This weird-looking beast you see here is the first prototype for the upcoming Porsche 918 super car dispatched to Nardo in Italy for some high speed testing. Don’t be fooled by the 911 bits and pieces, the finished product won’t look anything like that. It will be a full-on super car with a price tag of around $800K, and performance that boggles the mind. It is, after all, the spiritual successor to the awesome Porsche Carrera GT.

The 918 is called the  supercar for the 21st century, redefining all the standards. That is largely due to its high-tech power-train, consisting of a 570-hp race-bred V8, combined with two electric motors, pushing total output to 770 hp. It is a hybrid, but what a hybrid it is!

Having 770hp at the disposal of your right foot means you can go from zero to 62 mph in 3 seconds dead,  reach 124 mph in less than 9 seconds and hit 202 mph flat out. The job of those electric motors then is providing more powerrrr, but they also give the car a special capability: running solely on electricity.

That means whenever you are pottering around town and don’t need mega power, you switch the system – or it does it on its own – to full electric mode. Final electric range is still unknown, but Porsche says they’ve worked out a way to get the car’s batteries recharged in 2 hours. Normal EVs these days take at least 6 hours.

For the sake of handling, the power-train is located in the middle of the car, which itself is made from a blend of carbon fiber and aluminum for lightness. No doubt the 918 is going to be an amazing car. But the question is, how will it feel to drive? like a proper supercar, or like a 770-hp laptop?

That we will find out after September 2013, because that’s the date Porsche has set for the 918’s launch.

Source: Wired