Porsche 918 Spyder In Production Guise Arrives; Sets Nurburging Record

It's finally arrived. Porsche at last took the veils off of the production ready 918 Spyder hybrid supercar. By all definitions a milestone in the history of the Stuttgart based automaker, the 918 Spyder is a technological marvel. The hybrid system, at least on paper, sounds so sophisticated that it could arguably be more advanced than other two hybrids (McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari).

While the production 918 Spyder was showcased at the Volkswagen Group Night on the eve of Frankfurt Auto Show, the car, in pre-production and concept form went public at every opportunity available, in stark contrast to McLaren P1 and more so to Ferrari LaFerrari. The concept, in its earliest form, was first revealed more than three years back, at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show.

Porsche 918 Spyder Image Gallery

We'll not go in-depth explaining the technology and the vast array of features the 918 Spyder boasts of (Porsche's press release takes a generous 11,000 words to cover them!!). Instead, we'll give you a glance of the basic and the most exciting facts. At the end it which you can watch a trio of official videos.

Porsche has officially set a record lap time at the Nurburgring. The time set by the 918 Sypder is 6 min 57 seconds. It is no the third fastest production car to lap the 'Ring'. Video included in the gallery below.

Porsche 918 Spyder Pre-Production Image Gallery

The hybrid engine
This is what makes the 918 Spyder what it is. The hybrid system is made up of a 4.6 liter V8 engine that alone generates 600 HP. The gasoline engine functions harmoniously with two electric motors. These are rated at 115 kW (154 HP) and 95 kW (127 HP) respectively.

The motors run on juice provided by a 6.8 kWh capacity, 220 kW power liquid cooled lithium battery. When dry, the battery, using the DC Porsche Speed Charging Station, can be replenished in just 25 minutes.

Ultimately, the 918 Spyder can tap into a combined power output of 875 HP and a staggering 1,280 Nm of torque.

Performance
Looking at the numbers you realize, Porsche 918 Spyder is considerably less powerful than both the P1 and LaFerrari. However, thanks to all that torque coming from the electric motors the car is said to be capable of achieving a 0-100 km/h time of only 2.8 seconds.
200 km/h takes 7.7 seconds and 300 km/h 22 seconds. Peak speed is reached at 344 km/h

918 Spyder's pure electric performance are just as phenomenal. 0-100 km/h is reached in under 7 seconds and the car can go up to touch 150 km/h. Running purely on electricity, the car can travel anywhere from 16 to 32 kilometers.

Fuel economy and emission
While there is no doubt the performance numbers are impressive, what will truly amaze you are the following figures. Porsche claims the 918 Spyder delivers a combined fuel efficiency ranging between 30 km/l to 30.33 km/l.

Average carbon emission figures are in the range of only 79-70 g/km. Even a Toyota Prius cannot spew out less than roughly 90 g/km of CO2.