Porsche already built a flat-eight supercar. Then killed it. According to German outlet Handelsblatt, the company may be ready to resurrect that ambition — this time as a production halo car, reportedly codenamed S1, with a price hovering around €500,000 (roughly $574,000). No official announcement exists. Porsche hasn’t confirmed the name, the engine, or the price. What does exist is a paper trail of engineering ambition the company shelved once before and apparently can’t stop thinking about — much like the secret 918 Coupe that surfaced years after the fact.
The Car That Almost Was
Porsche built a flat-eight prototype, drove it around Weissach, then walked away.
Former Porsche e-fuels project manager Marcos Marques described what that prototype actually was: a twin-turbo 5.0-liter flat-eight making 750 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque, spinning to 9,000 rpm, bolted to a manual transmission inside a modified Cayman chassis. He called it “a crazy car that sounded amazing.” Porsche tested it on public roads near Weissach, then shelved the project because, as Marques put it, “it wasn’t the right car for that moment in time.”
That moment may have arrived.
Reported details, all unconfirmed by Porsche, include:
- The S1 codename per Handelsblatt
- A flat-eight boxer layout rather than the hybrid V8 previously speculated
- A reported price of approximately €500,000 / $574,000
The prior prototype’s figures — 750 hp, 738 lb-ft, a 9,000-rpm redline, and a manual gearbox — speak to how seriously the engineering was developed. Should the S1 reach production, it would be the first road-going flat-eight Porsche ever sold.
A Statement Disguised as a Supercar
Every rival at this price point is going hybrid — Porsche reportedly isn’t.
Buyers at this tier aren’t purchasing a car so much as staking a claim. Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini: the hypercar segment has pivoted hard toward plug-in hybrid complexity — turbos paired with electric motors and battery mass, typically framed in manufacturer messaging around “performance and sustainability.” Porsche, reportedly, is considering a different answer — one rooted in passion for the driving experience rather than electrified spec-sheet dominance.
The flat-eight isn’t arbitrary. The layout traces back to the 908 World Sportscar Championship racer and Porsche’s 1960s motorsport experiments — making it a heritage move as much as an engineering one. Ruf, never far from Porsche’s orbit, recently unveiled its own twin-turbo flat-eight engine at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, a separate development that suggests genuine appetite for unusual high-output boxer configurations, not merely rumor.
None of this is confirmed. Porsche has not committed to building the S1.
At $574,000, the engineering already exists and the prototype has already run. The only thing standing between that “crazy car that sounded amazing” and a buyer’s driveway is whether Porsche decides this particular moment is finally right — and whether the brand is willing to plant a flag for combustion-engine exclusivity at the very top of its lineup.
