Designed to summit Austrian Alps, the Porsche F.A.T. 919 Snowcat looks better than you might have expected
- The ludicrous Porsche F.A.T. 919 Snowcat was built for a snowy event in 2023.
- Now, it has taken center stage at the Car // Design Event 2024, to be seen by some of the world’s leading automotive designers.
- This monster combines the tracks from a snow grooming machine with the Le Mans-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid.
While we all admire the prototypes racing in the top class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, once the checkered flag falls, it’s not always clear what to do with these purpose-built racecars.
Outdated and costly to maintain, they often end up simply occupying space, and there’s only so much room in a museum. However, Porsche has discovered a fascinating new purpose for one of its 919 Hybrid racecars.
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Most recently seen at Car // Design Event 2024 in Munich, Germany, a forum dedicated to allowing some of the world’s top designers to meet with students and journalists, one of the Porsche racers was equipped with a set of ludicrously large tracks.
Porsche’s Frankensteinian creation was first assembled for F.A.T. Mankei 2023, a snowy party held in the Austrian Alps last year. The event celebrated a restaurant at the top of the Glockner Pass, which holds a special place in Porsche history.
When it was just starting out, the automaker used the legendary road to test its vehicles, and ensure they didn’t overheat. While on the job, there was no better place to stop for a coffee than the Mankei restaurant, which was recently renovated with the help of Ferdi Porsche.
However, given the frequent snowfall at that altitude, the restaurant often gets snowed in. Porsche Design saw an opportunity and thought a modified 919 Hybrid would make the perfect all-season vehicle for the restaurant’s manager.
Photos Car // Design Event 2024
Dubbed the F.A.T. 919 Snowcat, the tracks are clearly borrowed from snow grooming machines, though their red hue is reminiscent of the tractors that Porsche once produced. Atop them sits the body of a prototype racecar, and the whole thing has a similar vibe to a float plane — an aerodynamic machine with some oversized parts hanging under it.
In its day, the 919 Hybrid was quite a competitor, taking first place overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Powered by a 900 hp (671 kW / 912 PS) hybrid powertrain that was centered around a 2.0-liter V4 engine, the car weighed 1,929 lbs (875 kg) without fuel.
It likely weighs a whole lot more than that now, but I think we can all agree that the extra heft was worth it in this case.