Review: Porsche’s N150m supercar roars like a million
The 918’s price can brush $1 million, four times that of any other new Porsche. Its hybrid technology hurls it to 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour in 2.5 seconds. It ran Germany’s infamous 13-plus-mile Nurburgring racetrack in record time — 6.57 minutes — faster than any production road car, ever. Facts that border on […]
The 918’s price can brush $1 million, four times that of any other new Porsche. Its hybrid technology hurls it to 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour in 2.5 seconds. It ran Germany’s infamous 13-plus-mile Nurburgring racetrack in record time — 6.57 minutes — faster than any production road car, ever.
Facts that border on hyperbole and certainly beg questions. What’s it like to actually drive? Is it worth all that dough? I found out in December, one of only 100 or so journalists worldwide who got a chance to test a production model on public roads and a racetrack.
Prepare for the obvious: With 887 horsepower and 944 pound-feet of torque, the 918 is pretty quick. In hindsight, my test-drive was a series of shutterlike moments, scenery fluttering by in discrete panels like a choppy 8-millimeter film. Hammer the accelerator and embark on a hallucinogenic trip, your mind flooding with wonder, fear, endorphins. It’s the perception-warping speed of science fiction.
Cars like the 918, LaFerrari and McLaren P1 are sometimes referred to as hypercars. They have big prices and are produced in very small numbers. Despite horsepower ratings that reach toward four figures, they are aimed not at professional racecar drivers but at well-to-do mortals, many probably in their 60s or older. So the 918 couldn’t be scary or unpredictable. It had to be wow-worthy as the price implies, but not soil-your-trousers bonkers.
The base 918 starts at $845,000. The racetrack-oriented Weissach model, which might well be described as the “way louder, tougher on your back and will annoy your passenger package,” starts at $929,000. Additional options cost as much as a brand-new car: a trick exterior paint for $63,000 or special leather seats for $26,000.
Porsche, a unit of Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen AG (VOW), says it wanted the 918 to showcase just how far technology has come since the release of its last supercar, the Carrera GT in 2003. I drove it years ago and it was formidable. The Carrera GT is also the car in which actor Paul Walker was killed Nov. 30 in California.
The car starts in all-electric mode. Twist the key (located to the driver’s left, as in all Porsches) and the car turns on silently, like Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf. Tip down a lever, engaging drive, pop off the e-brake button and roll quietly away. Porsche says you can get about 20 miles of pure electric driving around town before the lithium-ion battery pack is depleted. (The pack is located low in the carbon-fiber body. Incredibly, the car’s center of gravity is located below the wheel hubs.)
It’s pleasant to drive around city streets in electric mode, particularly with the top off. People stop and gawp at this slick piece of sculpture creeping silently around. Engage the engine by putting it into “hybrid,” “sport hybrid,” or “race” modes, and the Spyder’s demeanor savagely shifts. The engine does not switch on quietly, seamlessly or with any sleight of hand. Rather it blasts on like a cannon, assaulting eardrums and sending a spasm through the car.
Corners rolled by, straights unfurled, tires made ungodly noises. Much of the footage in my mental 8-millimeter film is missing because my brain couldn’t record that quickly. The 918 is bananas. Extraordinary bananas. Worth $1 million bananas (if you’re the kind of individual who parts with that kind of money). The only likely complaint? Finding roads or even racetracks that match up to the mix of technology and performance. A First World problem indeed.
Bloomberg.com