PORSCHE 918 SPYDER: MORE DETAILS

The upcoming Porsche 918 Spyder is said to have lapped Nürburgring in 7 minutes and 14 seconds. That’s mighty quick! Quicker than the old Carrera GT. Thus Porsche is quite confident that the car will be faster than its direct rivals, Ferrari’s LaFerrari and the McLaren P1. Here are some more details on the 918 Spyder.

A 4.6-litre V8 petrol engine supplemented by two electric motors – each for the two axles – wields 447kW and 530Nm, while the motors are good for 115kW and 95kW each. Thus maximum power output is 661kW and torque is about 800Nm. They say it would be able to go from 0 – 100km/h in 2.8 seconds and achieve over 340km/h.

Some of the advances made by the 918 Spyder include the ability to switch to something called E-Power, which makes it run only on electricity. In this mode it would be able to accelerate from 0 – 100km/h in 7 seconds and go for about 30km without running out. The car will charge itself when running on petrol, but will require about 4 hours of recharge time on a standard house charger. A rapid charger will recharge in about 2.5 hours, and a Porsche Speed Charging Station can do it in just 25 minutes. The last option could prove the test bed for future chargers, because it means that on a long trip, a family can travel, then rest for drinks/ food along the way at a petrol garage, while charging their car.

The new Porsche 918 Spyder goes on sale this year, in very limited numbers of 918 units at a price of around R7.7 million a pop. No word on the availability/ lack of, of right-hand-drive models.