In the long conversation between past and future that defines great engineering cultures, Porsche has built a single car that refuses to choose sides. The Flachbau RS grafts the sloping, whale-like silhouette of the legendary 1980s Moby Dick racing prototype onto the modern GT2 RS — one of the most capable 911s ever made — creating a one-off object that is simultaneously a tribute, a design exercise, and a quiet argument that history still has something to say. It is not for sale, not destined for production, and perhaps more meaningful for both of those reasons.
Porsche revives iconic 'Moby Dick' with one-off Flachbau RS supercar
A machine that looks backward while being built with the latest technology
Mark
Why does Porsche build a car like this—a one-off that won't be sold, that most people will never see?
Mimi
Because it can. And because some ideas are worth exploring even if they never reach a showroom. The Flachbau RS is a conversation between Porsche's past and its present.
Mark
But what's the conversation actually saying?
Mimi
That the company's racing heritage still matters. That a design from the 1980s—the slantnose—still has power. That you can put cutting-edge performance into a body that looks backward.
Mark
Is this nostalgia, or is it something else?
Mimi
It's more than nostalgia. The original Moby Dick was experimental, radical for its time. The Flachbau RS is saying: we can still be radical. We can still surprise ourselves.
Mark
Who is this car for?
Mimi
Whoever commissioned it. Someone wealthy enough to ask Porsche to build their dream. But really, it's for anyone who remembers or cares about what Porsche used to be willing to try.
Mark
Does it change anything about what Porsche will build next?
Mimi
Not necessarily. It's a one-off, not a preview. But it signals something: that amid all the electrification and regulation, there's still room for cars that prioritize beauty and history over pure market logic.
The Pulse
- Porsche has built a single, unrepeatable car that fuses 700 horsepower of modern GT2 RS engineering with the dramatically sloped slantnose aesthetic of its iconic 1980s Moby Dick racing prototype.
- The tension is deliberate: in an era of aggressive angularity and computational aerodynamics, Porsche has chosen to look backward, reviving a design that was itself once radical and experimental.
- The car's long, tapering wedge of a front end immediately sets it apart from any contemporary supercar, functioning as a visual provocation as much as an aesthetic homage.
- Porsche has made no announcement of production plans or customer availability — this remains a bespoke commission, a singular object that exists outside the logic of the market.
- The Flachbau RS lands as both proof of capability and cultural signal: that even amid electrification pressures, there is still room inside Porsche for cars driven by historical resonance and visual ambition.
In the long conversation between past and future that defines great engineering cultures, Porsche has built a single car that refuses to choose sides. The Flachbau RS grafts the sloping, whale-like silhouette of the legendary 1980s Moby Dick racing prototype onto the modern GT2 RS — one of the most capable 911s ever made — creating a one-off object that is simultaneously a tribute, a design exercise, and a quiet argument that history still has something to say. It is not for sale, not destined for production, and perhaps more meaningful for both of those reasons.
Porsche has built a car that lives at the crossing point of two eras. The Flachbau RS begins as a 911 GT2 RS — already among the most extreme 911s ever produced — and transforms it through a single, decisive design choice: the slantnose. That dramatically flattened, tapering front end is a direct reference to the Moby Dick, a racing prototype from the 1980s so visually distinctive that it earned its nickname from its whale-like profile. Flachbau, German for 'flat roof,' names both the aesthetic and the ambition.
What makes the car striking is not just its appearance but its defiance of contemporary convention. Modern high-performance vehicles lean into aggressive angularity and sculpted surfaces. The Flachbau RS does the opposite — it stretches its hood into a long wedge that looks backward while being built with the latest technology. Underneath the retro bodywork sits the GT2 RS's turbocharged, track-focused platform, unchanged in its capability.
The car is a one-off commission, not a preview of any production model. Porsche has announced no plans to offer it to customers or build it in limited numbers. In that sense it functions as both a design exercise and a statement of intent — evidence that the company's engineers and designers can still pursue unconventional ideas for their own sake.
The Flachbau RS arrives at a moment when retro styling has become common across the industry, but few examples are this technically serious or this historically specific. This is not nostalgia for its own sake. The Moby Dick was a car that pushed boundaries in its time. The Flachbau RS, quietly and without apology, does the same in its own.
Porsche has built a single car that exists at the intersection of two eras of the company's racing history. The Flachbau RS is a 911 GT2 RS—already one of the most extreme versions of the 911 ever produced—that has been restyled to evoke the legendary 'Moby Dick,' a race car that became a symbol of Porsche's experimental ambition in the 1980s. The name itself carries weight. Moby Dick was the nickname for a prototype 911 that Porsche developed for endurance racing, a car so visually distinctive that it earned its moniker from its whale-like profile. That profile came from a flattened, sloping front end—the slantnose design—which reduced aerodynamic drag and gave the car an unmistakable silhouette.
The new Flachbau RS resurrects that aesthetic for the modern era. Flachbau is German for 'flat roof,' and the car's most striking feature is its dramatically sloped front fascia, a design choice that immediately sets it apart from the standard GT2 RS. Where a conventional 911 has a relatively upright nose, the Flachbau RS stretches its hood and front end into a long, tapering wedge that recalls the original Moby Dick's proportions. It is a bold stylistic statement in an age when most high-performance cars trend toward aggressive angularity and computational aerodynamics.
What makes this car significant is not merely its appearance but what it represents. The GT2 RS is already a machine of extraordinary capability—a turbocharged, track-focused instrument that represents the apex of 911 engineering. By grafting retro styling onto this modern platform, Porsche is making a statement about its own history. The company is saying that the visual language of its past, even when it was experimental and unconventional, still resonates. The Moby Dick was never a production car; it was a racing prototype, a one-off exploration of what a 911 could become. The Flachbau RS is similarly a one-off, a bespoke creation rather than a model destined for assembly lines.
The decision to revive the slantnose design is particularly interesting because it runs counter to contemporary automotive trends. Modern supercars and high-performance vehicles tend to emphasize aggressive, forward-facing designs with prominent intakes and sculpted surfaces. The slantnose, by contrast, is almost retro-futuristic—it looks backward while being built with the latest technology. The Flachbau RS combines the raw performance of the GT2 RS, with its 700 horsepower and track-focused suspension, with bodywork that evokes an era when Porsche was still experimenting with radical forms.
The car exists as a singular object, not a preview of a production model. Porsche has not announced plans to offer the Flachbau RS to customers or to produce it in limited numbers. It is a one-off commission, a bespoke creation for someone with the means and the vision to request such a thing. In that sense, it functions as both a design exercise and a statement of capability—proof that Porsche's design and engineering teams can still execute ambitious, unconventional ideas. The Flachbau RS suggests that even as Porsche navigates the transition to electrification and confronts the demands of modern emissions regulations, there remains space within the company for cars that prioritize visual drama and historical resonance over market calculation.
The resurrection of the slantnose also speaks to a broader cultural moment in automotive design. Retro styling has become increasingly common across the industry, from Volkswagen's revival of the Beetle to the new Chevrolet Corvette's nods to its predecessors. But few examples are as direct or as technically ambitious as the Flachbau RS. This is not a car designed to look retro in a cute or nostalgic way; it is a high-performance machine that has been deliberately styled to reference a specific moment in Porsche's racing past. The Moby Dick was a car that pushed boundaries. The Flachbau RS, in its own way, does the same.
Notable Quotes
The Flachbau RS resurrects the slantnose aesthetic from Porsche's racing heritage, combining modern GT2 RS performance with classic 1980s styling cues— Porsche design and engineering teams
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