New Vision 357 celebrates 75 years of Porsche sportscars

Let’s cover the looks first. The 357 very much pays respect to Porsche’s original car, the 356, launched all the way back in 1948. That hunchback silhouette is typical of the proto-911 356, as are the compact proportions that share more with the Cayman of today than the big 911. No coincidence, as we’ll reveal.

It’s such a faithful look to the past that the modern aerodynamic touches like the shaped skirts, diffuser and jutting splitter, seem to hang almost proud of the rest of the car, juxtaposing its classic main form. These parts, as in the Mission R, utilise sustainable natural fibre reinforced plastic made of agricultural flax fibres. 

That smooth timeless surfacing, snub nose and rotund rump are themselves littered with futuristic details hinting at Porsche’s incoming design direction. Details like the lighting design, which is an evolution of Porsche’s current quad-light signature, have been highlighted in particular as ‘pointing to the future’.

“The design study is an attempt to combine the past, present and future with coherency, featuring proportions that are reminiscent of its historical archetype and details that visualise the outlook for the future,” said Michael Mauer, Vice President of Style Porsche.

“Thinking out loud about the future is one of the core missions of Style Porsche. Design studies are the pool of ideas that feed the design of tomorrow.”

Back to that Cayman relationship, what do you think powers the Vision 357? Batteries and electric motors? Not a bit of it, as those dual trumpet exhausts will indicate. Instead sat amidships is the Cayman GT4 RS’s 500PS (368kW) 4.0-litre flat-six, good for a 9,000rpm redline and still trumpeting in its induction song via a carbon plenum leading to the rear windows. In this case, it’s also been configured to run on e-fuels.

What do you think of the Vision 357? Is it a fitting summary of 75 years of Porsche sportscars, while offering a cursory nod to the future? We have to say it’s something of an odd duck, but achingly cool all the same, especially the fact that it's packing that howling Cayman motor. We wonder if it has a manual gearbox…