« Articles

Porsche 918 Conquers the Nurburgring

If you made records where Formula 1 champions Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher won races at, you’re in good company. It’s various spots have special names that translates to “The Airport”, “The Mine” and “The Small Fountain”. It is a dangerous piece of racing land where it is said to have claimed over 200 lives.

The place is the Nurburgring, one of the most well-known racetracks in Germany. It hosts the annual German-hosted competition of the Formula 1 racing season. Winners like Vettel, Schumacher, Hamilton, Prost and Stewart have all tasted victory at this Rhineland course. And on this piece of racing land, specifically the Nordschleife course -- the Porsche 918 Spyder set a record for fastest lap over the 12 mile course.

What exactly did the street legal 918 Spyder do? It conquered the 12.8-mile (20.6-kilometer) lap around the Nordschleife in less than seven minutes. In a time of six minutes and 57 seconds, the Spyder equipped with a powerful and quiet hybrid drive shattered the record by 14 seconds off the course record for street legal cars.

Dr. Frank Walliser, head of the 918 Spyder project says, “The radical hybridization of the 918 Spyder from the very outset is what made this record possible -- The Nordschleife is and remains the toughest measure of a super sports car. Posting a time of 6:57 minutes, we have achieved a result of which the development team and everybody at Porsche can be rightly proud."

The driver behind the record setting lap was Porsche factory driver, Marc Lieb. He pushed the 918 Spyder to an average speed of 111 mph per lap, delivering an output of 887 hp. The 918 Spyder bested its own personal record from last year by 17 seconds. What will 2014 bring on the test track and on the racing circuit? Expect the Porsche 918 Spyder to bring every year from now on.

Image credit: Duncan Watson on Flickr

Comment using Facebook

Sign Up For Newsletters