Watch Chris Harris have his mind scrambled by the Porsche 919 Hybrid

“1200 horsepower. 880 kilograms”.

I had to rewind the video and play that a second time to make absolutely sure I hadn’t heard it the wrong way round. Surely that’s impossible. But a replay confirmed I had heard Chris Harris just fine. The Porsche 919 does indeed have over 1,350bhp per tonne.

Lucky Mr Harris recently got the chance to drive Porsche’s dominant LMP1 car for Top Gear, and the video (see below) is essential watching.

The 919 is - as well as being impossibly fast - a very significant car. It was Porsche’s swansong in endurance racing, winning Le Mans in 2015. And 2016, and 2017. Even in its retirement years, the 919 would continue to make history. Porsche - keen to demonstrate just how much faster their car was capable of being once freed from the regulations endurance racing - went on to modify and de-restrict one 919, and the Evo was born. That car annihilated the lap record at the Nurburgring - shaving almost a full minute off a record which had previously stood for 35 years. Impressed yet?

Sadly, in the video Harris only drives a ‘regular’ 919 Hybrid - not the souped up Evo. And yet, despite his extensive motor racing experience and full-time job sliding hypercars around, he is absolutely blown away by the car’s performance. There’s something quite pleasing about seeing a veteran motoring journo having his mind blown - it doesn’t happen very often.