The “green” Porsche 918 Spyder will be available in green.
For friends of Mother Earth who still feel a serious and compelling need for speed, designers and engineers at Porsche have just unveiled your ultimate dream machine—the 918 Spyder Concept. Even if you do not feel all that concerned about the planet’s future, but you enjoy a genius piece of automotive engineering, the new Porsche will fire your fiercest fantasies. Pulling the covers off their brand new supercar at the Geneva Auto Show, the guys from Stuttgart set drivers drooling around the world. The 918 Spyder Concept features electric drive and hybrid technology, adapted and customized for maximum speed.
How speedy? Faster than a Carrera GT, with a top-end speed officially posted at 198 mph—more than fast enough to blow-back your hair and make your cheeks a little floppy.
And just how green? Spyder 918 Concept officially boasts a 78 mpg rating, and it emits only 70gm CO2 per kilometre—one of the auto industry’s lowest ratings.
In no way is this your mother’s hybrid Ford Escape.
Dazzling machinery, amazing specifications
Speed freaks will appreciate the mid-mounted 3.4 litre V-8 engine’s 500 horse-power, and then they will feel awed when they learn that electric motors at the front and rear axles generously add another 200 horsepower, With equal awe, speed lovers will learn that the engine winds-out to more than 9000 rpm before it hits the yellow line on the tachometer. When the driver does shift gears, she moves the transmission through a seven-speed PDK gearbox.
Like its distant cousin the Carrera, the Spyder 918 requires variable air effects to manage its breathtaking top-end speeds. The rear hoods, therefore, sport retractable air intakes which function as ram-air injectors. 918 Spyder’s design also suggests the car’s Carrera heritage—especially the front-end design strongly resembles all the 911’s which precede the new green beauty. In a radical departure from tradition, however, Porsche engineers have fashioned their green marvel almost entirely from carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic, maximizing gas mileage by minimizing the car’s weight, and also reducing wear and tear on the body from high-speed vibration.
Porsche officials declined to set a date for 918 Spyder’s debut in showrooms, but they smiled that, yes, it probably will be available in metallic green.
