And there it is ladies and gentlemen! The ultra-seductive, highly-desirable Porsche 918 Spyder! And it's a hybrid! Yes, a hybrid. This car may very well redefine the hybrid: what it is, what it's for and why it is. This car is as far removed from the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight as Pluto is from the Sun. Yet, this car is greener, in all senses of the word, than all subcompact cars you can purchase now in North America.
Begin by taking a good long look at the pictures in the gallery. Soak it in and tell me you would not want to be seen at the wheel of this hybrid...
Just take a moment to inhale the following stats. This supercar has an emission level of only 70 grams of CO2 per kilometre. A 2011 Honda Insight emits 101 grams of CO2 per kilometre. The combined high-tech racing features and electro-mobility of this car allows to consume only of 3.0 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres or the equivalent of 94 imperial mpg or 78 US mpg. These numbers are out of this World!
Don't be fooled! The 918 is still a bonified and glorified Porsche. It'll reach 100 km/h in under 3.2 seconds and will reach a top speed of 320 km/h or just shy of 200 mph. The real test, nowadays, for any budding sports car, is how fast it will lap the Nürburgring's Nordschleife. The 918 Spyder hybrid will crush the 20.8 km long track in less than 7 minutes and 30 seconds. This makes the car the second fastest production Porsche around the famed German track, tied with the Carrera GT, bested only by the GT2 RS.
The 918's heart consists in an RS Spyder race car-based 3.4L V8, developed for road use. Road use, for legal purposes that is... Putting out more than 500 hp and gladly screaming all the way to 9,200 rpm, this V8 is not your uncle's V8.
But that's only half of the story. The 918 sports a pair of electric motors, one on the front and one on the rear axle. What does that mean? Well, the 918 is essentially an AWD Spyder sports car hybrid very fast Autobahn burner that'll return roughly 80 mpg, if you can contain yourself. Oh, and the combined mechanical output from the magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors is of 218 hp (160 kW).
From the mid-mounted V8, all that juice, V8 plus the electric drive system, is transmitted to the rear wheels by Porsche's very excellent 7-speed PDK transmission. The front wheels with their electric drive, roll through a firm transmission ratio.
Begin by taking a good long look at the pictures in the gallery. Soak it in and tell me you would not want to be seen at the wheel of this hybrid...
Just take a moment to inhale the following stats. This supercar has an emission level of only 70 grams of CO2 per kilometre. A 2011 Honda Insight emits 101 grams of CO2 per kilometre. The combined high-tech racing features and electro-mobility of this car allows to consume only of 3.0 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres or the equivalent of 94 imperial mpg or 78 US mpg. These numbers are out of this World!
Don't be fooled! The 918 is still a bonified and glorified Porsche. It'll reach 100 km/h in under 3.2 seconds and will reach a top speed of 320 km/h or just shy of 200 mph. The real test, nowadays, for any budding sports car, is how fast it will lap the Nürburgring's Nordschleife. The 918 Spyder hybrid will crush the 20.8 km long track in less than 7 minutes and 30 seconds. This makes the car the second fastest production Porsche around the famed German track, tied with the Carrera GT, bested only by the GT2 RS.
The 918's heart consists in an RS Spyder race car-based 3.4L V8, developed for road use. Road use, for legal purposes that is... Putting out more than 500 hp and gladly screaming all the way to 9,200 rpm, this V8 is not your uncle's V8.
But that's only half of the story. The 918 sports a pair of electric motors, one on the front and one on the rear axle. What does that mean? Well, the 918 is essentially an AWD Spyder sports car hybrid very fast Autobahn burner that'll return roughly 80 mpg, if you can contain yourself. Oh, and the combined mechanical output from the magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors is of 218 hp (160 kW).
From the mid-mounted V8, all that juice, V8 plus the electric drive system, is transmitted to the rear wheels by Porsche's very excellent 7-speed PDK transmission. The front wheels with their electric drive, roll through a firm transmission ratio.
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| Photo: Mathieu St-Pierre/Auto123.com |