axhoaxho

Just got it in the mail from PCNA. Very beautiful package, with lots of information and pictures of the 918 Spyder.

From the brochure, it seems the 918 Spyder will be available in two trims -- base and Weissach Package (special exterior color designs - Martini Racing Design or Salzburg Racing Design , Magnesium wheels, carbon fibre interior, 6-point seat belt, etc.) The brochure listed the Ring time for the 918 Spyder base model as 7:22 and the Weissach Package as 7:20. No doubt, the 918 Spyder (especially with the Weissach Package) will be one stunning Porsche.

I am still going through the pages of the detailed brochure, enough to keep my head spinning.

Regards,

Mike in CA

Cool. Did you express interest in the car to get that, signup for a mialing list, or.....?

Carrera GT

I got the same thing. No little model car. Bummer. I went to a couple of showings of the car, but not the demo drives at PSDS. They just sent out a full size wall calendar the other day, too. Quite nice, big prints of current cars and a 50th anniversary model 911. I'm guessing they're searching far and wide for prospects to move a few 918 orders. I have to think the 918 is pretty much an ultra riche market bauble for the China, Russia, Middle East ... should that be an acronym ... CRIME markets?

Mike in CA

CRIME....I like that....

I haven't gotten a Porsche freebie in a little while. Maybe mine is "in the mail".

911rox

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the official NBR time for the GT2 RS like 7:18 with its old school attributes? Why would one spend 3 times as much to go slower... This car is going to have trouble staying ahead of a 991 RS considering the 991GT3 is sub 7:30... Just saying....

Mike in CA

7:24 according to Sport Auto 11/2010

911rox

I think Porsche were claiming 7:18 Mike and Sport Auto as an independent even achieved a 7:24... Even at the later, doesn't make a sound case for owning a 918 considering the maintenance costs that would be involved to maintain it...

Mike in CA

Don't know about Porsche's claim, Chris, just that 7:18 sounded way quick for the 2RS so I looked up and found the Sport Auto time. No argument regarding the 918; I think the tech is kind of cool but I have no interest in spending that much on any car.

Al Pettee

Don't worry about the 918's laptimes because PCNA will void your warranty anyhow if you track it.....

mdrums

bought 8 new Porsches since 2001...never get anything cool in the mail from Porsche.

Carrera GT

Just looking at emails, I think it might be if you have a current model bought new at a local dealer. I'm guessing they're doing some sort of rudimentary screening to beat the bushes (so to speak.)

In the spirit of "does nothing please you?" (situation normal with Porsche ever since the 991 came into view) I'll make the complaint that Porsche marketing is horribly wasteful. I've seen them send some faux "green" packaging now and then, but I always got the impression it wasn't really a eco-friendly packaging, it was probably just made to look a bit like recycled cardboard and corrugated paper in that "unbleached" look that sells to the Whole Foods metro hipster types. This time, they just went straight to the heavy bubble wrap envelope and lots of glossy print stuff in a nice presentation.

It all just seems a bit crass to be talking about hybrids in the gazigger dollar pricing and then send out marketing collateral in petrochemical landfill nightmare wrappers.

I'd much rather they figured out something that didn't involve quite the profligate luxury pretention.

And what do you do when you get some marketing collateral? You go to the Web and look at the site. You don't pour over a couple of glossy pics that have been around the traps for a couple of years. You don't sit and thumb a piece tire rubber or a sample of CF and drift away into daydreams evoked by the smell of tchotchkes (that's what they sent for the GT2 RS ...)

If anything I'd suggest the Porsche marketing folks take a look at the reaction to the launch activities (thumbs down) and the reaction to the comparative lap times against known quantity vehicles at a known track like Hockenheim (two thumbs up.)

For US customers, they should get the GT3 to Laguna, put Randy Pobst in it (for whatever car mag) and have him do some laps back to back with a Vette, 12C, 458. Fair apples to apples, all cars in factory dress in near equivalent spec within reason (let's see a comparable time to tenths of a second, not hundredths, 99% of drivers aren't within a couple of tenths of a pro driver anyway, so the hundredths don't matter.

I freely admit it would sway my opinion of the car if it now didn't go and soundly trounce all comers up to and including the 12C. I still think that's crazy talk, but there it is, Porsche and Sport Auto would have its readers take them at face value that the 991 GT3 is swinging that much pipe.

As for the 918, does it have rear-steer? Does it have 410mm PCCB rotors? I don't think so. I guess I should peel open the stack of lime green marketing collateral that's gathering dust on the floor over there along with all the crap from McLaren and Ferrari with cars too expensive for me to even contemplate pedaling on track within one false step of being a write-off.

So the GT3 has leapfrogged all other Porsches (literally) and including a Porsche that's multiples of its price and not higher on the totem pole, it's on its own totem pole, and it's not even in customer hands yet. Does that mean the 918 has some further development to go before we see a final product?

I think the 918 has to go out and play with the big boys, only I think it's going to be a helluva of a job for the journo's to figure out how to couch the comparison with the P1 and the F70 to make it seem like a plausible "everyone gets a first place" result.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/fer...eva-2013-03-06



Surely the 918 will be superior to the GT3. I don't mean superior in the eyes of someone wanting the RS 4.0 or in the "old school analog" mold of enthusiasts, just in terms of measurable lap and acceleration times. How could it ever be any other way?

I wonder if Porsche is now silos of R&D. I mean, what if the GT cars were somehow separate from the hypercar 918 hybrid stuff and they didn't happen to share their new toys, so now the 918 engineering chief has to go whine to their parents: "Andreas won't let me play with his rear-wheel steering! I need it for my real mean lime green machine!"

Nizer

Same here.

TRAKCAR

I'm blacklisted, never ever got anything.
When I'm going to pick up my Euro delivery Porsche, I'm going to be banging on some doors..

savyboy

991 GT3 actually got the RWS from the 918 program, the RWS was developed for and is used on the 918.

918=biggest boondoggle ever. Cannot comprehend on any level why someone would want to buy one. That is all I am going to say.

95spiderman

i got the package also and found it funny that biggest perk of buying the 918 is that porsche will then give me priority to buy future exclusive models. i mean, if they need to solicite me to buy the 918 in the 1st place, why would i need priority to buy a future model? i can see this with laferrari but is meaningless with porsche. i guarantee that if i walked into ferrari dealer with $2m cash in a suitcase for laferrari they would just tell me to leave like the seinfeld soup ****

btw, 918 is gorgeous