Porsche 918 Spyder Concept

Porsche 918 Spyder Concept

It took me a long time to pull the trigger and put this car on my blog. I am 100% against hybrid technology and electric cars. Just call me old fashioned. If it can't make power with a internal combustion engine, don't put it on the car. But this car is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! And I had to overlook the electical/hybrid tech to put this up here. Enjoy.

The Supercar of Tomorrow

Moving in the same direction as Ferrari with its 599 Hybrid concept, Porsche is laying its cards on the table with this dual-purpose supercar plug-in hybrid. Said to “combine high-tech racing features with electric mobility to offer a fascinating range of qualities,” the 918 Spyder concept borrows the mid-mounted 3.4-liter V-8 engine from the RS Spyder race car, singing a symphony of 500 hp up to a 9200-rpm redline. That covers the race portion of the equation, while electric motors found at both the front and rear axles that combine for an output of 218 hp handle the electric mobility. These motors, able to move the car on electric power alone, make the 918 a full hybrid, which Porsche claims has a range of 16 miles using the liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery found behind the passenger compartment. Porsche claims the concept is capable of hitting 62 mph in under 3.2 seconds, topping out at 198 mph, lapping the Nürburgring in 7 minutes and 30 seconds (faster than a Carrera GT), and achieving fuel economy of up to 78 mpg, but certainly not while laying down those figures.

Frankenstein Looks Good

Using just about every exotic lightweight material to keep the concept’s weight to a mere 3285 pounds, Porsche has also given the 918 Spyder a futuristic style that only vaguely resembles past models. Slung low with huge wheels that we don’t even know how to begin to describe, the roadster more directly hints at cues from other sports cars of today. The overall profile is reminiscent of the Lotus Elise, the front fascia has hints of Ferrari 360, and it’s capped off by a Carrera-GT-got-busy-with-a-Bugatti-Veyron rear end—the result is decidedly un-Porsche. That said, the interior is right out of the GT’s design book, featuring a steeply sloped center console that Porsche says will serve as a potential interior architecture on future models.