Porsche is working on a new flagship supercar powered by an eight-cylinder boxer engine, according to German business newspaper Handelsblatt. The car is reportedly known inside the company as the S1 and would start at about €500,000, or roughly $574,000.
Porsche has built flat-eight engines before, but only for race cars. It has never sold a road car with one.
Porsche hasn't announced the S1, and the name, engine, and price all come from the Handelsblatt report. Chief executive Michael Leiters will present the company's Strategy 2035 at a capital markets day on October 7, and Motor1 and Hagerty both say details of a new flagship could surface there.
The flat-eight Porsche already built once
The idea has been tried in Weissach. Marcos Marques, Porsche's project manager for eFuels, revealed a few years ago that the company had a running prototype built on a Cayman chassis. It used a twin-turbo 5.0-liter flat-eight rated at 750 hp and 738 lb-ft, had a 9,000 rpm redline, and drove through a manual gearbox.
Marques called it a "crazy car that sounded amazing." It was tested on roads near Weissach for more than a year and then shelved, because Porsche felt "it wasn't the right car for that moment in time," Motor1 reported.
One of Porsche's racing flat-eights powered the 908 sports prototype. When the FIA capped prototype engines at 3,000 cc for 1968, Porsche built a new eight-cylinder boxer engine for it, good for more than 350 hp at 8,500 rpm, according to RM Sotheby's. Porsche built 31 examples of the 908 between 1968 and 1973.
Someone else may put a flat-eight on the road first. Porsche specialist Ruf has already shown a twin-turbo flat-eight prototype with more than 1,000 hp and a six-speed manual. Carscoops reports there's no suggestion the two engines are related.
Where the S1 would sit
Porsche hasn't had a car above the 911 since the 918 Spyder, whose production ended in June 2015. A road version of the 919 Hybrid Le Mans car, the 919 Street, got as far as a clay model and stopped there.
In early March, a Porsche spokesperson used the word hypercar in a statement to Motor1 about a possible model above the 911. At the reported price, the S1 would cost about twice what Porsche charges in Germany for a 911 GT3 RS. That German price includes 19% VAT, which American buyers don't pay, so the $574,000 conversion isn't a US sticker.
The S1 name has come up before. A report ahead of the Carrera GT's debut more than 25 years ago mentioned a V8 halo model with the same name, The Drive noted. The Carrera GT arrived with a Le Mans-derived V10 instead.
How Porsche would build such a car has been an open question.Automotive News has reported that Porsche was weighing a 918 successor, and Hagerty pointed to the Audi Nuvolari as a possible template. That car pairs the twin-turbo V8 from the Lamborghini Temerario with three electric motors for 1,001 hp. Hagerty also floated the idea that Porsche's engineers might insist on their own engine for a halo car. The Handelsblatt report points that way.
The timing fits what Leiters has been saying since he took over on January 1. Porsche sold more than 50,000 911s in 2025, a record, according to Hagerty, while the company's finances have struggled. At the June shareholder meeting, Leiters said Porsche would concentrate on its "sports car DNA" and on exclusivity.
"Selling more cars doesn't automatically make Porsche stronger," Leiters told shareholders. "We become stronger when customers make a conscious decision to buy a Porsche."
Carscoops reports that Leiters wants annual production closer to 200,000 vehicles, down from the 350,000 to 400,000 targeted under former chief executive Oliver Blume. A separate report of another 4,100 job cuts, on top of the 9,000 already planned, drew a denial from Leiters in an internal memo, The Drive reported, citing Reuters.
Porsche presents the full strategy on October 7. Until then, the 918 Spyder is still the newest Porsche supercar.
Sources:
The S1 report, the Cayman flat-eight prototype, the 918 and 919 Street history, and the VAT and GT3 RS price comparison: Motor1
Strategy 2035, Leiters' start date, and his shareholder quotes: Porsche Newsroom
The October 7 capital markets day: Porsche Newsroom
The earlier S1 report before the Carrera GT, and Leiters' denial of further job cuts: The Drive
The 918 successor, the Audi Nuvolari route, and 911 sales: Hagerty
The 908's flat-eight: RM Sotheby's
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Cam Walsh has been obsessing over cars since before he could drive one. Based out of Atlanta, Cam covers automotive design, car culture, and the eternal debate over which whips actually look the part.
