OFFICIALLY UNOFFICIAL

Officially Unofficial

Photographer: Alan Derosier , Antoine Brigot

The story of the Vision 908, ten years on from its completion.

A decade since it came out, the Vision 908 still sits among the most memorable Porsche concept cars. Something about the way 918 design features sit on a late-60s Le Mans prototype just ticks all the right boxes. The design was so convincing that many assumed it came directly from Porsche, but there’s a lot more to the story than that.

It was 2015 when Alan Derosier, a car designer then very early in his career, first toyed with the idea of redesigning the 908 in his spare time. Back then Polyphony Digital, the studio behind Gran Turismo, were collaborating with a whole range of car manufacturers to design in-game concept cars for their Vision GT series. With over a dozen marques taking part, Porsche’s own contribution was notably absent, so Alan took it upon himself to imagine what that might look like.

“I started sketching and quickly came up with this blend of modern features and more historic elements (4 dot headlights, top mounted fan, long tail bodywork, etc…). I published the result on my blog, which was quickly republished on Car Design News, and that gave me the motivation to develop it further.

I called in my friends Marcos Beltrao, Martin Peng, Guillermo Mignot, and Tom Wheatley. After a year of working in our spare time, we finally published everything in July of 2016. The outcome went beyond my expectations. Not only did the public believe it was an official Vision GT car, but it showed up in all the automotive press too. We were even contacted by private collections to build it for real…

"Not only did the public believe it was an official Vision GT car, but it showed up in all the automotive press too."

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"Then came the email from Porsche. It was very gratifying, they told us they were very impressed with our commitment, so much so that they offered us budget to build a quarter scale model."

Then came the email from Porsche. It was very gratifying, they told us they were very impressed with our commitment, so much so that they offered us budget to build a quarter scale model of the car and to tell the story on their Youtube channel. I think to this day it remains the greatest memory in my car design career.”

In the years following, Alan’s career took off. Porsche themselves then finally came out with an official Vision GT car, and the Vision 908 remained one of the most memorable after-hours design projects in the entire industry.