GTP Cool Wall: 2013+ Porsche 918 Spyder

2013+ Porsche 918 Spyder

  • Total voters
    107
  • Poll closed .
White & Nerdy

White & Nerdy

4,209
United States
Wasilla, AK
2013+ Porsche 918 Spyder nominated by Azure Flare

20120730-PM%20104_2_800.jpg


Stats:
Production: 2013+
Style: 2-door targa convertible
Engine: 280 ci/4,593 cc naturally aspirated DOHC V8 plus two electric motors (rated 887 HP & 944 ft-lbs)
Transmission: PDK 7-speed dual-clutch
Layout: Mid-engine, All-wheel-drive
Related: Porsche 918 RSR​

My take? We all know the Porsche engineers are some of the most brilliant minds in the world, and it shows with this car. It's greased lightning, and it should be with over 900 lb-ft of torque plus the horsepower to back it up. And I've heard it's pretty fun to drive too. All of which adds up too... Uncool, simply because of its electric motors. It's too techy, too politically correct, too fuel efficient. Supercars should be loud and obnoxious, and should guzzle gas at a rate that makes Al Gore ragecry. But this, with its hybrid status and multiple drive modes - defaulting to "pure electric whenever possible" mode every time you turn it on - doesn't. It's a supercar for people who think supercars are decadent, offensive, and overall evil, and thus, as far as coolness is concerned, it might as well not be a supercar at all.
 
I'm so glad you live so far away from civilization, so your mind-numbing rants about "being green" are contained to a land of frozen solitude. Not unlike your mind.

Makes me wonder what you think of the LF-A, as you seem to rant endlessly about tech with no understanding of when or how it is used.

As for the car, I'm giving it a cool. It just doesn't quite do it for me, despite being gorgeous and forward looking. Could just be the price...
 
Sometimes, usually in the upper price ranges, a car somehow manages to be cool despite a tech overload. Perhaps the styling has something to do with those cases? See LFA, MP4-12C (which I really like the styling of, even though no one else does), F-Type. But this is going too far. The others are still proper supercars that run on environmentalist tears and make lots of noise, even if they're packed with gadgets only James May could even begin to understand. This is just a Prius stuck on fast forward. The "fast forward" part lifts it out of Seriously Uncool, but I still maintain that this is a supercar for people who don't really like supercars.
 
Sub Zero. If being eco friendly means I get to drive one of these than please clear a spot in the hippy commune, i'm going green.
 
Sub Zero. This landed the first strike in the hybrid hypercar battles and deserves to stand proud as one of the cars that launched the next generation of super-exotics. This, along with it's rivals, showcase the future of performance motoring and are here to stay.
 
I'm a huge Porsche fan, but Hypercars are just so meh.

The fake racing livery makes ii pretty close to seriously uncool.
 
One of the most beautiful cars of the past decade, combining remarkable fuel efficiency with blistering performance.



Seriously uncool.
 
One of my favorite cars in the world is the Porsche Carrera GT. That thing brings the most heavenly V10 sound in like.. ever.

With that said, i thought the 918, as a successor to Porsche's racing representation, is revolutionary, beginning the age of super fast and having hints of going eco, while we lose my favorite V10 sound. For me, I'd put the picture just above Lord Kelvin's Ice Box, by an air vent pipe so nobody can reach it.

*Red button gets kicked*

At least the Ford GT is canonically Sub-Zero in TopGear. :sly:
 
This is a hypercar whose specs were downgraded from concept to production. One which was saddled with over 200 pounds of batteries simply so Porsche could brag about an incredibly stupid fuel economy number on the NECD cycle.

And Porsche had to reinvent the flying lap on the Nurburgring simply to hit their "record" time, because of the charge and discharge rate of that big battery pack. Ergo, if you line it up against the "slower" McLaren P1 for a single lap battle starting from where everyone typically starts timing, it'll lose. Not that these laps mean anything in the first place...

It's a fascinating machine, but it's simply uncool. Not seriously so, since it's supposedly great to drive, but the whole project feels like an exercise in number-crunching, much like the Veyron.
 
The hybrid tech of the 918 is the only thing that isn't desperately uncool.

But the supercar = seriously uncool rule stands. As does the Porsche = seriously uncool one.
 
What this car is, the future.

Some day, every car in the world will be hybrid, full electric, or plug-in (Volt, Karma, etc.). Throw off all notions of "green", this was made for performance, just with a different way of thinking.

The batteries will become lighter (electric motors, I'm not so sure about), carbon fiber will be able to be mass-produced, and weight will drop dramatically.

When I'm old and gray, I want to look back at this car and think of it as "genesis".
 
Fake liveries aside, i'll give this a 'Meh'. Never wowed by Porsche's supercar efforts despite being a big Porsche fan. Never liked the styling compromise, or seen the point of, having a removable hard top on such a focused car. I blame californians for this.
 
I'm going to break from the usual supercar tradition and give this one a cool.

As supercars go, it's actually fairly understated (not in the livery above of course, but in that metallic grey shade it is) and understatement is cool.

That it also gives you the option between ridiculous shoutiness and discreet silence is also cool - so rather than sitting in traffic making lots of noise like a berk you can slip through quietly. More so than a 911 or Boxster, in fact.

Prevented from a Sub Zero because it's still ultimately a supercar. And unfortunately, its huge value means it's the sort of supercar that insanely rich buyers will drive far less frequently than it deserves to be driven. The same applies to the P1 and LaFerrari.

White & Nerdy
Uncool, simply because of its electric motors.
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You really are a quite spectacular cretin sometimes.

Near-900 hp vehicle, one of the quickest road cars ever made, is a supercar for people who don't like supercars. Gotcha. All because it has the ability to toddle around quietly and cheaply when the driver chooses rather than burning through gas as they're sat in traffic.

Remember people: This is coming from a "car enthusiast" who maintains his Sunbird isn't one of the single worst vehicles ever churned out by GM.
 
A supercar with great performance until the batteries run out of juice. Fake racing livery doesn't help it.

Also, a base price of almost $850,000?

Uncool.
 
Stupid Car.

Good looking (rare for a Porsche in my eyes), but stupid.

Porsche making ANY reference to economy is silly. Efficiency is about doing more with less, this does more, with more. It's more expensive, more complex, and heavier because it's a hybrid, for what? So Porsche can offer a whopping 10 mile only electric range? That's pathetic and totally irrelevant on a car at this price level. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against the tech, and I see the performance benefits, but (and I think I said the same about the Veyron), adding more, to get more, doesn't strike me as amazing - it strikes me as obvious.
 
Adamgp
A supercar with great performance until the batteries run out of juice.
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God yes, the performance from that 4.6-litre, 600+ horsepower V8 engine will be horrific once the battery has run down.

No, wait...
MatskiMonk
That's pathetic and totally irrelevant on a car at this price level.
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Not true. It's incredibly relevant in European cities where emissions-related fees are in place. That 10 miles may be functionally dubious but its benefits under legislation are huge. Some cities, particularly those in Germany, are considering zero-emission centres - and cars like this can sneak into those quite happily. Even with only 10 miles or so of range.

Just because it seems daft at first glance, doesn't mean it is when you consider the details.

Edit: To pre-empt the "if you can afford an $850k car you don't care about a tiny congestion charge" comments take a moment to think about the kind of people we're talking about. The vastly wealthy are as rich as they are because they're very careful about where they spend their money. Supercars are okay, frittering it away to draconian tax regulations is not, no matter how small it may seem to us great unwashed.
 
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homeforsummer
God yes, the performance from that 4.6-litre, 600+ horsepower V8 engine will be horrific once the battery has run down.
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Not horrific, I didn't say that now did I?

The batteries last for maybe a couple laps of hard driving and then performance drops after the batteries go kaput. Leaving that V8 has to lug around those dead batteries. It's already a fairly heavy car, 3,600-3,700lbs.
 
Adamgp
Not horrific, I didn't say that now did I?

The batteries last for maybe a couple laps of hard driving and then performance drops after the batteries go kaput. Leaving that V8 has to lug around those dead batteries. It's already a fairly heavy car, 3,600-3,700lbs.
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No, you said "great performance until the batteries run out of juice". I'd be quite surprised if it didn't have great performance even after they ran out of juice.

Also, I was being flippant and thought you might have caught it in my tone...
 
homeforsummer
No, you said "great performance until the batteries run out of juice". I'd be quite surprised if it didn't have great performance even after they ran out of juice.

Also, I was being flippant and thought you might have caught it in my tone...
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Great performance for a short time until the batteries go out, then performance drops considerably.

I caught your flippant tone and decided to take the high road.
 
Sub Zero. Blinding speed, sounds incredible, and looks amazing. These are the cars of the future. All the tech makes sense and serves a purpose.
 
I think it's really funny how all these enlightened auto enthusiasts think that the only thing electric motors are used for is improving fuel economy. Yup, those stinkin' engineers at Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren have gone soft. They probably all drive Priuses to work and garden in their free time.

Cool because it angers car people who don't know what they're talking about.
 
This...it's cool I guess.

And that's all I feel about it. It doesn't move me at all, but it is fast. A 4wd mid engined car with 800+ horsepower? Yeah, that's cool. The styling of the car just doesn't do anything for me. The front end's too soft...maybe I'd like it more if it didn't have the front end of a Ferrari 360.
 
Uncool.

This would be a cool car if it didn't have the dumb electric motors.

A V10 like the CGT would be great in this, 'cause I like the way it looks.
 
I can't beleive there are people here saying it's uncool because it's a supercar and thus too shouty. Talk about right for the wrong reasons. It's the loudness and flashiness of supercars that makes them cool.
 

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