It’s been over ten years since Porsche last built a true hypercar—the legendary 918 Spyder, which wrapped up production back in 2015.
Now, reports out of Germany say a new one Porsche S1 is finally on the way. Internally, Porsche is calling it the “S1.”
It definitely won’t come cheap. Expect a starting price around €500,000, which comes out to well over half a million US dollars. The exact price tag will shift a bit depending on your local sales taxes, but no matter where you live, it’s going to cost a fortune.
Back in March, Porsche officially acknowledged for the first time that a new hypercar above the 911 was under consideration. Recent reports have since filled in the details.
What the Porsche S1 Is Supposed to Be
The Porsche S1 is expected to be a standalone model — not another Porsche 911 variant, not a track-focused derivative of something that already exists. A genuinely new car built from scratch to sit above everything Porsche currently sells.
Half a million euros is roughly double what a GT3 RS goes for in Germany right now. The upcoming 2027 GT2 RS won’t touch that price tag either. The S1 is clearly meant to compete with exotic supercars, not just sit at the top of the 911 range.
The 918 Spyder started at €845,000. The Porsche S1 at €500,000 would slot beneath it — but the 918 was a hybrid hypercar from 2013. For 2026, half a million euros buys you something different.
The Flat-Eight Engine — What We Know
A flat-eight engine is the headline. Porsche hasn’t built a production car with this configuration before. The company has made flat-four, flat-six and flat-eight engines in racing history — the 908 race car used a flat-eight in the late 1960s — but nothing in their modern road car lineup.
A few years back, Porsche secretly built a crazy fast test car that almost nobody knew about. They took one of their smaller sports cars, the Cayman, and crammed a massive 750-horsepower engine into it—roughly three times the power of an average family sedan.
Equipped with a traditional manual stick shift, engineers spent over a year test-driving this beast on regular public roads near their main research center. Even though it was fully functional and wildly powerful, Porsche eventually decided to stash it away in storage. As one of their project managers later admitted, the timing just wasn’t right for a car like that.
Ruf Is Already Doing It
While Porsche plans the Porsche S1, the Porsche specialist Ruf has already built a flat-eight engine. Unveiled at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Ruf’s unit is a 4.8-liter twin-turbo flat-eight making over 1,000 horsepower and 737 lb-ft of torque, paired to a six-speed manual. It currently lives in a stretched CTR3 prototype body. Ruf plans to put it in a production car.
The timing is not coincidental. Ruf builds cars using Porsche architecture. A Ruf with a flat-eight arriving before a Porsche S1 with a flat-eight is not a surprise — Ruf has historically moved faster than Stuttgart on experimental configurations.
Why Porsche Is Building a Hypercar Now
CEO Michael Leiters told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier this year that Porsche has to “make money even with fewer cars.” That statement is the key to understanding the Porsche S1. Porsche sold fewer cars in 2024 and 2025 than in previous years. The solution isn’t volume. It’s margin.
A €500,000 hypercar sold in small numbers generates more profit per unit than thousands of Macans or Cayennes. Limited production, maximum media attention, halo effect across the entire range. Ferrari and Lamborghini have run this playbook for decades. Porsche is now following it with the Porsche S1.
The last time Porsche played at this level was the 918 Spyder, a plug-in hybrid hypercar that combined a 4.6-litre V8 with three electric motors for 887 horsepower. The S1 sounds like a different philosophy — combustion only, flat-eight, manual gearbox, no hybrid system. A purer car for a different buyer.
Capital Markets Day on October 7
Investors may get their first look at the Porsche S1 on October 7 during Porsche’s already announced Capital Markets Day. Porsche is expected to preview several new models at that event — including the petrol-powered Boxster and Cayman returning after the EV versions underperformed, a new crossover related to the Audi Q5, updates on the delayed 718 EVs, details on the three-row SUV above the Cayenne and potentially the 911 GT2 RS.
The Porsche S1 would be the headline.
FAQ
What is the Porsche S1?
German newspaper Handelsblatt leaked that “S1” is Porsche’s internal code name for an upcoming supercar. It’s supposed to sit right above the 911 as their next flagship model.
What engine does the Porsche S1 have?
Word is it’s getting a flat-eight engine. If that sounds wild, Porsche actually built a secret 750-hp flat-eight test car years ago and drove it around Weissach before putting it in storage. It looks like they might finally be using that concept.
How much does the Porsche S1 cost?
Expect a starting price of around €500,000, or roughly $570,000 USD. Since German figures already include a 19% sales tax, US pricing will differ based on local taxes and import fees.
When will the Porsche S1 be revealed?
Porsche’s Capital Markets Day on October 7 is the most likely moment for a first preview. Nothing has been officially confirmed yet.
Is the Porsche S1 replacing the 918 Spyder?
The 918 Spyder ended production in 2015. The S1 appears to be a different type of car — combustion only, no hybrid system — rather than a direct successor to the 918.
What is a flat-eight boxer engine?
A boxer engine has cylinders lying flat, facing outwards on both sides. A flat-six is what powers the 911. A flat-eight adds two more cylinders for more displacement and power. Porsche has never put one in a production road car.
