man-made fuel. It will even be enough to stay after the fact.
We don’t know what kind of hybrid Porsche is working on, but we know it will not be a plug-in hybrid, meaning lighter weight. The 911, in any guise, is already a fast car, but having an electric motor on torque-filling duty will elevate the driving experience.
In May 2023, CarBuzz discovered a patent to improve the functionality of turbochargers. In short, excess energy is recirculated and exhaust gases are wasted.
The formula sends a portion of the engine’s exhaust gases to a secondary turbocharger without impeding the operation of the number one turbocharger. To do this, Porsche had to split the throttle coming out of the cylinder head through a bidirectional channel. One channel forces a classic turbocharger, while the other leads to a secondary turbo that can either use power immediately.
It’s a complex setup we explored thoroughly when we first discovered the patent. To us, it seems like this energy harvesting system would be a perfect fit for the 911 hybrid we discussed above.
Prior to this, another patent discovered by CarBuzz premised a turbo feeding a generator to harvest electric power, which could, in turn, spool up the turbo rapidly, negating turbo lag but not letting those exhaust gases go to waste.
In April 2023, Porsche filed a patent for a new device to ignite the air and fuel aggregate in the combustion chamber. The ignition formula is supplied with two pre-chambers. The chamber currently has 3 or more antechambers in the form of truncated cones. The moment camera with the antechambers has a higher volume than the first one.
In short, a portion of the air and fuel aggregate is forced into the antechamber at the moment during the compression stroke. If the driver wants more power, the flames coming out of the antechamber are currently conveyed to the main combustion chamber.
According to Porsche, the formula is scalable, depending on the functionality needed. The design can also be used to increase fuel efficiency, making it a win-win scenario across the board.
In late 2023, it emerged from resources that Porsche was testing a hybrid V4 engine in a 911 chassis. That would be unlike the one thing all 911s have in common: a flat-six engine. be an evolution of the hybrid V4 of the Le Mans-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid, with the aim of comparing it for road use. Porsche has already converted racing engines into road engines, most notably with the F1-evolved V10 that found its way into the Carrera GT.
It remains doubtful whether Porsche will incorporate a V4 into a 911, as heritage is vital to the iconic sports car logo and therefore the engine could evolve for a sports car. We can’t rule out a scaled-down hybrid engine for a long time. run the 911, because even a smaller combustion engine is still a combustion engine, but the likelihood that Porsche will introduce new combustion powertrains without intending to use them is much lower.
Another patent is further proof that the most powerful naturally aspirated Porsche will run on dinosaur juice.
This patent concerns the formula of the valves, which Porsche must equip with classic valve springs or pneumatic valves. A valve spring compresses when the valve is opened and decompresses to force the valve to close. This is a fundamental formula that works, but not at maximum engine speeds. Porsche must equip pneumatic valves with lightweight compressed air bellows. The ECU can do the latter much more quickly, eliminating any threat of valve flapping when accelerating above 10,000 rpm.
Pneumatic valves are not used in road cars because they don’t want such a high number of revolutions. With this system, the new-generation 911 GT3 RS can easily exceed 10,000 rpm.
At least this patent proves that Porsche is running at full throttle with its high-revving engines, which bodes well for the long term of the GT3 RS.
Porsche needs to use the Blow-By to build an automatic starter motor and, in doing so, eliminate unnecessary weight loads. You need the Blow-By of a combustion engine and manage the compression of each cylinder to create a fresh start. system.
Now, blow-by never leaves an engine but manifests as engine oil residue, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides. All of these are packed with latent energy that’s usually wasted when reused via exhaust gas recirculation, captured in filters, or burnt off in the exhaust.
Porsche has developed a new starter series that is complex but perfectly explained in our original article. This would require giving the first cylinder in the ignition series a higher compression than the second, and so on.
This tech will save weight while making the car more efficient.