Simply Abu Dhabi XI

F rom your first glance at the 918 Spyder, you can tell that it’s something out of the ordinary. Sure, it’s big, bold and beautiful, but under that sensuous skin there lurks something even more unusual than you may first have thought. That something is an electric motor. For this is another of those rare beasts, a high-performance hybrid. An eco-friendly, planet-saving, yet tarmac-burning supercar. Of course, because it’s a hybrid, there’s a conventional combustion engine too, if indeed any Porsche engine could be described as conventional. In the 918, it’s a pure, race-bred powerplant descended from the championship- winning Porsche RS Spyder’s racing V-8. This powerhouse really is a thing of beauty, with centrally located direct fuel injectors, variable intake- and exhaust- valve timing, finger-follower valve actuation with hydraulic lash control, forged titanium connecting rods, dry-sump lubrication, and a flat forged-steel crankshaft. Not that you’ll ever see it, of course. The 918 engineering team saved the weight of the hinges and latches necessary with a conventional engine cover. Besides, opening the hood would reveal very little more than the 608-hp, 4.6-litre V-8’s exhaust piping, catalytic converters, and colossal mufflers, the engine itself being buried deep in the chassis for the very best weight distribution (a 57 / 43 percent split), and simply incredible driving dynamics. There’s no shortage of power here, the V8 producing 612 bhp at 8,600 revs while the electric motors provide another 270 bhp, for a combined power output of around 875 bhp. 2 5 7 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I