The Porsche 911 has been admired by car enthusiasts around the world since the first model appeared in 1963. Such a Possche 911 also cannot stand against the trend of the times. There are rumors that the Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, is currently developing a hybrid specification based on the current model.
However, before Porsche, a small startup located in Silicon Valley, California, USA, succeeded in hybridizing the Porsche 911. Moreover, unlike the official hybrid that will be released in 2-3 years, there is no need to replace the current Porsche 911. By installing a system developed by a startup called Vonnen, the existing Porsche 911 can be hybridized.
Bonen’s SHADOW DRIVE system boosts driving power by adding motors, batteries, controls and inverters to the existing Porsche 911 with a maximum output of 150 horsepower and a maximum torque of 20.7 kgm. The electric motor in the shape of a pizza box fits between the horizontal six-cylinder engine mounted on the rear of the Porsche 911 body and the transmission located in the front. The unit is only 25mm wide, but to push it into the existing Porsche 911 chassis, the transmission has to be shifted forward that much. Instead, the starter motor and flywheel are not needed and will be removed.
It is expected to be deployed in a hybrid model that Porsche is developing itself, but Bonen has developed a transmission that is 100mm shorter than the old one. It means that it was designed from the beginning on the premise of integrating a motor here.
The battery pack is mounted on the hood. The inverter is placed behind the rear seats. The inverter case, which is seen through the rear window, is the only identification point that lets you know that it is a Bonen Hybrid Porsche 911 from the outside. Of course, if you want to keep it secret, you can change it to a different location.
With the addition of another motor and battery cooler, the overall system weight is 95kg, but without the starter motor and flywheel, the actual weight gain is about 77kg. It is the difference in the degree of carrying a person in the passenger seat, but the improvement in performance remains beyond this.
There are no signs of modification in the vehicle. It supports three modes, street, sport, and overboost, and switching is done through a smartphone-specific app linked with the vehicle control device and Bluetooth. Depending on the selection mode, the motor assist method is also different. Looking at the app screen, you can see how much power and torque have improved with figures and graphs.
According to Bonen, the Shadow Drive can be fitted to almost any Porsche 911 of any age or class. Of course, you can do a lot of power-ups without burdening the old Porsche 911 engine itself, but it costs $75,000 for that, which isn’t cheap. Even with a motor, it is not possible to drive with electricity alone, and fuel economy improvement is not expected to be very high. Rather, the purpose of this system is just to make the Porsche 911 faster. Related information can be found here .