saw tv car show where they did a short test of porsche 913? or is it 918? its a new hybrid model and can run in elec mode for 11 miles. too bad they ran it at night with headlights on. i think the headlights are LED so i imagine they dont draw a lot of power. maybe they do. they tried to drive from upper manhatten to the tribeca area. they made it but parked car at end of test. why park it? car has gas engine that can run and move car and charge battery. seemed like a very odd, somewhat silly ending to a test drive.
The 918 is a $900,000 super car, nobody’s buying it for the EV performance. The hybrid part aids its amazing performance off the line.
The 918 Porsche is the hybrid.
As the new LaFerrarri.
BMW is also coming out with a hybrid supercar. Can’t remember the name.
My guess is that 15 years from now roughly 85% of the new cars on the market will be hybrids and the remaining 15% will be EVs, and that will include supercars. I suspect the days of pure petrol cars are numbered.
The test you refer to was probably just to see how far the car could go on batteries alone.
The BMW is the i8,I found the video and the idea was to get from one end of Manhattan to the other on electric alone. He parked the car because he’d reached his destination where I expect the car was to be stored for the night.
While not cheap ($140,000), the i8 is not close to the 918 and other million-$$ hybrid ‘hypercars’, performance-wise.
After years of dismissiveness by the Euro makes it is nice to see them getting creative with hybrids instead of insisting diesels are all we need. For sporting cars hybrids have compelling advantages, but BMW has also come up with the i3 small car. They seem committed to the idea. As a smaller make they have to differentiate themselves from the huge conglomerates. Investing heavily in hybrids may do it.
I think it is interesting to note that the concept of the hybrid gas/electric car is not anything new, and–in fact–was made by Ferdinand Porsche over 100 years ago.
Yes, the first hybrid was made by Porsche, in partnership with Lohner, and it appears that the concept of 4 wheel drive was also devised by Porsche, as this vehicle had an electric motor in the hub of each of the 4 wheels.
Bad news-a 918 burnt to the ground at a gas station in Toronto. Seems like a number of super cars have gone up in flames.
Today’s supercars push the limits of engineering. They’re pretty close to race cars with catalytic converters. It doesn’t surprise me that they catch fire so easily - they run hot, and I imagine their fuel pressures are insane. Blow a fuel line onto the exhaust manifold and… Foom!
I’m not sure it’s that so much as the heat generated by the relatively rapid charging and discharging of the battery packs. That generates a lot of heat. Tesla did a great deal of engineering in this area, they claim it was their single biggest hurdle, and ultimately developed an integrated cooling system and sophisticated management technology to deal with the heat generation.
It’s a real bummer to hear of that one that burned. They’re absolutely gorgeous cars. Unfortunately, even of someone gave me one I couldn’t fold myself up into its cabin anyway, but it’s nice to dream.
The other flaming super cars weren’t hybrids. A number of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc. have burned up over the last few years. Porsche has recalled all the newest 911 GT3 because of fires.
I guess they’re pushing the envelope a bit too far.
I’ve thought so for a long time. I’d rather have an old F355 than a new Ferrari. Not that I can afford either 
BTW, Saleen has tuned a Model S - the biggest thing they did is to further enhance the cooling. Whereas the normal car goes into overheat-safe mode after a few laps on a track, the Saleen can go, supposedly, until the battery discharges.
The biggest plus for me on the new Ferarri is the dihedral doors. I could probably actually get into one.
To me, the best sports car on the road is a Lotus Exige. But there’s no way I could get into it, and if I did I’d have to exit directly onto a gurney and go straight to the hospital. It’s a young man’s car. But damn, it’s gorgeous!
I’ve at one time driven just about every lightweight sports car made between the late ‘60s and 2000, and a good one is the most fun you can have with your cloths on. I even test drove the Miata when it first came out, and I smiled for a week straight. But the ol’ bod just won’t take it anymore.
Yes , I did see another show with the BMW i8. Says it has 12 mile elec only range. I assume if u drive in elec mode and battery voltage drops, gas motor kicks in. So, what’s the point of story.
But there's no way I could get into it, and if I did I'd have to exit directly onto a gurney and go straight to the hospital. It's a young man's car. But damn, it's gorgeous!
It is gorgeous, but… if I recall correctly, I’m considerably younger than you, and I too have great difficulty getting in and out of it. That door sill must be 2 feet wide. I watched a bunch of other people sitting in the one I tried at a car show, and everyone, even the teenagers, had a hell of a time looking graceful getting in and out of it.
I’ll stick to my MR2. It gets its doors blown off by the Exige, but at least I don’t have to remove the doors to get in and out of it 
It’s been said about the Lotus Exige and Elise “you don’t get into it, you put it on”.
I saw one once, before I sat in one, with the license plate “SKNYJNS.” I never understood what that meant until I got in one myself.
I would like to watch a supermodel wearing a short skirt get out of an I8. But they probably know how to exit gracefully.