It was daft to expect too little. But, as the old man still says to me, “expect nothing, son, and you’ll never be disappointed”. Ever the optimist.
On paper, though, the bald figures suggested that a Porsche 918 Spyder would arrive at the MIRA proving ground for our road test too overfed and under-muscled to get near the sharpest end of these hypercar shenanigans.
Porsche’s typical nonchalance implied that they wouldn’t be pushing to squeeze every last ounce out of it, either. “Hope you don’t mind,” they said, “because I know we don’t usually; but we thought we’d bring a technician with us, in case anything goes wrong. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” we said, because ‘a technician’, singular, is nothing compared with the army of engineers and advisory racing drivers and tyre pumpers that accompany some extremely fast cars from elsewhere.
(We don’t mind that, either, I should say; although the rush sometimes flusters the sandwich assembler in the MIRA canteen.)
But the 918 is a Porsche, of course, and Porsche hasn’t won nine out of 26 of our Handling Days, and come achingly close to winning several more, without good reason. There’s a reason, too, that, during the past decade or so, the number of former Autocar staffers who’ve gone on to spend their own money on a Porsche is, I think, into double figures.
And during all that time, Porsche has never sent anyone to our tests to change its cars’ tyres, nor even check pressures, or fluid levels; yet still it often emerges totally dominant.
So it was daft to expect anything different for the 918; and even though Porsche’s technician had some spare tyres in the back of his Macan, he looked quite happy to leave them there. His idea of checking the rubber currently fitted to the car was to have a quick look, place his hand on one to see how hot it was, and shrug his approval.
In the event, the 918 Spyder completed all of the tests we set it at MIRA on a single set of tyres and, in the process, went faster than anything else we’ve tested around our dry handling circuit – Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, McLaren P1, Radical SR3 SL, a works Vauxhall Vectra BTCC car included – with considerably less support. In the hands of deputy road test ed Saunders, the 918 was more than a second clear of the next fastest.
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Differences matter.
The 918 is a production car that can also be raced on the track as-is. The P1 is a track car that can also be driven on the public roads -- at a reduced performance setting. I dont criticize McLaren for this substantial distinction. They can build whatever vehicles they like to whatever constraints they prefer. But lets not act as if all the hypercar manufacturers played on the same playing field. Same with how each manufacturer approached the emphasis on hybrid energy, regeneration, power consumption, green energy, emissions, conservation, etc.
Comparing LaFerrari, P1, and 918 together is like comparing apples, oranges, and bananas.
I remember when Porsche announced the 918. Most folks thought they were out of their minds and wasting their time on a senseless endeavor nobody cared about. But once the 918 was in testing, the other two companies decided they needed to get in on the act too. So, credit to Porsche for seeing the future before everyone else and putting a performance goal on the dart board. The other manufacturers had something to target and beat. Porsche had no competition with the 918 because their goal was the only goal that existed at the time. Big difference. Point being: the P1 and LaFerrari SHOULD be better performers. Its a huge advantage to be given the football and to go on defense first rather than take the football and go on offense first. Once the offense scores, you know what you need to do to tie or win.
Sadly beyond my purse
Explain, please ?