2006 Auto Car Detroit Picture Show
Alright, I’m calling your bluff, Porsche. Here they are at the Geneva Motor Show, and Porsche comes out with this fantastic new concept car. Looks like a Carrera GT supercar that got too close to the campfire and melted…but in a good way.
Porsche calls it the 918 Spyder Concept, and says it’s fit with a V8 engine good for 500 horsepower, plus three electric motors which increase that number by around 215. The engine sits in the middle where it should be, seats two, and works as a plug-in hybrid. Sounds all fine and dandy, right? Well, here’s where it gets hard to believe.
Porsche claims the 918 Spyder delivers 94 miles per gallon. Not gonna happen. Here’s the thing – with alternate propulsion, it’s tough to measure metrics like mpg fairly, especially when it comes to certain types of hybrids, which can run on electric power alone for a while. I commend Porsche for making the car – it’s very cool – but you can’t go spewing out numbers like that unless it’s real-world applicable. If I’m wrong about this, I’ll gladly eat my words.
Check out some more pictures below:
I have been a long time fan of this site and I have been reading and reading. It is now that I am writing for the first time.
A car is not toothpaste or your mac or an appliance. Most people are very attached to a certain brand of these things. I have a wife and 3 children. Although I may be accustomed to a certain way or a brand of a car, all things that I am used to or brand loyalties goes out the window when it comes to safety. In my mind, safety trumps everything because the vehicle is carrying the most precious cargo in the world to me, and I will never be able to replace them.
I think that we get so worked up about which brand of cars is good, or bad, or if they have a long history or if they have served us well. We forget that it is a car. No matter what the car company past is, no matter how much they have helped the economy or furthered the quality of vehicles, I am putting my life and my family’s life at risk everytime I get into it. To me, history says nothing about the car that I am using TODAY.
Now, Dr. FIll, with all due respect, you bring up great points about Toyota but even you would have to agree that if you were the driver of a camry which was in an accident or an Avalon which accelerated out of control or was in jail in Minnesota because you were responsible of killing 2 children and an adult with your camry, you would not set foot in another Toyota product TODAY. The more I read of toyota and their vehicle problems, the more I am saddened that the Toyota product I had wished to purchase is no more. Hyundai, on the other hand has been more and more attractive to me. I am impressed with the Sonata warranty design, and most importantly their safety rating. You see, I am living in the present, I really don’t care what kind of bad reputation Hyundai had in the past. And I hope and pray that your loyalty to Toyota and distain for Hyundai does not cloud your judgement when it comes to putting a 1 year old into a vehicle that is traveling at 110 ft per second. That is the decision I have to make everyday with my child.
