Webber completed the runs purely using the 919 Hybrid’s four-cylinder internal combustion engine. Cooling was an issue because the racing car is not designed to be driven so slowly for such a length of time.
“This wasn’t a trivial show car run - I had a few things going on," he said. "The car itself put up a bit of a challenge in terms of being able to go that slowly. The 919 Hybrid is built to be a flying machine and take in a lot of air for cooling. It is fitted with a downforce package specced for 220mph, so to drive it at between 10-15mph for a long period of time was a little bit of a concern. I was tempted to floor it and get into second gear but I had nowhere to go."
Webber said he wasn’t able to take in London’s iconic landmarks during his cruise around the city: “Visibility was tricky, especially when it was dark, although the lights on the Porsche 919 Hybrid are awesome - they are good for 220mph so I didn’t have to worry too much about that.
“The windscreen is essentially cut in half because of the sun shield we need for endurance racing, so I couldn’t see the top of Ben Ben or much of Trafalgar Square, for example. I got a good panoramic view, but I was keen to miss cyclists, traffic lights, junctions and kerbs. The kerbs were a really nasty height for that car so I couldn’t risk touching them.”
The Australian also had to contend with a bumpy road surface and tight street corners: “There was a bit of bottoming out on the road, but that wasn’t too much of an issue because we tend to experience that on race tracks at high speeds too.
“There were a few black spots for us in terms of steering lock. I had to really take a wide arc to make the junctions. Right-hand corners were easier because I can’t see much out of the car on the left-hand side.”
Webber participated in several Formula 1 street demonstrations when he drove for Red Bull Racing, but he said today’s run was a much bigger challenge.
“There were a lot of firsts for me. The length of the course was unique [compared to other street demos] and it was dark, which we could obviously never do in an F1 car.
“This was the most optimistic route that I’ve done, so that was impressive from Porsche and the City of London. To do things like this is great. London is a global city full of international people. There’s always something interesting that pops up in London and this morning it was us.”
Join the debate
Add your comment
Crowdmedia and a point
What autocar could do is ask for people's video's that filmed it this morning and edit it into a longer piece. You're only going to get 9 second bursts as the car goes by and I can't imagine it's worth sending reporters out when Porsche will release their own video in due course. Would cost an hour or two of time, produce some unique media and build brand engagement or whatever they call it between Autocar and the readers.
All that organisation amounted to 16 hours of overtime for the police (8 riders, 2 hours each) at a time so early in the morning I doubt there was much law breaking going on, road or elsewhere. Yes Police budgets are tight, but if you end up with a more motivated workforce (they were all chuffed to be talking to Mark Webber and shown the car today), better relations between them and the public as was happening through the day, plus a fantastic advert for London, it's no doubt worth it. If you're going to ban that, you'd need to ban all public events that require a police presence.
So.....
While the Police were involved in a stunt for a car which isn't road legal.....where were those actively breaking the law (other than Mark Webber) :)
Only 9 seconds of video? What