2014 Porsche 918 Spyder Reviews

2014 Porsche 918 Spyder

When Porsche unveiled the 918 Spyder concept at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show we were all in amazement. Within that amazement was a sense of a sense of pessimism, as we were unsure exactly how this future successor to the Carrera GT would look and run in the real world. We all know that manufacturers have a habit of “overestimating” its cars at these shows, to put it nicely.

Here we are about two years later and the 918 Spyder is nearing the end of its testing phase and we have all gotten a good hard look at what we figure to be its final design. The 918 has also made many passes around the “Green Hell,” thrashing its predecessor’s time in the process. All of these laps around the famed Nürburgring and at Porsche’s test facilities have given the automaker enough details to allow it to piece together all of its specs.

Remarkably, there have also been a few leaky valves throughout the process that let us in on the 918 Spyder’s top-secret pricing.

So, is the 918 Spyder everything it has been hyped up to be?

Updated 05/16/2013: Porsche revealed today new images and details on the 918 Spyder - a supercar that combines pedigree motor racing technology with excellent everyday utility, and maximum performance with minimum consumption.

Updated 06/19/2013: Porsche unveiled a new video showing the upcoming 918 Spyder testing in the Valley of Fire outside of Las Vegas Nevada. Enjoy!

Updated 07/01/2013: Porsche U.S.A launched a microsite for the upcoming 918 Spyder. Go online and learn everything you need to know on the supercar set to go on sale this September.

Updated 07/02/2013: In the past few weeks, Porsche took two 918 Spyder prototypes on a tour through the Middle East. During the 52-day-long tour, this pair of supercars visited six countries and Porsche released the "Meet the Prototype" video today, which summarizes the tour. Enjoy!

Updated 07/15/2013: The 918 Spyder made an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Additionally, Porsche also released some new numbers on the 918 Spyder, including its official acceleration times, top speed, curb weight and more. See it all after the jump.

Click past the jump to read our review and find out.

Exterior
1.

The 918 Spyder is built on a carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) monocoque that is interlocked with a CFRP unit carrier. This provides great stability with lightweight construction, and also provides plenty of protection for the folks in its cabin.

On the outside, you see plenty of Porsche’s trademark characteristics. It boasts a sloped nose, along with a sleek roofline that tapers all the way down to the rear end. Speaking of the roofline, a two-piece Targa top graces this roof, giving you the opportunity to drive in the open air. What makes the 918 Spyder special is where Porsche strayed from its typical styling. Up front, you get shapelier headlights than you will see on the rest of its lineup. The front fenders are also far less bulging than on the other models in its line.

Just in front of the rear wheels, Porsche fitted the engine’s main air intakes. These massive canyons in the rear fenders should be more than up to the responsibility of feeding life-giving O2 to the V-8 monster residing under the chicken-wire-style cage on the rear of the 918 Spyder.

On the backside of the 918 Spyder, there’s a massive dual-pedestal spoiler to add a little extra downforce. The one styling cue that the 918 Spyder takes from the rest of the Porsche lineup is its taillights. If you look close enough at the 918’s taillights, you may even see the soul of the 911 still floating around in them. Just below these taillights rest a pair of air vents, which we can only chock up as heat extractors, as there is no way they can be designed to take in air.

An interesting change from conception to production is the axing of the side-exit exhaust that everyone, including us, thought was flat out bad-ass and moving the exits to the top of the car – on pipe behind each seat. This offers up a several little-known benefits. First of all, this more than shortens the traveling distance from the cylinder heads to the exhaust tips, allowing the exhaust to escape more quickly. Secondly, putting the exhaust exits right behind the seats also makes the sweet noise of the exhaust a little more audible inside the cabin. Lastly, it helps lower the temperature in the engine compartment.

At the base of the rear fascia, Porsche fitted a relatively huge diffusor. This should provide plenty of additional downward force and keep the fatter rear end from jiggling around too much at high speeds.

Overall, the exterior of the 918 Spyder is still a “work in progress,” but we are pretty confident that this is exactly what we will see when it hits showrooms. Well, minus the bodyline gaps and the taillights that appear to be held in place by duct tape, superglue, and a little bit of hope – or is that really how they are supposed to look?

In terms of its footprint, the 918 Spyder measures in at 4,643 mm (182.79 inches) long X 1,940 mm (76.37 inches) wide X 1,167 mm (45.94 inches) tall and it has a 2,730 mm (107.48-inch) wheelbase. The 918 Spyder’s front track measures in at 1,664 mm (65.51 inches) and its rear track measures 1,612 mm (63.46 inches). For those that aren’t familiar with “track width,” this is the gap between the centermost points of each tire.

Exterior Specifications:
Chassis Construction    CFRP Monocoque Interlocked W/ CFRP Unit Carrier
Dimensions (LxWxH)    4,643 mm (182.79 inches) x 1,940 mm (76.37 inches) x 1,167 mm (45.94 inches)
Wheelbase    2,730 mm (107.5 inches)
Weight    1,700 kg (3,747 pounds) / 1,640 kg (3,616 lbs) W/ Weissach package
Track Width (Front/Rear)    1,664 mm (65.51 inches) / 1,612 mm (63.46 inches)
Interior

For the most part, your guess is as good as ours on the 918 Spyder’s interior. We have seen a few spy shots of various interior pieces, but those are pretty much all low-quality shots that don’t tell us too much. There are a few computer-generated images of the inside.

These CG images show an ultra-modern center console that looks like something out of a futuristic movie and a trio of rounded, standalone gauges. The CG images also show us a black-and-silver color combination with green contrasting piping on the door panels – Oakland Raider and Seattle Seahawk fans rejoice, the 918 Spyder will match your garb during the football season. The CG images show an ultra-modern center console that looks like something out of a futuristic movie and a trio of rounded, standalone gauges. We tend to write these kinds of images off as unreal, but these images do match some of the spy shots.

We know that the 918 Spyder will feature a soft-touch interior, leaving all of that ugly hard plastic to lesser-quality cars. Also included will be a 3-spoke, multifunction sports steering wheel and sport seats wrapped in leather. That’s pretty much all of the stuff you expect from a Porsche.

For those audiophiles out there, Porsche is catering to you too. This supercar features a Burmester 11-speaker audio system. Additionally, Porsche Car Connect allows you to connect to the 918’s hybrid system remotely.

Additionally, the 918 Spyder offers up 110 liters (3.8 cubic-feet) of luggage space, so you can carry along a small bag.
Engine and Drivetrain
5.

Now we can talk about the single most awesome part of the 918 Spyder, its engine and drivetrain. It all starts with a 4.6-liter V-8 engine strapped in behind the seats. In order to keep things as light as possible, Porsche fitted the 918 Spyder’s engine with titanium connecting rods, thin-wall, low-pressure casting on the crank case and the cylinder heads, a high-strength, light-weight steel crankshaft, and an extremely thin-walled, alloy steel exhaust system.

Keeping the engine properly lubricated is a dry-sump lubrication system with a separate oil tank and oil extraction. Adding to the weight savings, Porsche fabricated the four oil-extraction pumps out of plastic. That’s a little scary of a tradeoff in our opinion, but every ounce counts.

All of this technology pushes this V-8 to an impressive 608 horsepower at 8,500 rpm and 530 Nm (391 foot-pounds) of torque. That power is stout, to say the least, but the 918 Spyder goes beyond that by adding a 115 kW (154 horsepower) electric motor to power the rear axle and a 95 kW (127-horsepower) electric motor on the front axle. This combines for a total of 887 mind-blowing horsepower and a peak torque rating of 1,275 Nm (940 pound-feet) with over 800 Nm (590 pound-feet) available from just 800 rpm.

Linked up to this complex mash up of gasoline and electric power in the back end is Porsche’s beautiful piece of engineering called the Doppelkupplungsgetriebe – we know it better as the PDK. The PDK only connects to the engine and the rear electric motor. The front motors have a separate gearbox that disconnects the front motors after the car hits 235 km/h (146 mph).

The driveline is also very tunable on the fly, as you have five different modes to select from that are optimized for certain situations. “E-Power” mode is a full-electric mode that is nearly silent and acts as the default setting. This allows you 25 km (15 miles) of electric-only driving before the engine is forced into action because of depleted batteries. Additionally, you get a kick-down function, which means that if you hammer on the throttle, the gasoline engine kicks in to help out.

The second mode is “Hybrid,” which combines the gasoline and electric power in the most efficient way to maximize fuel economy. Next up is the “Sport Hybrid” mode, which uses primarily the gasoline engine, but the electric motors kick in like an electric “turbo” to increase performance when you nail the throttle.

Next there is the “Race Hybrid.” In this mode, you mostly use the gasoline engine, but the electric motors are set to full power and add in boost as needed. In this mode, the gasoline engine also charges the batteries more aggressively, which leads to huge fluctuation in battery charge while driving in this mode.

The final mode is "Hot Lap". In this mode there is an additional button that releases the final reserves of the 918 Spyder and that pushes the traction battery to its maximum power output limits for a few fast laps. This mode uses all of the available energy in the battery.

All of this crazy technology amounts out to mammoth performance potential with great fuel economy. The 918 Spyder can hit a top speed in excess of of 340 km/h (211 mph) with the gasoline engine and electric motors working together. In E-Power mode, the 918 Spyder can hit a top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph). In acceleration, the 918 Spyder is literally insane, as it hits 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 2.8 seconds, 200 km/h (124 mph) in just 7.9 seconds, and reaches 300 km/h (186 mph) in 23 seconds.

Now, we know that anyone looking to buy this car is looking for pure performance and fuel economy and emissions are an afterthought. Well, just so your conscious remains clear, the 918 Spyder boasts an astounding estimated fuel economy rating of 3.3L per 100 km (85 mpg) rating and an equally mind blowing 79 g/km CO2 emission rating.

To say the 918 Spyder is amazing is the understatement of the year.

Engine and Driveline Specifications:
Engine    4.6-Liter V-8 W/ Two Electric Parallel Motors
Total Horsepower    887 Horsepower
Total Torque    940 Pound-Feet
Transmission    7-Speed PDK Automated Manual
Fuel Economy    85 mpg
CO2 Emissions    79 g/km
Top Speed (Hybrid/Electric    211 mph / 93 mph
Acceleration (0-62 mph/0-124 mph/0-186 mph)    2.8 Seconds / 7.9 Seconds / 23 Seconds
Battery    Lithium-Ion W. 6.8 kWh Capacity, 200 kW
Suspension and Braking
6.

Porsche installed its PASM suspension system under the 918 Spyder, which is an adaptive shock absorber system that automatically adjusts the shocks for varying road conditions and driving styles. Also included is a rear-axle steering system, which steers the rear wheels in the opposite direction at low speeds for more precise turning. At high speed, the rear wheels turn the same way, which helps to lower the pushing that the rear end does when changing lanes too quickly. Now, we’re not talking about full-on turned rear wheels, just small degrees.

Up front, you get a double-wishbone setup and on the rear, you get a multi-link setup. In addition to the PASM, you also get a lift system on the front end to avoid hitting curbs and other low-lying obstacles.

Outside of the suspension system, you have a high-performance hybrid brake system with adaptive recuperation braking system. Included in the standard 918 Spyder is Porsche’s famed ceramic brake discs, otherwise known as PCCB. The front rotors measure in at 410 mm (16.14 inches) x 36 mm (1.41 inches) and a cross-drilled and slotted. The rear rotors are also cross-drilled and slotted, and measure in at 390 mm (15.35 inches) x 32 mm (1.26 inches).

With this supercar keeping its center of gravity so low for optimal handling, you may have issues getting up ramps without causing damage. To help in these situations, Porsche installed a lift system that raises the 918 by 1.1 inches at speeds up to 31 mph.

Just outside of the brakes, you get 9.5J x 20 front rims wrapped in 265/35ZR20 rubber and 12.5J x 21 rear rims wrapped in 325/30ZR21 rubber. The magnesium wheel upgrade comes as part of the Weissach package.

Handling and Suspension Specs
Front Suspension    Double-Wishbone W/ Lift System and PASM
Rear Suspension    Multi-Link W/ PASM
Front Brakes    Porsche PCCB W/ 410 mm (16.14-Inch) x 36 mm (1.41-Inch) Cross-Drilled And Slotted Discs
Rear Brakes    Porsche PCCB W/ 390 mm (15.35-Inch) x 32 mm (1.26-Inch) Cross-Drilled And Slotted Discs
Rims (Front/Rear)    9.5J x 20 / 12.5J x 21
Tires (Front/Rear)    265/35ZR20 / 325/30ZR21
The Weissach Package

The Weissach Package has been a hot topic when discussing the future if the 918 Spyder. This package shaves 77 pounds off of the supercar’s overall weight to help maximize its power-to-weight ratio. Additionally, this package adds in a carbon-fiber roof, rear wing, side-view mirrors and windshield surround.

On the inside, the Weissach Package adds in carbon-fiber trimming, and an Alcantara-covered steering wheel, and center console.

For those that want a little something extra on the outside, the Weissach package also has two optional liveries. First is the notorious Martini Racing Livery, which first saw use in 1969 , and is one of the most recognizable Porsche racing liveries.

The second optional livery is the Salzburg Racing Design, which combines red stripes over a white body to give the 918 the look of the fastest Porsche racecar of all time, the 917.
Pricing

In the U.S. market the Porsche 918 Spyder will be priced at €781,155 in Europe and $845,000 in the U.S. for the base model. For a grand total of $929,000 — an $84k bump — you can add in the weight-savings package known as the Weissach Package on U.S.-spec models. In Europe, the 918 Spyder with the Weissach Package comes in at €853,155.

In the European market, the model will be priced at €768,026 Optional equipment are priced at follow (U.S. prices of options are at the current Euro-to-USD exchange rates unless noted by "official"):
Option    European Price    U.S. Price
Weissach Package    €72,000     $84,000 (official)
Car Foil    €11,900     $15,500 (estimate)
Liquid Metal Paint    €47,600     $62,000 (estimate)
Magnesium Wheels    €29,750     $38,700 (estimate)
Six-Point-Harness    €2,975     $3,900 (estimate)
Special German Leather    €23,800     $30,800 (estimate)
Five-Piece Luggage Set    €17,731     $23,000 (estimate)
Lift System    €8,925    $11,500 (estimate)

Befitting its status as Porsche’s ultimate supercar, acquiring the 918 Spyder will be a little more complicated than most standard Porsche models. First of all, there’s that all important matter of having $845,000-plus at your disposal. When you’ve settled that, you need to find an authorized Porsche dealer - by ’authorized’, we mean those that have signed a participation agreement with the company - that can process your order. Once you’ve found that dealership, they will be the ones to pass along an order to Porsche where they are obligated to submit an "Allocation Request Form." Once submitted, the dealership will have to wait for a reply from Porsche, with the latter telling the former if they can order one. When that happens, the dealer will have to submit $200,000 as down payment for the order. Porsche will then respond with its own confirmation letter and an estimated time frame for production. Then, a year before the car’s production date, the buyer will have to fork over another $200,000 with the remaining balance of $445,000 set to be paid when the car is built. Owners will have to settle all the payments before the company ships the 918 Spyder.

And why exactly is Porsche making its potential buyers jump through a dozen and a half flaming hoops, while an archer launches flaming arrows at the buyers? Well, because Porsche is too damn smart to build 918 nearly-$1-million cars based purely on interest. They are making you pay $400K before they even pick up a body panel on your 918 Spyder. That’s just another example of the brilliant insanity that drives Volkswagen and Porsche.

Oh and by the way… The 918 Spyder is already sold out, so even if you had the cash to get one, you are going to have to wait until one hits the used market and likely pay much more than the original buyer did.
Competition

2014 McLaren P1

When the 918 Spyder first started testing, we were unsure where it would receive competition from , but McLaren was quick to pop in with its P1. With an 800-horsepower, 3.8-liter V-8 engine and a an electric motor in tow, this supercar pumps out 903 horsepower and 1,100 pound-feet of torque. With this much power, the P1 hits a top speed of 217 mph and sprints to 60 mph in just 2.7 seconds. With a $1.15 million price tag, it does check in a lot pricier than the 918.