Chris Harris Drives Porsche’s New 918 Spyder Hybrid

The 918 Spyder is on its way, and unlike other similar projects that are shrouded in secrecy from the moment they are announced up until the point when they are launched, Porsche’s hybrid hypercar has been out in the open from very early on in its development cycle.

Journalists have even been allowed to drive the car on several occasions, but being a work in progress vehicle, none have pushed it as hard as they would have wanted. Chris Harris’ latest Drive video is no exception, as he gets behind the wheel of a 918 that is currently about 80 percent done.

He gets to drive the car in all its various selectable driving modes (the knob for this looks exactly like Ferrari’s Manettino and is placed roughly in the same spot on the steering wheel), and finds it very competent, but a bit dulled down due to the extra weight of the battery which does make its presence felt.

In the end, Harris seems a bit unconvinced by Porsche’s effort, especially since the game has moved on, and the car has been in development for far too long.

According to the latest stated performance figures, the 918 will match both the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 up to 62 mph (100 km/h), which is dealt-with in under three seconds, but it remains to be seen what it will do at higher speeds – we'll have to wait for official performance numbers and final tests of all three cars.

By Andrei Nedelea