Wired gets a ride in the Porsche 917 hybrid supercar prototype, final product to be in the $800k range

[Sticky]

In case you were wondering, yes, the Porsche 917 is still coming and still undergoing development. The concept debuted in Geneva 2 years ago and immediately gained attention throughout the industry since it took the relatively boring hybrid concept and turned into something that actually made car guys, real car guys, salivate. Wired got some exclusive time with the car and below is our summary of their take on it so far.

Nine Fast Facts About the Porsche 918 Spyder

• $800,000 price (appox.), $200k deposit
• More than 50 CPUs
• Electrical system alone took 9 months to develop
• Every single light is an LED, from the headlamps to the interior
• The passenger sits 20mm further forward than the driver for optimum weight distribution
• The transmission was pulled from the new 911 and flipped upside down to fit the 918
• Every body panel is carbon fiber, save the bumpers
• There’s a “Manufactured in Flacht” sticker on the back as a reminder that Porsche Motorsport is the main developer
• If you leave the two carbon fiber targa panels at home and it starts to rain, you’re out of luck. Porsche doesn’t offer a soft top option.

Check out the full article from Wired for all the details but here is what we took away from it. Porsche has tweaked the 4.7 liter V8 that originally saw duty in their LMP2 ALMS race cars to 570 horses from 500. This combined with the two electric motors brings output all the way up to 770 horses. The car revs to 9000 rpm which certainly is awesome. An overboost mode is good for bursts of 700 pound-feet of torque. Useful for those situations where, you know, a Ferrari Enzo is next to you and you need to merge.

Charging the batteries takes 6 hours from a 110 outlet. Porsche wants to implement a quick charge 2 hour mode as well that they are trying to reduce to 20 minutes.

Weight issues? All of this sounds great but we are looking at 3700 pounds despite all the weight saving measure. So will it truly be superior than the Carrera GT that will end up weighing around 700 pounds less than the production Porsche 917? Maybe it isn't fair to compare a hybrid car with its batteries and electric motors in weight to one that does not use electric power but this is a supercar after all. Weight is certainly a downside.

[Yukohama]

id love to hear that exhaust at 9000rpm

[fundahl]

Interested to see if they can actually incorporate the electric motors to offer a significant performance benefit.

The torque boost is like electric Nitrous. You could even up the amperage to get more power, but run out of juice sooner.

[daro911]

Interested to see if they can actually incorporate the electric motors to offer a significant performance benefit.

I was surprised to recently watch a documentary on the Williams F1 Megafactory in which it was disclosed to stay in F1 they had to find a car manufacturer to adopt their hybrid system they had developed for racing and road car use ..... Porsche became their client and Williams continues to be able to afford to go racing

[Sticky]

I was surprised to recently watch a documentary on the Williams F1 Megafactory in which it was disclosed to stay in F1 they had to find a car manufacturer to adopt their hybrid system they had developed for racing and road car use ..... Porsche became their client and Williams continues to be able to afford to go racing

Interesting, never heard that.

So this system is essentially something Williams and not Porsche developed?