I came across the following video, which is a reminder to me as to how exciting the 918 Spyder can be in the right hands! It also reminded me that I haven't seen a dedicated 918 thread here, so I'll add this one to the CGT thread, etc. as a place to talk about the car. I feel that the 918 has a character in between the previous 959 and Carrera GT - a mixture of technological progress (the focus of the former) and hardcore, analogue driving feel (the focus of the latter), in other words. A unique and special car deserving of further review! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Some great early 918 Spyder press info from Chris Harris here, including an interview with Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser the project manager:
918 is a top 5 car ever made in my estimation. Straight line performance of a Veyron SS. Ability to pull 1.1+ G on a skid pad. Sounds great. Brake from 60-0 in 93 feet. Space age cockpit even 5 years on and great gas mileage/electric range. Tough to find fault with it.
I try not to focus on statistics because they become irrelevant as time goes on, but there's no question it's fast!
I think at the level of the big 3 they’ll always be dramatic performance figures. F40 still delivers a whollup 30 years later!
What’s so exciting about Porsche to me is the diversity of the cars they have developed over the years. From the 356s Carreras to the 904s, 911 RS to 3.0 Turbos, 924 Carrera GTs to 928 GTS, 911 SCRS to the 959, GT2s to the CGT, GT3 RS to the 918, they really cover the high performance gamut from raw NA performance to cutting edge turbo and hybrid technology coupled with first class design and real world usability. While I consider myself more of an Italian sports car enthusiast, I continue to find myself equally interested in certain variants within the Porsche line up.
Very much agreed, they have done a great job of hitting every genre while simultaneously maintaining a consistent formula of "Porsche" (consistency, reliability, ergonomics, etc.) with each car. Totally, some of these videos make it clear that the 918 was by no means easy to handle at the limit. However, unlike the Carrera GT, it had advanced stability control that would save most people in most situations, so there is much less fanfare about "danger" with this car.
I've experienced a lot of supercars. Spending ~ 10 minutes in the passenger seat of a 918 completely re-calibrated my expectations on what a car can do. I always held the 918 in a high regard, but after getting to be around one and really experience one, I've got to agree with Jon's post above - it has to be one of the best cars ever made, and will go down in history as a high water mark.
I dug out my 918 Spyder hardcover brochure to read. Lots of interesting content in here, including the following details: - One of the main performance goals of the 918 Spyder was to beat the Carrera GT's Nurburgring time by 10 seconds. It ended up doing a 6:57, so around 30 seconds faster! Some of this can be attributed to tire technology that was around a decade newer, but still a huge achievement. - The name is derived from the legendary Porsche 917 (918 being the number after), mixed with the name of the the modern RS Spyder racing car which donated its V8 engine to the 918 Spyder. - The car was offered with the option of bare carbon fiber with a protective vinyl wrap, rather than paint. It appears that very few people went for this option, despite it saving a few pounds versus the traditional paint. - The overall goal for the car was to combine new-generation supercar performance with everyday usability, and a very high level of efficiency (low fuel consumption). Why? Porsche engineers essentially feel they have an obligation to push the boundaries of what is possible and not rest on their laurels. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
One thing that's interesting about the hardcover brochure shown above a couple posts - it lists the 918 Spyder total output as 795 horsepower. However, as we know, the final car produced 887 horsepower, almost 100 more than advertised initially. The reasoning was, upon learning of the upcoming LaFerrari and P1 power outputs (949 & 903 horsepower, respectively) Porsche felt they had to compete, so they upped the power of the naturally-aspirated V8 from 580 to 608, and simultaneously boosted the power of the electric motors to close the gap. This, in part, is what resulted in a Nurburgring lap time so far beyond the initial goal! Image Unavailable, Please Login
And still most thing the car actually makes somewhere around 950 hp and Porsche was being very conservative.
Some nice aerodynamic illustrations showing off the inactive and active aero elements of the 918's design. The underbody aerodynamic panels are particularly interesting, and essentially bend upwards to produce more downforce when required. Note that the front intake flaps that open and close have now been introduced onto the newly revealed 992-generation 911! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
"Straight from the horse's mouth." The top 5 reasons to choose a 918 Spyder over its core competitors, according to Porsche themselves. This is taken from an extensive confidential PDF report on the car that was given to Porsche dealers only. Image Unavailable, Please Login