Here we take a hot lap in the $847,000 Porsche 918 Hypercar at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
At this year’s Detroit Auto Show, Multimedia Editor Chris Amos spent some quality time with Porsche’s newest hypercar, the 918 Spyder. Set to take on the likes of the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari, the 918 looks to set a benchmark in sportcar engineering.
Poised to go head to head with the likes of the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche’s new flagship hypercar has some serious competition to contend with. But if Auto Express’s assessment of the 918 is reasonable indication of what to expect, it may be the opposition who have something to be worried about.
The world of the hypercar is an interesting place. Both impressively conscious and willfully ignorant of the volatile world around it at the same time. Consider this latest rumor from Automobile as proof of that duality—While Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren are working on mind blowing hypercars draped in technology and hybrid powertrains, Bugatti is reportedly bringing an even more powerful Veyron called the SuperVeyron (yes, that’s the actual name) to the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Porsche’s bonkers hybrid-electric supercar, the 918 Spyder, has completed a crucial stage of its production life, with full-blown prototype models hitting the roads. Unlike the stripped down mules that we’ve seen in the past, this car is a proper prototype, with near-production sheetmetal.