918 Spyder Pre-Production Prototype Debuts

By Marcus Slater - May 15, 2012

Finally! Porsche’s next super sportscar is entering the prototyping phase with these new images to show it off. Evo magazine already got the chance to test the thing in it’s pre-production mule phase,but this is the first time we’ve seen the emperor with its clothes on. The paint is a cool throwback to the livery on the 917’s of the seventies. We think it looks cool, but not nearly as cool as the Pink Pig.

The most interesting part about this car is it’s drive-train. Porsche pulled the 4.6L V8 from their American LeMans Championship-winning RS Spyder and stuffed it behind the driver to power the rear wheels. But, because 570hp just wasn’t flexible enough, Porsche dropped an 80kW electric motor up front to power the forward wheels, and another electric motor in the rear just for good measure. That totals to at least 770hp, a 0-60 time under three seconds, and a top speed over 200 mph. Yikes.

That’s not even the crazy part. Those electric motors mean that the fastest Porsche ever will also be the most efficient, returning about 78 mpg on the EU cycle.

Porsche’s engineers say that the car is on track to go into production by the end of September 2013.