The program may have been shut down, but Porsche is keen to show how its dominant 919 Hybrid prototype racer has affected the development of its electrified road cars. And it’s driving the point home, so to speak, with this video.
The minute-long clip seems to show the Le Mans prototype driving through city streets, which would be a rather unusual sight to say the least. But there’s more going on beneath the surface.
Instead of closing down the roads and getting permission from local authorities to run the racer around town, Porsche used a giant 3D projector to superimpose the image of the 919 on top of a moving Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid – a world first, according to the manufacturer.
The clip’s gone viral since going live on YouTube ten days ago: As of the time of writing, it’s been viewed nearly 18 million times. That may not seem like all that much considering that the most popular videos have been watched literally billions of times, but those are almost invariably music videos.
When you consider that only about half of the world’s population (some 3.8 out of 7.5 billion people) has access to the internet, that means that (on average) one in every 200 people who can watch this video has. Have you?