Porsche is the New King of the Ring
 

Their 918 Spyder just set a record lap time of 6.57 around the Nürburgring!

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/09/10/p...rankfurt-2013/

Quote:
It's been a long time in the making, but Porsche has finally revealed the final production version of its long-awaited 918 Spyder here at the Frankfurt Motor Show. And yet that's not even the big news surrounding the hybrid hypercar.

No, the big news is that, while Porsche was preparing to take the wraps off the car here in Frankfurt, elsewhere in Germany a team was setting a blistering lap time at the Nürburgring. And not just any blistering lap time, but a new world record.

Porsche claims that, on the morning of September 4, a team of three drivers (including former rally champ Walter Röhrl and Porsche test drivers Timo Kluck and Marc Lieb) broke the Nordschleife lap record, Lieb finally setting the best time at 6:57 at an average of 111 miles per hour.

That's over four seconds faster than the Dodge Viper ACR that has held the record for street-legal production cars for the last two years. It's also faster than the Gumpert Apollo, and just behind the barely-legal Radical SR8. And maybe best of all, it gives McLaren something to keep gunning for. Go ahead and scroll down to watch a video of the 918's 'Ring adventure.
Can't wait to see Clarkson review this!Loving the lines of the 918. Nice to see something 'new' for Porsche. Never thought I'd miss my old pos 944.

Sub 7 minutes? Wow - I never would have expected it to be that fast. It's incredible given how heavy it is.

(It is gorgeous too, and I love the engine noise)

Now lets wait for the P1 to dethrone it.

or the Ferrari The Ferrari.

Seriously, call me when they beat the 956 time from 20 years ago.

Not a fan of that one.

That's insane for a ~3800# production car on streeties--it decimated other production cars.

And agreed: The P1 & LaFerrari should theoretically go much quicker since theey both have superior power/weight & are lighter by 400-500#.

6:40s, anyone???

6.37 --Porsche 956 full blown, gutted race car

vs.

6.57 --Porsche 918 stock production car?

Sarcasm?

The 956 did it in 6:11.13 in 1983 actually, so the gap is a bit bigger than that...

We are only now starting to make the kind of horsepower we had from production V8 engines back in the 60s...emissions killed them. With modern tech, we'll be back to that golden age if ICE can survive future legislation. Sports cars don't really help CAFE, though.

Wow, was it really thirty years ago? I'm getting old.

I've been a huge fan of 60s muscle/pony and sports cars. But they weren't that fast, really. Stock L88 Corvettes were only ~110mph cars in the quarter. Hemis were 105, tops. Everybody goes on about how those cars were "underrated" from the factory, but the gross hp figures from that era are hugely inflated compared to more realistic SAE net ratings. Modern cars have had more power than in the 60s for well over a decade now. And the L88's performance was eclipsed way back in 1990 by the ZR-1.

Regarding sports cars and CAFE, a legitimate lightweight, aerodynamic *sports* car should get decent gas mileage, shouldn't necessarily hurt CAFE.
Personally, I'd MUCH rather see cars get smaller and lighter than to get more hp, of which practically all cars in the US market today have plenty (WAY more in general than in the 60s).

Regarding "emissions" hurting performance, that's not really true. Detroit's approach to meeting emissions did kill power in a big way. But emissions regs eventually forced them to get smarter, and now we get WAY MORE power with much better fuel economy while being way way WAY cleaner. The 500+hp LS2 in my RX-7 has passed emissions in RI and in GA. Would I rather have a pre-emissions ZL1 or hemi from the 60s? No way!

Fabulous car, but I can't help but constantly remember when Chris Harris reviewed the car and said, "If they drop the batteries/electric drive, I can't help but think how light the car would be." This car would be insane-light without the electric stuff.