How Porsche tested the 992 in the real world without us noticing 

I've been one of those Engineers for 12 years and can confirm: best job in the world!

My wife’s cousin was a Porsche test driver in Europe, now retired … neat stuff

I saw people testing the 992 GT3RS with a 992 Carrera S as a support car in September 2022. It was all black and still in it's prototype phase but a sight to behold. I had just gotten off of work and was making my turn to go home and pulled up right next to it. Best 5 minutes of my life. Funny enough it was just after 9:11 pm.

I was a kid, living near the factory in 1976 for a year. Every once in a while I'd see a car that looked like it was from the distant future or outer space. When it went on sale, a year later, realized it was the 928.

Other manufacturers putting crazy camos on their test cars. Meanwhile Porsche paint it black and leave it dirty 😂

I once attending a track day in canada, Toronto back in 2000 or so. I walk around the pit and saw a mid engine car with no badge . First thought it was just some random kit car, I then saw the engine was V10. And the drive close the cover when they saw me trying to talk a picture. I believe it was the carrera gt test mill.

This is crazy. I saw all of these black 992s together a few days ago driving through Torrey Pines. All debadged I knew something was up

I use to have a 911, I now drive a macan turbo, but I need to go back to 911.

I was born and raised in Granada, Spain, home to one of the highest elevation-change routs in Europe. You can go from almost 3000m to sea level in less than 2 hours, go through several climate types and a dense European city along the way. This all means a ton of car, truck and bus companies would test their vehicles there, and I got to see so many prototypes, it was awesome. I saw Porches, Roll-Royce's, BMWs, VW/audi products, the new MGs before they had re-launched the brand. But my most memorable one was the pre-production Bugatti Chiron

being a test driver for the new 911 is like a dream

so you get to drive a multi hundred thousand dollar car hundreds of kilometres and get paid? sign me up how do i be one

I have a video of 2 992 mule cars in 2018 travelling on the I-80 through Nebraska… filmed from my own 911! It was the most unique experience as the test drivers waved back and did pulls with me.

They have been testing in the North West of Ireland for over twenty years from their base in County Sligo.

I live in southern Germany in the mountains. I see Porsche or Mercedes test drives very regularly. I have friends working in the automotive industry. Sometimes they will get a car for a weekend to test, often it’s just one tiny part in the car that’s new and gets tested like a sensor

Vince you would make a great test engineer. Porsche if you're watching - hire Vince! He's friendly and an awesome guy.

I saw a group of these ravens with antennas early march in SF! Thx for explaining

Well done Vince! Voice work and editing both top notch

Great video! I learned a lot from this, so thank you!

Back when I was 14 my family drove from AZ to CA for a family trip on the way we saw the same thing 3 packs of 4 all testing out the new Panamera super cool

I saw a 991 Turbo S Cabriolet test mule while on a trip to Montenegro with my family. We were waiting for a ferry, and in front of us in the queue was the aforementioned 991. I never saw a similar Porsche in my life, so I googled the newest Turbo S Cabrio model and came upon the 997.2 which didn't look quite like the one I saw. I didn't know what I actually saw until I came across this video. Thanks!

I came expecting a secret for hidden test mules but just saw a guy talking about regular test mules

I live in quite close to the Porsche development campus in Weissach, there are tons of taped cars and testing vehicles here. Its not exclusive with Porsche, Mercedes, BMW are also more or less common to see testing their newest cars on public roads.

Living in the desert southwest near test facilities, I often have seen various "zebra wrapped" test vehicles on public roads. Always interesting to think about the data that they are gathering.

I'm an engineer for a Powersport brand that develops off-road and on-road vehicles. When there's no big aesthetic change between years, we usually paint the prototype vehicle to the last year colors scheme to blend in. There is always a funny feeling driving a vehicle on the road that as the next years hardware/software without others knowing.

Man what a blast it must be to truly now the ins and outs of such an iconic series of car, to be the one group to figure out, experiment and do all that whilst mainly just driving such a piece of art ? It is such a dream to be one of them !

Love your point about their "functional look" part of what's so appealing about them. Agree! Like well-worn jeans, not new ones folded neatly in the closet.

bro im from stuttgart and i see new prototype cars being tested like this from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz literally everyday (they're called Erlenkönig over here) and i love to see them

Really enjoyed this. I saw the Carrera GT testing on a dirt track in Sitges, Spain before it was released.

Great video and a much deserved view count. I didn't even know you had a RU-vid channel until the almighty algorithm recommended it to me. Looking forward to more great content.

i saw the 992 GT3 in Stuttgart 3 months before they even announced it. At first me and my buddies thought its just a tuned 991 but after the car got released, we were so hyped up because we knew we saw a car that hasnt even released at that moment yet.

Porsche is just… brilliant!

I live in Mpumalanga,South Africa and the number of test cars I’ve seen is immense!

Now that you mentioned this at 6:07, it does make sense that they can have an automotive version of A/B testing!

This is the type of thing that sells me on a car, or gets my interest. Thanks for the video!

Seen some squads of random Porsches appearing in small coastal towns around Spain and Italy over the last few years. Badges say one thing but after looking around the car you kinda start questioning if what you're seeing is really last year's car or just something custom has been done. Props to manufacturers who do real-world testing without drawing too much attention.

my father was working on the air conditioner for the first panamera, their department got 3 panameras for 2 weeks to test drive around europe to test the new air condtioning unit.

I live in New Mexico and had the amazing privilege of getting to see a new s650 mustang testing, if I remember correctly, less then a week after ford officially showed off the new car. Sadly it was going the opposite way on the highway and I only saw it last second but i distinctly remember the aggressive shape of the fresh 2024 mustang being protected under a camouflage wrap.

I just saw like ten of these in Globe, Arizona USA three days ago. All had the Georgia plates and a black support van.

Being a Porsche test driver must be the absolute dream job for any car guy. I would absolutely take it, no matter what kind of salary they'd offer.

im aiming for this Job love the different prototypes

This is not innovative, but what car brands should be doing to be respected. A lot of say: "Porsche is so overrated", but is actually their honest hard work and engineering what has made them a top class brand.

My ultimate dream car since I was a kid, way back in the early 70s. The 928 was my personal baby for 12 great years. But nothing tops a 911, the stuff of legendary motoring excellence.

I saw a small group of these cars, did not think much about it, but I got my camera out and took some pictures. They did have antenas on the windows and stickers with numbers. Just randomly clicked on this video and came to the conclusion that those were most likely test cars

That Ford GT test photo comes from my hometown of Glenwood Springs, an epicenter of high altitude testing. I love playing “what on earth am I looking at” to the camo and unreleased vehicles. Almost every car released here (especially by American companies use Denver-Glenwood Springs and sometimes back over Independence Pass to make sure the cars can handle the highest conditions. It’s kind of funny when they clash with Highway Patrol officers as they did just before the photo was taken. You can read about this car and 2 others pulled over clocked at 101 in a 50mph zone in the Vail Daily news. Safe to say the engineers sometimes have a bit too much fun on the job haha.

That is an amazing job. There are probably things in it that are much tougher and less desirable than we can see on the surface. But it looks so awesome. Going on roadtrips all over the world figuring out what works and what doesn't. It's like labwork but a hundred times more interesting

There was a terrible accident a few years go on the Autobahn near Stuttgart when a Porsche engineer drove recklessly with a Turbo convertible test car and crashed into the center guardrail, suffering fatal injuries. That was followed by a series of less severe accidents in the 2020s, leading to some speculations on how well Porsche had their test-drivers under control.

Nice video, I saw the new Cayenne & Macan electric versions in Portugal 🇵🇹, near Sintra wonderful cars although I prefer regular engines

I saw a caravan of yet to be released Benz E Class in Death Valley back in January 2009. Parts of the interior were masked out but the exterior was mostly final version and visible.

I live near the AMG production facility and I see so many test cars, it's incredible! They mostly have a camoflash look but you can kind of make out how they look. :D I also know two test drivers for AMG personally and they both share the opinion of having an amazing Job.

Very interesting video! Earned a sub👍

Great Video!

Great video!

My dad tested the 918 spider and Porsche cayenne and Panamera hybrid models because he helped develop the electric engines. I got pictures of when my dad brought them home for testing over the weekend.

Besides not standing out in public, the black color also helps as a worst-case scenario for temperature. Due to absorbing more sunlight, black cars can easily get 10°C warmer than white cars, so it's important to test the cars with the "worst-possible" color.

I live in the high desert on the backside of the Sierras just over the mountains from LA. We often get many test car caravans from many makes making their way to Death Valley and mountain road testing. Many are in that black and white livery cover overlays. I’ve seen them at a popular park and ride adjusting and finnicking with their telemetry boxes. It’s rare to see them without all the coverings tho we have seen quite a few caravans coming to and from the old Honda test site south of us. That one was sold off to some other company now iirc.

In an old issue of Motor Trend, there’s an article about the testing they did on the 718 Cayman up in the Arctic Circle and one of the test drivers nearly put one into a sulfur lake, pretty awesome pictures. Anyway, they yanked it out of the drift it got buried in and just kept on driving, no big deal.

A few details for you. Firstly, a mule car is a last generation model butchered as neccessary to simulate the updated features on the proposed new car. These generally don't see that much on-road time depending on how well they're built since much of the real engineering test work can be done in the lab and on track. Many of the test cars you will see on the road a pre-production cars of some level and there are several levels aimed at testing the actual design, testing the manufacturing methods of the parts and then finally the full assembly processes for off-tool parts. The road tests you might see can be one of two styles - a "management drive" where the suits get to experience and critique the engineer's efforts in a real-world environment or, a quasi-commute between test facilities with actual engineers, although the "test facility" may be just a hotel base high up in the mountains or in some god-forsaken desert or frozen wasteland. I would say that road testing is more "evaluation" than "testing" for most engineers and you're on the road looking for the rough edges poking out rather than testing the actual specific function of components. One other extensive part of vehicle development on road is engine and transmisson controller calibration. Areas that are evaluated here include cold, hot and altitude starting and post-start operation, idle control, load inputs from aircon, PAS, gear engagement, shift quality etc. Another huge area is testing and validating the effectiveness of the active on-board diagnostic functions for emissions compliance. The active functions require a certain amount of vehicle operation to determine whether to pass or fail so there's a huge matrix of tests needed with limit pass and limit fail parts installed to make sure the systems are legal but don't give customers false fail warnings. This often requires a lot of on-road testing that likely continues on way past the vehicle's on-sale date.

As a porsche owner it is evident just how much real world testing and optimization is done, such smugly pleasurable machines

The interesting thing is you don't really notice some changes until it's changed. E.g. I once visited a laboratory developing black paint that is as black visible as any other black but reflects infrared so it doesn't heat up as much so the cars stay cool. Developing and engineering is so cool.

what a great video!

I live in South Africa,and remember The AMG GT, G63 and GLC being tested in my neighbourhood

Great video! I subbed

Truly one of the coolest jobs in the world and test mules are the coolest version of a car

Used to get passed by the mules on the A5 after dark, all kitted out with sensors. Always between 200 - 300km/h and matt black

I saw a couple raptors with the secret wrap on em and some off road goodies heading down to baja when i was in california. They had michigan manufacturer plates, so I figure something cool was being done.

In August I went for a road trip UK to Italy, and like 10 of those black Porsche 911 overtook me on the German autobahn

Got passed by a bunch of Cayennes during their testing in outback South Australia back in the noughties. The road was rough and they were flying! Not a road for my Boxster🙂

Makes sense that Porsche makes such a great car with this process. Because I swear some cars have things that make question if anyone ever bothered to drive the car before going for sale

Underrated Channel

nice vid!!

I've been wanting that job since the first time i saw the intro movie from Need For Speed 2000 Porsche

I was lucky enough to be in Cape Town’s waterfront in Dec 2003 using a shortcut to get to the shopping centre and out of nowhere, 9 McLaren SLR’s🤩 there was 10 but one hit a mk1 golf

When selling Porsche in the USA from 1986-1989, we learned about a term called “Popometer“ - a seat of the pants feeling that test drivers use when evaluating their cars. It’s translated to a “seat of the pants meter”.

911 Turbos have always been a personal favorite since they came out in what was it, 1976? They have raw beast look to them, very purposeful, dedicated to getting from point A to point B - fast

I had the honour to drive a BMW I8 testcar. it was riddled with sensor pins xD

I'm happy for you guys who actually get to drive that stuff without having to worry about a blown engine every 50k miles

Everytime he said "911" i thought of planes rather than cars

When I was 18 years old I had a summer job as a car jockey at a Porsche Dealership in Englewood New Jersey. A good friend of mine was a mechanic there and got me the job before I left for college. Down the street was a BMW dealership and I saw the very first e30 M3. My two favorite cars were the 944 Turbo and the e30 M3. I said one day I'll have a 944 turbo or an M3. I knew nothing about product life cycle and little did I know the 944 would be gone. I did drive 911's - 928 also all summer long as an 18 year old. HOLY SMACK! I dont come from money so I was mesmerized. I stuck with the Plan and I've had 2 M3's so far they are phenomenal. Current is a 2022 G80 6MT. A 911 would be a fun car but my fun vehicle is my 2022 R 1250 GS 40th anniversary. A good friend of mine who dreamed of owning a 911 fulfilled that dream too. He had a 2020 992 S Manual. Kept for 2 years and sold it. Now he drives a C63s. I appreciate 911's but I dont have a use case for one given my current vehicles.

I saw 3-5 911s in a train testing on highway 1 in Bodega Bay, CA. They had the antennae in the back and were all black.

Yeah, I’ve seen them, for the last few months when I go bicycle riding near my home there’s a mountain and a track, they’re always there, groups of 4, various new models always being led by a older generation.

3:35 two ford gt's just casually flashing by

I might have seen them on Tuesday on my way to Baden-Baden but probably not 😅

I saw several 918 test mules in Santa Monica, California.

Not a lot of people know this but they actually started testing stuff for the 992 with the last few production months 991.2 carrera Ts. Some of the front suspension pieces like the lower control arms are the same as the 992 and they actually sold it to customers but its a very small amount of them that have it and they don’t share the same part number as the 992, they have a separate one because since it is the T they needed to shave some weight but it is the exact same control arm with the only difference being how the ride control sensor is mounted.

Thank you!

6:49 I love the perfect man-made potholes!

As a five times 9/11 owner I'm going to make the following comment. For the first time you've got a video article that will hold up to basically anything that automobile magazine Road and track etc has ever done. Good job guys. You've taken it to the next level finally. Took a while but RU-vid is finally becoming self-actualized.

I’ve seen the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and current Range Rover testing as prototypes, they seem to test quite a few cars down my way. Both black, with a small decal on the back bumper with ‘prototype vehicle’. Presumably for the police since those cars didn’t officially exist yet.

In Austria/Tyrol BMW & Audi often testig their cars on the mountain roads. Noticeable is the Black tape or the erlkönig foiling(i hope that word is right😅)

Truly a dream job.

Yeah, VW beetle sibling looks nice :D

I don't know about porsche specifically, but usually a test mule is an early stage prototype, not a late stage prototype. In my experience it goes buck > mule > validation prototype (vp) > tooling trial (tt) > pre-production. Granted this is one of those things that changes with each new executive since they have to "innovate" and "fix the problems with a reorg". But generally mules are vehicles which are operational (unlike a buck) but not finalized. So a good example would be if you took a previous gen vehicle and put the next gen engine in it, it would be an "engine mule" or more likely a "powertrain mule" since it likely would have the next gen transmission as well. It's a mule because it's carrying the new technology (in this case the powertrain) without any of the other new technologies getting in the way, like maybe a new steering gearbox. Some mules might look more like the production intent vehicle than others. Sometimes your mule vehicle might be a competitor's vehicle if you're entering a new segment you haven't worked in before (think if ducati wanted to make sportscars they might use a ferrari chassis as a test mule for their engine program). This allows you to have less risk in the timeline for that specific program.

What a dream job !!

Worked like this with 2Wh EVs for 3 years and came to the US for a masters. Can't wait to get back to the field and tinker!

After having driven both a 911 992 carrera and a turbo s, I can say that every sunday I have a blast, obviously going 55! 😂

We get a lot through florida, especially audis, I'm not sure why, but seeing them on I-4 at midnight is oddly common

I wonder if other supercar brands go through similar rigorous testing? I’m still looking for a reliable supercar I can keep for awhile and Porsche seems to fit that bill, possibly an R8 as well

i noticed you had a 3rd gen Acura TL. Great vehicles including the 911

Just saw them testing the ST!

Best job in the world❤❤