2015 Porsche 918 Spyder

Meet the future, no waiting.

You might think that the Porsche 918 Spyder shouldn't be a hybrid; that the car's electric motors and batteries add weight, unnecessarily complicate its powertrain, and corrupt its mechanical purity; that the very point of a car like this is to be anything but green. Those are valid issues, but you could also argue that the true purpose of a supercar is to push boundaries. While a 918 powered solely by its 608-hp, 9150-rpm, flat-crank V8 would be impressive, that car would offer little technological advancement beyond—and a scant three horsepower more than—its predecessor, the 2004–2005 Carrera GT. More than anything, the 918 is the current vision of the automotive future, an $845,000 peek at things to come.

Track time was limited, so we went right to Race Hybrid mode, where the 918's technology is fully exploited. The front radiator flaps stay open for maximum cooling, the rear wing adopts a maximum-downforce angle of attack, and diffuser inlets under the nose open for aerodynamic balance. Flat-out upshifts are executed in less than 50 milliseconds.

All this technology wouldn't be impressive if the car beat you over the head with it. The 918 is arguably the most complex car on earth, yet that complexity is hardly detectable behind the wheel. The steering offers more feedback than the wheel in Porsche's own 911; like most electrically assisted racks, its signal is filtered, but the essential information comes through loud and clear. (Famed Porsche test driver Walter Röhrl was present at the 918 media introduction and gave tail-out rides around the wet track. When someone asked him about the importance of steering feel, he demurred, saying that he didn't care how the wheel felt, only that he knew if the front tires were sliding. Interesting.)