Piech Mark Zero Concept Leaked Ahead Of Geneva Debut
Currently, the market is awash with all-electric start-up car brands, and this Swiss-built GT car could be the latest addition to the flood. Called the Piech Mark Zero, it鈥檚 an electric sports car built by a new company fronted by the son of Ferdinand Piech, the former head of Volkswagen. These leaked teaser images preview the car鈥檚 design ahead of its launch at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Full performance specifications for the Mark Zero are yet to be announced. The battery packs are mounted in the car鈥檚 transmission tunnel and on the rear axle, which Piech states will provide a driving experience closer to that of an internal combustion-engined car. The Swiss start-up also claims that the Mark Zero鈥檚 architecture will be modular, allowing its battery packs and hardware to be replaced as technology advances. Potentially, Piech鈥檚 modular architecture could offer buyers a range of powertrains, including internal combustion engines, various hybrid systems and even a fuel-cell driven option. In addition, the Swiss firm plans to make its platform available to other manufacturers. For the next few years, Piech has planned a range of cars, consisting of a two-seat sports car, a four-seat saloon and a sporty SUV, built on the Mark Zero鈥檚 underpinnings. Release dates for these upcoming Piech models are yet to be announced.
Porsche Motorsport North America President and CEO Daniel Armbruster says Daytona will see 鈥渁ll hands on deck鈥?in the debuts of two different Porsche-built race cars on the same weekend. It presents a unique challenge for Porsche, which has allocated additional resources to its customer teams in both paddocks this weekend. A total of four GT3-spec Porsches are set to do battle in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener, with entries from Park Place Motorsports, Pfaff Motorsports, Black Swan Racing and NGT Racing in the GT Daytona class. Park Place, as well as TRG, BGB Motorsports, RS1, AWA, Bodymotion and nolasport, meanwhile, will field 2019-spec models of the Porsche GT4, was launched at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 earlier this month. According to Armbruster, Daytona has been circled as a key event for Porsche globally, as the manufacturer rolls out its latest offerings for the customer racing market. 鈥淚t was one of our targets because last year we didn鈥檛 really have any new products,鈥?Armbruster told Sportscar365. 鈥淭hat was really tough.
With Park Place being the only team with prior on-track experience with the GT3 car, the Roar provided the first opportunity for the majority of Porsche鈥檚 customer teams to come to grips with the new-for-2019 models. The Roar also saw a large presence of Porsche personnel, with support from Porsche Motorsport, PMNA as well as from the production side for its first large-scale customer rollout. A similar presence is expected this weekend to support the 12 new cars competing. 鈥淒aytona is the first race of the year and we had lots of colleagues from Germany, from the R&D department, the project manager in Wolfsburg was there,鈥?Armbruster said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had all hands on deck for the Roar test and also for the 24-hour race. Armbruster said the customer support programs, headed up by Sebastian Golz (GT3) and Matthias Scholz (GT4) are running independent of each other, with no cross-over. A minimum of five engineers per project will be present. Germany so we are also up to speed with the new technologies,鈥?Armbruster said.
With the GT3 car having already completed multiple endurance races in Europe during the second half of 2018 as part of its development process, Armbruster is confident in the car鈥檚 reliability. It was the first race car to go through Porsche鈥檚 new extensive test procedure, which Armbruster, in his former role as quality manager of motorsport, had implemented. 鈥淲e did our homework and everything that could be done,鈥?he said. 鈥淪o we鈥檙e really perfectly prepared with the cars, but also with our teams. 鈥淏ut especially for a 24-hour race, you need a tiny piece of luck. 鈥淥f course we want to win; everyone who is starting a race wants to win. While its initial allocation of new GT4 cars are believed to have been already accounted for, Armbruster said he鈥檚 hopeful that a strong result in the Rolex 24 could help sell additional 911 GT3 Rs for the North American market. It鈥檚 understood at least three teams will campaign the car in the newly named Blancpain GT World Challenge America this year, while Porsche is also in talks for potential efforts in the new WeatherTech Sprint Cup. 鈥淲e are working on additional programs,鈥?Armbruster said. 鈥淭here is a demand. 鈥淭he best sales point is being competitive in the race, showing good performance, good quality and reliability. John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365 as well as the recently launched e-racing365 Web site for electric racing.