Thanks, so it's just the 130hp e-motor up front?
918 [Official] Porsche 918 Spyder
- Thread starter Monster
- Start date
The Porsche 918 Spyder is a high performance sports car manufactured by Porsche from September 2013 to June 2015.
kingjr9000
Das Beste Enthusiast
I found a video online--it's long, but it's worth watching. It's made by motortrends Carlos Lago, and he goes over some pretty interesting things that most journalists didn't get the chance to go over.
martinbo
Staff member
Yes, the rear electric motor augments the power of the engine; it sits between the engine and the gearbox and delivers its power to the rear wheels via the transmission.
The rear e-motor is connected to the rear wheels via the gearbox but sits upstream of the PDK clutches... It can be coupled and decoupled from the engine output shaft via a separate clutch but it appears that the power delivery to the rear wheels is in unison with the engine.
There is no mechanical propshaft from the rear of the car to the front axle. The single speed e-motor disengages from driving the front wheels at speeds in excess of 146 mph.
Should be 146mph(around 240 kph), actually this top speed is already much higher than the ring-record-holder 918 spyder which is not finalized production version, at that time, the front electric motor will be shut off at just speed of 200 km/h(for the moment, independent electric motor normally is mated to single stage reducer which limits the top speed even though electric motor has much higher rpm than conventional combustion engine), this is why you just see the prototype 918 only reached the less 300 km/h top speed at the end of last long-straight section of Nordschleife from v-box point of view last year, but finalized production 918 reached 315 km/h top speed with accordance to Sport auto's super test, this also makes me believe 6,57 is definitely not the best lap time for 918 if McLaren states 'under 7 min' record is not the best result for P1 due to low temperature and any other reasons.
Surely those gear mph figures are wrong. They seem very long. Have they confused kph and mph?
Autocar must've been mad of Maranello's decision to place LaF in 3rd place
kingjr9000
Das Beste Enthusiast
Heres what it feels like to live with a 918. This was posted by Whoopsy on fchat:
For your future questions:
The electric charge port is on the passenger side and the gas cap is on the driver side. The race buckets inside has electric height control on the driver side and none on the passenger side, both chairs have fixed back and only adjust for and aft. And the standard seat is narrower than the standard P1 seat, much less so than the optional fat people seat for the P1. The narrow fit 918 seat is EXACTLY the same width as the standard seat, but the foam is firmer so the 'seater' doesn't sink into the seat as much and hence the firmer narrower feel. And the side rail on the race bucket is a ****ing pain in the ass, even with the extra cushion. My left thigh is already bruised from getting into the car after 3 days, I still can't find a good entry into the car without hitting the damn thing. P1 is a lot easier to get into. and the adjustable backrest is better, according to my wife, she hates the fixed back bucket.
The standard fire extinguisher on the Weissach pack car is at a good location, it's not in the way of my wife's legs, like the one in my Speicale, she hated that thing in that car.
The car right now has about 110km on the clock, after burning about 1/4 tank of gas, and I drove a lot on electric power. I actually ran down the battery in e-mode and the ECU decide to starts the engine.
On Sports Hybrid mode, the car takes about 25 mins in city driving to recharge the battery from what the ECU considered as empty to full charge.
The car is LOUD and full of noises. Even on cold start, when it starts in E-mode, there are a lot of noises, electric motor noise. The parking brake motor is especially noisy.
The rear view is poor, it's like peeking through a 1'x1' pot hole 3 feet away from the rear view mirror. Night time glare is really bad as the car is low so heading lamps from other cars are reflecting badly into your eyes.
Side view is also quite poor as the side mirrors are not too big. Front view is also race car like, the green house is small and the A-pillars is close and thick. But good enough. The 2 front fender peaks signifying the front wheels' position is very pronounced, even more so than in the McLaren.
There are no parking sensors front and back, only rear view camera. Homeland transmitter is very powerful, has a farther range than any other of my cars, Ferraris and AMGs and Porsche.
Getting in and out of the car is a ***** with the roof on, McLaren has a much easier ingress and egress. But for my wife in short skirts, the result is the same, there is no elegant way to get out of the 918 nor the McLarens. She much prefer the Speciale, or the FF, or the F12.
At maximum crank angle, the 918, just like the McLarens' cannot turn as tightly as the steering angle indicate, the front wheels will slip, even at 1 mph or 5mph, crawling speed.
The front lift system lift about the same as in the McLarens, a iPhone 6, will fit under the front lip. Barely just in front of the front wheels' location.
It only has 1 cupholder, unlike the 3 in the P1, for mine right now there is none, as Porsche lost my cupholder during transit. They also lost my Owner's Manual.
The 918 is a ***** to wrap, said my wrap guy compared with the P1. All those intricate curves behind the front wheel below the door on the rocker panel is like the worst nightmare from hell said him.
The infotainment system is needlessly complicated, I much prefer IRIS, and that's not even a compliment to the McLaren system. I think my Jeep Rubicon has a better one.
As for production, the 918 has 14 stations, each station is assigned 108 minutes, but 2 hrs is the generally accepted time accounting for dolly transfer.
Each car also gets a trip on the Weissach track as part of the validation, the whole process takes a week.
The parts for the 918 arrives in crates stacked next to each station, for parts that sits on movable racks, a picture is also attached to the cart for techs to reference what's there.
My own car estimated that at full charge the car can go 16kms, I did 15 before the engine comes on.
The engine gets really hot and right now where I am, after a drive and I park it inside the garage, it will warm up the whole 4 car garage, all 800 sq ft.
What else do you want to know about the 918?
I assumed you know the car has 2 doors, 2 chairs, 2 seatbelt, 1 steering wheel, 4 tires and 4 wheels, 2 exhaust pipes, etc.
For your future questions:
The electric charge port is on the passenger side and the gas cap is on the driver side. The race buckets inside has electric height control on the driver side and none on the passenger side, both chairs have fixed back and only adjust for and aft. And the standard seat is narrower than the standard P1 seat, much less so than the optional fat people seat for the P1. The narrow fit 918 seat is EXACTLY the same width as the standard seat, but the foam is firmer so the 'seater' doesn't sink into the seat as much and hence the firmer narrower feel. And the side rail on the race bucket is a ****ing pain in the ass, even with the extra cushion. My left thigh is already bruised from getting into the car after 3 days, I still can't find a good entry into the car without hitting the damn thing. P1 is a lot easier to get into. and the adjustable backrest is better, according to my wife, she hates the fixed back bucket.
The standard fire extinguisher on the Weissach pack car is at a good location, it's not in the way of my wife's legs, like the one in my Speicale, she hated that thing in that car.
The car right now has about 110km on the clock, after burning about 1/4 tank of gas, and I drove a lot on electric power. I actually ran down the battery in e-mode and the ECU decide to starts the engine.
On Sports Hybrid mode, the car takes about 25 mins in city driving to recharge the battery from what the ECU considered as empty to full charge.
The car is LOUD and full of noises. Even on cold start, when it starts in E-mode, there are a lot of noises, electric motor noise. The parking brake motor is especially noisy.
The rear view is poor, it's like peeking through a 1'x1' pot hole 3 feet away from the rear view mirror. Night time glare is really bad as the car is low so heading lamps from other cars are reflecting badly into your eyes.
Side view is also quite poor as the side mirrors are not too big. Front view is also race car like, the green house is small and the A-pillars is close and thick. But good enough. The 2 front fender peaks signifying the front wheels' position is very pronounced, even more so than in the McLaren.
There are no parking sensors front and back, only rear view camera. Homeland transmitter is very powerful, has a farther range than any other of my cars, Ferraris and AMGs and Porsche.
Getting in and out of the car is a ***** with the roof on, McLaren has a much easier ingress and egress. But for my wife in short skirts, the result is the same, there is no elegant way to get out of the 918 nor the McLarens. She much prefer the Speciale, or the FF, or the F12.
At maximum crank angle, the 918, just like the McLarens' cannot turn as tightly as the steering angle indicate, the front wheels will slip, even at 1 mph or 5mph, crawling speed.
The front lift system lift about the same as in the McLarens, a iPhone 6, will fit under the front lip. Barely just in front of the front wheels' location.
It only has 1 cupholder, unlike the 3 in the P1, for mine right now there is none, as Porsche lost my cupholder during transit. They also lost my Owner's Manual.
The 918 is a ***** to wrap, said my wrap guy compared with the P1. All those intricate curves behind the front wheel below the door on the rocker panel is like the worst nightmare from hell said him.
The infotainment system is needlessly complicated, I much prefer IRIS, and that's not even a compliment to the McLaren system. I think my Jeep Rubicon has a better one.
As for production, the 918 has 14 stations, each station is assigned 108 minutes, but 2 hrs is the generally accepted time accounting for dolly transfer.
Each car also gets a trip on the Weissach track as part of the validation, the whole process takes a week.
The parts for the 918 arrives in crates stacked next to each station, for parts that sits on movable racks, a picture is also attached to the cart for techs to reference what's there.
My own car estimated that at full charge the car can go 16kms, I did 15 before the engine comes on.
The engine gets really hot and right now where I am, after a drive and I park it inside the garage, it will warm up the whole 4 car garage, all 800 sq ft.
What else do you want to know about the 918?
I assumed you know the car has 2 doors, 2 chairs, 2 seatbelt, 1 steering wheel, 4 tires and 4 wheels, 2 exhaust pipes, etc.
kingjr9000
Das Beste Enthusiast
The 918 never ceases to keep on amazing me. Just when I think it has no more tricks, it pulls out some more. Bravo porsche.
kingjr9000
Das Beste Enthusiast
Porsche 918 Spyder - Road Trip
We experience the practical side of Porsche’s Hybrid supercar.
Date Published: 05 November 2014
Track tests don’t come any better than the day I spent driving the Porsche 918 Spyder at the Valencia Circuit last November. Both photographically, and from behind the wheel, the Martini emblazoned all singing, all dancing Weissach Edition proved to be the perfect choice.
However, the intensive drive, photo shoot and video production schedule did not leave any time for even a quick soirée on public roads. No matter, Porsche said that this could be done in Germany at a later date.
Winter 2013 came and went, and at the end of summer I had the opportunity to visit the 918 Spyder production line, speak with the design and engineering team, and spend a day with a bog standard 918 Spyder in normal traffic.
We planned a road trip from Zuffenhausen, where the car is made, that would direct us towards Lake Constanz, taking in autobahn and town and country road driving to get the full measure of the cars behaviour in all traffic conditions.
Significantly, of the three hybrid hypercars launched in 2013, the Porsche is the most practical, and therefore the most useable of the trio. And like its Carrera GT cousin, it is also the only one that gives you the option of al fresco driving.
With the left and right halves of the roof easily removed and stowed in the front luggage compartment, the cars ability to carry bags is commensurately reduced, so you have to be disciplined about what you really need to take when planning a weekend away. This was not my problem today however, as my camera bag and tripod were handily stowed in the 991 Carrera Cabriolet chase car.
As we set off from the factory, it quickly became obvious that even on local roads where the 918 Spyder is not an unfamiliar sight, it draws attention like bees to honey.
In Hybrid mode, providing there is sufficiency juice in its big Lithium Ion battery pack and you don’t gun the throttle to bring in the V8 motor, the 918 Spyder always moves away from rest in electric mode.
As this lets you drive past people without them realising that one of the world’s most exclusive and expensive supercars is just a few feet away, I equate the eerie silence to a stealth mode. It is the exact antithesis of the roaring and screaming engines that some people pay lots of money for to get their Ferraris and Lamborghinis noticed.
Of course the 918 Spyder can play that game too, and does so with its own brand of ear candy as the race bred, flat-plane crank V8 kicks in and delivers a soundtrack of the calibre you would expect to hear in the pit lane at Le Mans.
Producing 608hp at 8,700rpm, the 4,593cc, dry-sump, naturally aspirated, flat-plane crank V8 motor has a 9,150rpm rev limit. The electric motors add 286hp at 6,500rpm to this, creating a system total of 887hp at 8,700rpm, with between 917 and 1,280Nm of torque, depending on which ratio of the seven-speed PDK gearbox you are in.
Even though the 918 Spyder tips the scales at 1,674kg (1,634kg with the weight reducing Weissach package tested at Valencia), its performance is stellar. With all systems go and the front electric motor giving it AWD capability, it blasts to 100km/h (62mph) in just 2.6 sec
The 200km/h (124mph) mark is passed in 7.3 sec (7.2 sec Weissach package), with 300km/h reached in 20.9 sec (19.9 sec Weissach package). Significantly, the standing quarter mile falls in 10.0 sec dead for the normal car and 9.9 sec for the Weissach package car.
The electric motors rev to 16,000rpm, which corresponds to 265km/h. Above this speed, the clutch decouples the internal combustion engine from the electric motors, and 345km/h Vmax is a petrol only affair. On battery alone, top speed is 150km/h, and high-speed running depletes the stored power very quickly
That said, you will be quite amazed at how quickly you can pedal on just battery power in normal driving. As an electric motor develops peak torque off idle, the car steps off the line pretty sharpish, and keeping up with normal traffic on a moderate throttle is no problem at all.
Unlike in a luxury saloon such as the Mercedes S500 Hybrid however, even though the electric motor is basically quiet, extraneous noise levels in the 918 Spyder build up noticeably with speed.
As it is a sportscar, sound deadening is not a priority here, and road and tyre noise and the sharp reports of stones ricocheting off the carbon-fibre chassis come through loud and clear. Other sounds like the whine of the electric motor all build up with speed too, creating a concerto quite unlike in a normal car where engine noise tends to overwhelm everything else.
All that is drowned out the instant the V8 motor joins the party, whereupon that epic cacophony of air and fuel being burnt and blasted out from the two big exhaust pipes just behind your head becomes the all-consuming aural experience that totally drowns out everything else.
The excellent Burmester audio system is thus only worth switching on when the 918 is running on battery, its supreme ability to reproduce every nuance and texture of the music totally wasted when the V8 is at work.
As you would expect, the ride on suburban roads at normal speeds is on the firm side. The carbon-fibre chassis is immensely rigid, with a torsional stiffness of 40,000Nm/degree of twist, and you really feel that stiffness as the bodyshell clearly refuses to give in any way to help the wheels and suspension take the sting out of a bump.
Just as I found on track where the 918’s crisp and linear response to the helm and perfect tuning to the chassis turn-in rate allowed me to go quickly from the word go, the car felt equally easy to drive on the road. Its steering ratio feels very natural, with medium weighted effort required.
While it is far from as telepathic as an early 911s for instance, the fact is that you do need a firm, weighty steering feel like this to feel confident and secure in a car capable of over 200mph.
Where the Porsche scores over its Ferrari and McLaren rivals in the hands of both professional and normal drivers is in the extra grip and stability afforded by its 4WD and Active Rear Steering system. So while you can pitch the 918 Spyder into power oversteer, its traction off the line and out of bends is simply in a different league from its peers.
I recall thinking I was only tapping 80-percent of the Spyder’s dynamic abilities when I followed ace Porsche test driver Matthias Hoffsümmer’s 991 GT3 around Valencia.
While I felt like I was on a brisk Sunday drive, by the way the GT3 was squirming around under braking, visibly on the verge of getting out of shape as we pushed harder and harder, it was quite clear that the Spyder has otherworldly levels of handling and grip when compared to conventional supercars. You would have to be quite insane to each its limit of mechanical grip on a public road.
The Spyder also laughs off high speed cruising. Even when rocketing down the autobahn at over 270km/h where the traffic was light enough to allow this, it felt like it was simply ambling along at a canter.
When the road ahead clears after you are baulked by slower traffic, you never cease to be amazed at how fast the Spyder regains its cruising speed, no matter what that might have been. Going from 120 to 220km/h happens in the blink of an eye, and it is no exaggeration to say that the speedometer needle flies around the dial almost as fast as the rev counter.
The 918’s braking ability is simply insane by normal sportscar standards. As the electric motor applies a significant amount of retardation when you lift off the throttle, nearly half the braking is done for you right there.
That leaves a lot less work for the big 410 x 36mm and 390 x 32mm PCCB ceramic brakes, which are already in another league from the excellent PCCB stoppers on the GT3 and Turbo S.
I first experienced this at Valencia where it was patently obvious that the Spyder had a significant retardation advantage over the GT3 in front of me, meaning I had to brake much earlier than necessary to avoid shunting him up the rear.
The same thing applies on the road, and you really do have to ensure no one is following you too closely since lifting off means that you start to slow down quite quickly even before you apply the brakes and your brake lights flash.
I prefer driving the Spyder al fresco as the roofless cabin does not amplify the motor and exhaust noise so much, and takes any engine speed dependent reverberations out of the sonic equation. It is amazing how much difference the small winglet that attaches to the top of the windscreen frame makes to cabin buffeting, and a 160km/h cruise is relatively civilised with it in place.
Once we turned off the autobahn onto the cross-country part of our route, the Spyder felt more in its element. Turning, weaving, ducking and diving like a boxer on the challenging hill roads, its racecar DNA came to the fore. Its ability to brake deep right up to the apex of bends with amazing front-end grip, before blasting out the other end on full noise with total traction and poise, was simply awe inspiring.
I have driven on this road before in a 997 GT3, and even that paradigm of sportscars does not come close to what the 918 is capable of. The reality is that its sheer speed and dynamic abilities tower above what is safe to use on any public road. You really do need a challenging racetrack to get the best from this amazing machine.
One of the USP’s of the Porsche 918 Spyder as a 21st Century hypercar is its ability to achieve an average fuel consumption of 3.0 L/100km. I was having far too much fun to even come close to that number on the day, but a quick check of the trip computer after we returned to Zuffenhausen showed 8.1 l/100km for my sometimes exuberant road driving session, using electric power wherever possible. That works out at 34.87 mpg (Imperial) or 29.03 mpg (US), besting the real world consumption of the latest 991 Turbo S by a country mile.
On that score I think we can safely confirm that the sensational Porsche 918 Spyder is fast and frugal fun. In fact, in all respects, this carbon-fibre wonder does exactly what it says on the tin, confirming its credentials as the quintessential 21st Century supercar.
We experience the practical side of Porsche’s Hybrid supercar.
Date Published: 05 November 2014
Track tests don’t come any better than the day I spent driving the Porsche 918 Spyder at the Valencia Circuit last November. Both photographically, and from behind the wheel, the Martini emblazoned all singing, all dancing Weissach Edition proved to be the perfect choice.
However, the intensive drive, photo shoot and video production schedule did not leave any time for even a quick soirée on public roads. No matter, Porsche said that this could be done in Germany at a later date.
Winter 2013 came and went, and at the end of summer I had the opportunity to visit the 918 Spyder production line, speak with the design and engineering team, and spend a day with a bog standard 918 Spyder in normal traffic.
We planned a road trip from Zuffenhausen, where the car is made, that would direct us towards Lake Constanz, taking in autobahn and town and country road driving to get the full measure of the cars behaviour in all traffic conditions.
Significantly, of the three hybrid hypercars launched in 2013, the Porsche is the most practical, and therefore the most useable of the trio. And like its Carrera GT cousin, it is also the only one that gives you the option of al fresco driving.
With the left and right halves of the roof easily removed and stowed in the front luggage compartment, the cars ability to carry bags is commensurately reduced, so you have to be disciplined about what you really need to take when planning a weekend away. This was not my problem today however, as my camera bag and tripod were handily stowed in the 991 Carrera Cabriolet chase car.
As we set off from the factory, it quickly became obvious that even on local roads where the 918 Spyder is not an unfamiliar sight, it draws attention like bees to honey.
In Hybrid mode, providing there is sufficiency juice in its big Lithium Ion battery pack and you don’t gun the throttle to bring in the V8 motor, the 918 Spyder always moves away from rest in electric mode.
As this lets you drive past people without them realising that one of the world’s most exclusive and expensive supercars is just a few feet away, I equate the eerie silence to a stealth mode. It is the exact antithesis of the roaring and screaming engines that some people pay lots of money for to get their Ferraris and Lamborghinis noticed.
Of course the 918 Spyder can play that game too, and does so with its own brand of ear candy as the race bred, flat-plane crank V8 kicks in and delivers a soundtrack of the calibre you would expect to hear in the pit lane at Le Mans.
Producing 608hp at 8,700rpm, the 4,593cc, dry-sump, naturally aspirated, flat-plane crank V8 motor has a 9,150rpm rev limit. The electric motors add 286hp at 6,500rpm to this, creating a system total of 887hp at 8,700rpm, with between 917 and 1,280Nm of torque, depending on which ratio of the seven-speed PDK gearbox you are in.
Even though the 918 Spyder tips the scales at 1,674kg (1,634kg with the weight reducing Weissach package tested at Valencia), its performance is stellar. With all systems go and the front electric motor giving it AWD capability, it blasts to 100km/h (62mph) in just 2.6 sec
The 200km/h (124mph) mark is passed in 7.3 sec (7.2 sec Weissach package), with 300km/h reached in 20.9 sec (19.9 sec Weissach package). Significantly, the standing quarter mile falls in 10.0 sec dead for the normal car and 9.9 sec for the Weissach package car.
The electric motors rev to 16,000rpm, which corresponds to 265km/h. Above this speed, the clutch decouples the internal combustion engine from the electric motors, and 345km/h Vmax is a petrol only affair. On battery alone, top speed is 150km/h, and high-speed running depletes the stored power very quickly
That said, you will be quite amazed at how quickly you can pedal on just battery power in normal driving. As an electric motor develops peak torque off idle, the car steps off the line pretty sharpish, and keeping up with normal traffic on a moderate throttle is no problem at all.
Unlike in a luxury saloon such as the Mercedes S500 Hybrid however, even though the electric motor is basically quiet, extraneous noise levels in the 918 Spyder build up noticeably with speed.
As it is a sportscar, sound deadening is not a priority here, and road and tyre noise and the sharp reports of stones ricocheting off the carbon-fibre chassis come through loud and clear. Other sounds like the whine of the electric motor all build up with speed too, creating a concerto quite unlike in a normal car where engine noise tends to overwhelm everything else.
All that is drowned out the instant the V8 motor joins the party, whereupon that epic cacophony of air and fuel being burnt and blasted out from the two big exhaust pipes just behind your head becomes the all-consuming aural experience that totally drowns out everything else.
The excellent Burmester audio system is thus only worth switching on when the 918 is running on battery, its supreme ability to reproduce every nuance and texture of the music totally wasted when the V8 is at work.
As you would expect, the ride on suburban roads at normal speeds is on the firm side. The carbon-fibre chassis is immensely rigid, with a torsional stiffness of 40,000Nm/degree of twist, and you really feel that stiffness as the bodyshell clearly refuses to give in any way to help the wheels and suspension take the sting out of a bump.
Just as I found on track where the 918’s crisp and linear response to the helm and perfect tuning to the chassis turn-in rate allowed me to go quickly from the word go, the car felt equally easy to drive on the road. Its steering ratio feels very natural, with medium weighted effort required.
While it is far from as telepathic as an early 911s for instance, the fact is that you do need a firm, weighty steering feel like this to feel confident and secure in a car capable of over 200mph.
Where the Porsche scores over its Ferrari and McLaren rivals in the hands of both professional and normal drivers is in the extra grip and stability afforded by its 4WD and Active Rear Steering system. So while you can pitch the 918 Spyder into power oversteer, its traction off the line and out of bends is simply in a different league from its peers.
I recall thinking I was only tapping 80-percent of the Spyder’s dynamic abilities when I followed ace Porsche test driver Matthias Hoffsümmer’s 991 GT3 around Valencia.
While I felt like I was on a brisk Sunday drive, by the way the GT3 was squirming around under braking, visibly on the verge of getting out of shape as we pushed harder and harder, it was quite clear that the Spyder has otherworldly levels of handling and grip when compared to conventional supercars. You would have to be quite insane to each its limit of mechanical grip on a public road.
The Spyder also laughs off high speed cruising. Even when rocketing down the autobahn at over 270km/h where the traffic was light enough to allow this, it felt like it was simply ambling along at a canter.
When the road ahead clears after you are baulked by slower traffic, you never cease to be amazed at how fast the Spyder regains its cruising speed, no matter what that might have been. Going from 120 to 220km/h happens in the blink of an eye, and it is no exaggeration to say that the speedometer needle flies around the dial almost as fast as the rev counter.
The 918’s braking ability is simply insane by normal sportscar standards. As the electric motor applies a significant amount of retardation when you lift off the throttle, nearly half the braking is done for you right there.
That leaves a lot less work for the big 410 x 36mm and 390 x 32mm PCCB ceramic brakes, which are already in another league from the excellent PCCB stoppers on the GT3 and Turbo S.
I first experienced this at Valencia where it was patently obvious that the Spyder had a significant retardation advantage over the GT3 in front of me, meaning I had to brake much earlier than necessary to avoid shunting him up the rear.
The same thing applies on the road, and you really do have to ensure no one is following you too closely since lifting off means that you start to slow down quite quickly even before you apply the brakes and your brake lights flash.
I prefer driving the Spyder al fresco as the roofless cabin does not amplify the motor and exhaust noise so much, and takes any engine speed dependent reverberations out of the sonic equation. It is amazing how much difference the small winglet that attaches to the top of the windscreen frame makes to cabin buffeting, and a 160km/h cruise is relatively civilised with it in place.
Once we turned off the autobahn onto the cross-country part of our route, the Spyder felt more in its element. Turning, weaving, ducking and diving like a boxer on the challenging hill roads, its racecar DNA came to the fore. Its ability to brake deep right up to the apex of bends with amazing front-end grip, before blasting out the other end on full noise with total traction and poise, was simply awe inspiring.
I have driven on this road before in a 997 GT3, and even that paradigm of sportscars does not come close to what the 918 is capable of. The reality is that its sheer speed and dynamic abilities tower above what is safe to use on any public road. You really do need a challenging racetrack to get the best from this amazing machine.
One of the USP’s of the Porsche 918 Spyder as a 21st Century hypercar is its ability to achieve an average fuel consumption of 3.0 L/100km. I was having far too much fun to even come close to that number on the day, but a quick check of the trip computer after we returned to Zuffenhausen showed 8.1 l/100km for my sometimes exuberant road driving session, using electric power wherever possible. That works out at 34.87 mpg (Imperial) or 29.03 mpg (US), besting the real world consumption of the latest 991 Turbo S by a country mile.
On that score I think we can safely confirm that the sensational Porsche 918 Spyder is fast and frugal fun. In fact, in all respects, this carbon-fibre wonder does exactly what it says on the tin, confirming its credentials as the quintessential 21st Century supercar.
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kingjr9000
Das Beste Enthusiast
Edit:^^ above posted multiple times due to ipad glitch
kingjr9000
Das Beste Enthusiast
Edit: ^^ above posted multiple times due to ipad glitch
It's strange that up to 1km their times and speeds almost same as other mags but 0-300km/h almost 2sec behind AMS/AS![scans] Sport Auto France - Porsche 918 Spyder (SUPERTEST)
DeDe
Subscriber
First, we don't know AMS/Sport Auto's 1 km time and speed, 2nd, it's not the Weissach-package 918.
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Porsche
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, is a German automobile manufacturer
specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs, and sedans,
headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Owned by
Volkswagen AG, it was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche.
In its early days, Porsche was contracted by the German government
to create a vehicle for the masses, which later became the Volkswagen
Beetle. In the late 1940s, Ferdinand's son Ferry Porsche began
building his car, which would result in the Porsche 356.
