Porsche’s Star Wars-Inspired Spaceship Is for 911 Fans in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

The automaker’s take on a First Order-era starfighter blends elements from the Taycan, 911, and even the 918 Spyder.

orsche is jumping on the hype train in anticipation of the new Star Wars film—The Rise of Skywalker—which will be the final edition in the Skywalker saga. As part of an ongoing advertising campaign, the Porsche design team collaborated with Lucasfilm to create its own starship, the Porsche Tri-Wing S-91X Pegasus Starfighter.

To design the high-performance spacecraft, Porsche met with Doug Chiang, vice president and executive creative director for Lucasfilm, and his team of all-star designers. The designers’ mission was to create something recognizable—an iconic, quintessentially-Star Wars design like the Tie Fighter or X-Wing. As per Chiang’s orders, the vessel would occupy a new class of starfighter, a mix of X-Wing, Y-Wing, and U-Wing, but still be the fastest ship in the galaxy, whether Han Solo agrees with that or not.

The ship also needed to incorporate design elements from Porsche vehicles, and die-hard Porsche fans might spot them immediately. The side profile of the Pegasus is 911-esque, featuring the elongated teardrop silhouette essential to the brand’s most beloved sports car. The air intake/light combo on the Pegasus has been plucked straight from the Taycan’s headlight design, while the daytime running lights that flank the front fascia on most Porsche models have been replaced with blaster cannons.

Porsche also swears that the interior design, minus the triple seats, is based on that of the 918 Spyder’s, but we’re seeing much more inspiration from the company’s latest hypercar in the area behind the cockpit where the astromech droid is housed.

“This collaboration is an amazing opportunity to merge the design aesthetics of Porsche and Star Wars. I found it to be creatively challenging and extremely inspiring,” Chiang says. “It is thrilling to infuse Star Wars with Porsche styling to create an iconic new spaceship that could exist both on Earth or in the cinematic universe.”

This isn’t the first time Star Wars and Porsche have built a spaceship together though. In the short-lived television series Star Wars: Resistance, the main character’s ship is heavily-inspired by the Gulf-liveried Porsche 917.

The entire project took two months to complete. The video below shows the passion, time, and meticulous attention to detail that goes into designing just one starship for a universe as iconic and detailed as Star Wars is.

It’s unclear if this ship will actually be featured in the movie, but a five-foot-long model of the Pegasus will be on display alongside the 2020 Porsche Taycan at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles on Dec. 16.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker releases in theaters worldwide on Dec. 20.

Source: CHRIS CONSTANTINE from THEDRIVE