~ Auto Buzz ~: Porsche 918 Spyder: The pride of Munich arrives in Malaysia

Der 918 Spyder stole the lime light away from its two siblings that were being launched, here in Porsche Malaysia’s latest flagship branch in Sg. Besi. This is the first time Malaysians have seen Porsche’s new halo car in the flesh thanks to Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) and is believed to belong to billionaire businessman Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir. The handbuilt 918 Spyder is rumored to carry a price tag upward of Rm 7,000,000. It is learnt that Malaysia will be receiving 3 units out of the 918 unit that will ever be produced. Its unconfirmed who the other two owners are.

In march 2010, Porsche made the boldest decision to announce at the Geneva Motor Show, that they will be making what is essentially a daily-driver plugin hybrid hypercar. There were two target goals the development team HAD to accomplish. Firstly, the 918 Spyder must be able to achieve a fuel efficiency rate of 3L/100km. Secondly it must be able to clock the fastest lap time at the Nurburgring Nordschleife racetrack. Two things that are on opposite ends of the automotive scale. At first, even the team wasn’t sure if this project was even possible and with less than a 1000 days, the team had to develop, build and test one of the most ultra-lightweight, powerful Porsche hypercars ever built.

The 918 Spyder, uses a carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) monocoque chassis taken from the rare, limited -edition run Porsche Carrera GT supercar of which only 1720 prime examples were built. The engineers made lightness an absolute and utter priority, and this is evident in the fact the they’ve managed to get up to 80% of the total weight below the center line of the car. This exercise greatly imporves the cornering speed of the 918 Spyder. typically, in sports cars of this nature, the weight is a 50-50 balance, however in the 918 Spyder, 56% of the weight is toward the rear of the car. Even the bespoke made rims are made from magnesium, saving up to 14kg of weight.

Powering this light-weight ultra efficient hypercar, is a Le Man derived 4.6L direct-injection V8 engine taken straight from the RS Spyder, after which was put on a crash diet by Porsche’s engineers to be further lightened and modified. The con-rods are made from billet titanium, the walls of the cylinder have been thinned down, the crankshaft was redesigned so that now an oil channel runs through it, saving unsprung weight and the airbox is made from nothing other than carbon fiber. The result is a whaling banshee that’s able to rev its engine all the way up to 9,000 rpm. At a mere 140kg, this engine is almost 100kg lighter than the heart that beats in the Porsche 911. The engine is built by a single engineer that takes up to 20 hours to build from the ground up..

But that’s not all, the 918 Spyder, in addition to it glorious V8 engine is also powered by two electric motors. Located in the front of the car, a 130hp motor is tasked with, powering the V8 to life and is in charge of the Stop / Start ability of the 918. The second motor is located at the back, providing a 160hp and works in tandem with the gasoline engine to ferry the 918 along very quickly, effectively making the car an all-wheel-drive hypercar. Made bespoke by ZF in their state-of-the-art Friedrichshaufen factory in Germany, these motors start out in life as a 200-sheet metal stator motor core that is coiled over with copper wires, it is then attached to the rotor assembly that has 32 high-powered magnets built into the motor.

To keep heat away from these liquid cooled electric motors, the engineers had to find another way to divert the hot exhaust gases away from them. the solution was form following function. The 900°C gases emitted from the engine are channeled via the top mounted exhaust pipers.

Powering these immense motors is a 312 cell, 6.8 kW/h lithium-ion battery pack. That’s the equivalent to almost 2,600 AA batteries that you would normally find in your TV’s remote controller. The result of all of these technological advancements means the 918 Spyder has a combined output of 887hp at 9000rm providing an unbelievable 1,275 Nm of torque. Enabling this plugin hybrid to do the century sprint in 2.5 seconds with a top speed of 340kph. The Spyder would make Dominic Toretto proud with a 1/4 mile time of 9.8 seconds.

The blokes at Porsche have come up with a rather handy Driving Mode Selector knob on the steering wheel that comes with five settings. The first is the E-mode following which, makes the 918 Spyder a front-wheel-drive only Electric Vehicle (EV) with a range of up to 20km and capable of speeds of up to 150kph. exhausting the charge in the battery pack, it switches over to the H-Mode, or Hybrid-mode which fires up the engine and uses a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and recharge the battery pack. In S-mode or Sports mode, the 918 comes to life by first activating its Active Aerodynamic features such as the opening a flap in the front grille to allow cooling of the 406mm Brembo built carbon-ceramic brakes which is capable of braking the 918 Spyder from 100kph to standstill in 28.6 meters and deploying its wing which is engineered to withstand up to 3,200 newtons of force, or the weight of three adults sitting down on it.

In Race-mode the huge rear spoiler is inclined a further 8° to maximize downforce. Hitting the red button in the center of the selector, engages the Hotlap mode, which throws caution and energy conservation to the wind, all three elements are there for one reason only. Speed. And to coincidentally shatter the production car lap record at the Nurburgring circuit with an impressive time of 6 minutes 57 seconds.

Here’s quick facts on the 918 Spyder.

POWER(4.6 L V8 + 2 electric motors on front and rear axle)	887hp
TORQUE(4.6 L V8 + 2 electric motors on front and rear axle)	1,275 Nm
0-100 kph	2.5 seconds
0-200 kph	7.2 seconds
0-300 kph	19.9 seconds
100-0 kph ( Braking Distance )	28.6 metres
WEIGHT	1670kg
FUEL ECONOMY	3L/100km