Even though this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed was all about celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 911 for Porsche – and they did a cracking job of it – on Saturday they let loose the new 918 Hyper car on the hill, and that kinda overshadowed everything else. The 853,155 Euro dream and speed machine was pretty much in its final production trim.
So let’s recap one more time what makes the 918 Spyder so special. For starters, the 918 is the spiritual successor to the Carrera GT; a car that went down in the history books as one of the all time greats. It also heralds a anew era of supercars for Porsche in which performance and fuel efficiency go hand in hand. And, well just look at it. It’s insane!
The powertrain in the 918 consists of a race-bred 4.6-litre V8 engine from the LMP2 RS, and two electric motors with lithium-ion batteries – one on each axle. The four-wheel-drive car has a combined output of 887 hp; more than 600 of which coming from the V8 petrol unit mounted deep in the middle of the carbon fiber chassis.
It accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds in full attack mode, and can reach a top speed of 211 mph. Being a plug-in hybrid, the 918 also offers a silent Electric mode that lasts for 18 miles (30 km). In Electric mode you can go from 0 to 60 in about seven seconds and reach a top speed of 93 mph. There are a bunch of other driving modes that offer different blends of hybrid power to suit your every need.
In mix hybrid mode which most drivers will use most of the time, the 918 will be capable of a simply extraordinary 85 mpg and 79 g/km CO2. That is unbelievable for a car like this, and probably 918’s only advantage over its main rivals – the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 – which are more powerful and faster than it. The Porsche is more economical than both of them. Not that it matters in the world of hyper cars, but here we are.
