Re: 918 Spyder shows off Martini livery

[zebedee]

dinkel said:

Re: " . . . officially declared a target Nordschleife lap time of 7min 22sec. That's six seconds faster than the Carrera GT (the 918 Spyder's spiritual predecessor) . . ."

So, which 918 client will see these figures?

Probably none, but an awful lot of Porsches seem to be driven around by complete posing tools who couldn't drive a wet stick up a dog's a**e anyway, so most of their engineering prowess is totally lost on their customers already

[Wills2]

zebedee said:

Probably none, but an awful lot of Porsches seem to be driven around by complete posing tools who couldn't drive a wet stick up a dog's a**e anyway, so most of their engineering prowess is totally lost on their customers already

And now the owner/driver bashing begins....

[thewheelman]

Wills2 said:

Mark-C said:

thewheelman said:

All of these pictures of the 918 have that generic supercar look. It's a sad day when Porsche follow others on the design front. This just seems to have lost its Porsche-ness about it.

They can't win can they? They usually get bashed round here for just rehashing the same old design ....

You've got that right, some people on here just love to bash Porsche whatever they do.

I usually like most things Porsche (owned enough of them), the thing is, this isn't a new design. Porsche realised this looks like a generic supercar, hence all the retro racing colours they keep showing, just to remind people that this is a Porsche.

As for the retro racing colours & livery, they looked very good on the racing cars of that era, & that's where they should remain.

Edited by thewheelman on Tuesday 31st July 15:15

[Greg_D]

Wills2 said:

zebedee said:

Probably none, but an awful lot of Porsches seem to be driven around by complete posing tools who couldn't drive a wet stick up a dog's a**e anyway, so most of their engineering prowess is totally lost on their customers already

And now the owner/driver bashing begins....

How did I know you would be a Porsche owner??????

[daveco]

thewheelman said:

Wills2 said:

Mark-C said:

thewheelman said:

All of these pictures of the 918 have that generic supercar look. It's a sad day when Porsche follow others on the design front. This just seems to have lost its Porsche-ness about it.

They can't win can they? They usually get bashed round here for just rehashing the same old design ....

You've got that right, some people on here just love to bash Porsche whatever they do.

I usually like most things Porsche (owned enough of them), the thing is, this isn't a new design. Porsche realised this looks like a generic supercar, hence all the retro racing colours they keep showing, just to remind people that this is a Porsche.

I'd agree, it's an elegant but utterly uninspiring design. Ferraris tend to be over designed (like new Mercs) but this is just boring. The Carrera GT was/is a thing of beauty. Just release that with an electric motor again FFS!

[Tuvra]

Watchman said:

Dump all the electric kit Porsche. Reduce weight and concentrate on the essentials.

Be Quiet driving god!!

That looks totally amazing!

[zebedee]

Wills2 said:

zebedee said:

Probably none, but an awful lot of Porsches seem to be driven around by complete posing tools who couldn't drive a wet stick up a dog's a**e anyway, so most of their engineering prowess is totally lost on their customers already

And now the owner/driver bashing begins....

No, the response was to a question about how many 918 owners would see those laptimes at the Ring. My point is that is irrelevant for Porsche anyway, where undoubtedly a lot of customers buy the cars for the image and the reputation, not because they are a very sharp driving tool. I'm not saying everyone who owns or drives a Porsche deserves bashing at all, I'm just saying a lot of Porsche drivers are not performance drivers which I reckon is perfectly true. You hardly ever see a Porsche being caned on a b-road, unlike other makes of sports cars like Caterhams, Lotus, Ariel, Noble, TVRs etc etc which often when you see them are tanking on a bit. Just realised they are all British, is there something in that?!

[TinyCappo]

Is that the exhausts mounted on the rear Deck?!!!!

[Arun_D]

TinyCappo said:

Is that the exhausts mounted on the rear Deck?!!!!

Yeah, the exhausts emerge above the engine in the 918 . There are a few decent videos around that show one of the mules in good detail, after the press were invited for a gander. You can see the engine packaging etc a bit better.

http://www.gtspirit.com/2012/03/22/video-evos-harr...

[crispyshark]

daveco said:

thewheelman said:

Wills2 said:

Mark-C said:

thewheelman said:

All of these pictures of the 918 have that generic supercar look. It's a sad day when Porsche follow others on the design front. This just seems to have lost its Porsche-ness about it.

They can't win can they? They usually get bashed round here for just rehashing the same old design ....

You've got that right, some people on here just love to bash Porsche whatever they do.

I usually like most things Porsche (owned enough of them), the thing is, this isn't a new design. Porsche realised this looks like a generic supercar, hence all the retro racing colours they keep showing, just to remind people that this is a Porsche.

I'd agree, it's an elegant but utterly uninspiring design. Ferraris tend to be over designed (like new Mercs) but this is just boring. The Carrera GT was/is a thing of beauty. Just release that with an electric motor again FFS!

It's interesting reading these threads as surely one of the defining aspects of Porsche is keeping a vein of the original design in all its cars over the decades. Yes it looks like the GT however there are subtle changes and the GT was such an awesome design to start with why would you go about completely revamping it?

Bearing in mind Porsche are one of the leading car body/technology designers in the world i'm sure there would be a reason it's been left as it is!

[kingofdbrits]

993RSGT3 said:

Running in "plug-in hybrid mode" ie electric only, effectively zero emmissions! It can be run in "KERS" mode, so same as an F1 car, with batteries recharged under braking, so as long as there are enough corners that require heavy enough braking, the batteries will be recharged, so full 770bhp.

Not quite zero emmissions, the electricity had to come from somewhere and given how it takes 16 hours to charge an electric car with alot less than 200bhp, there's a fair chance it's taken a few lumps of coal to charge it.
there's no chance the KERS will give a full charge either, F1 cars can only just keep a battery charged for 80bhp and the kind of energy they can harvest would be hugely greater than a 918 on a B-road. Even still, the Renault system struggles with a 40kW system in the Lotus & Redbull, can't see Porsche being more advanced and keeping a 210kW system charged in a road car.

[993RSGT3]

Dan Trent said:

993RSGT3 said:

I think you'll find that Martini were sponsoring Porsche from at least 1971, not 1973:

This was from the press release that accompanied the pics and I took it to mean that the '73-'78 period was as title/main sponsor, while '71 was merely 'support'. This is as described in the release:

Porsche said:

As early as 1971, a Porsche 917 finished first in the legendary endurance race in Le Mans with the support of Martini

And then:

Porsche said:

Martini® was already the official partner of the Porsche factory team between 1973 and 1978. Back then, the attractively designed “Martini® Porsche” race cars with their numerous victories were a centre of conversation. These victories included finishing first overall at Targa-Florio in 1973, winning the Sports Car World Championship in 1976 and overall victories at the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1976 and 1977.

In other words we're both correct! Hurrah!

And, HandsomeBob, price was 645,000 euros when announced. See here.

Dan

I'd call that a draw then. Have the pic of the 22 car from 1971 as my screensaver.

The price of the 918 is 645k euros, plus VAT (19% as car isn't sold through UK dealers but direct from Porsche), so 768k euros or £604k

[Gatsods]

There really will be the mother of all group tests in a year or 18 months... can't wait

[Davey S2]

Gatsods said:

There really will be the mother of all group tests in a year or 18 months... can't wait

918 v Enzo replacement v Pagani Huayra v ???? Aventador?

[freedman]

993RSGT3 said:

Dan asked when we get to see one in Gulf colours. We already have:

Looks nothing like any Gulf Porsche Ive even seen, being completely the wrong colour!!

[Wills2]

zebedee said:

Wills2 said:

zebedee said:

Probably none, but an awful lot of Porsches seem to be driven around by complete posing tools who couldn't drive a wet stick up a dog's a**e anyway, so most of their engineering prowess is totally lost on their customers already

And now the owner/driver bashing begins....

No, the response was to a question about how many 918 owners would see those laptimes at the Ring. My point is that is irrelevant for Porsche anyway, where undoubtedly a lot of customers buy the cars for the image and the reputation, not because they are a very sharp driving tool. I'm not saying everyone who owns or drives a Porsche deserves bashing at all, I'm just saying a lot of Porsche drivers are not performance drivers which I reckon is perfectly true. You hardly ever see a Porsche being caned on a b-road, unlike other makes of sports cars like Caterhams, Lotus, Ariel, Noble, TVRs etc etc which often when you see them are tanking on a bit. Just realised they are all British, is there something in that?!

So you state that an awful lot of Porsche's are driven by tools but that's not bashing??

As for the rest of your post with respect it's just utter claptrap that you've just made up and have zero evidence for.

Personally I can't remember the last time I saw a Caterham, Lotus, Noble or TVR being thrashed down a B road, does that mean that they aren't? Of course it doesn't and what a stupid assumption it would be to believe so.

I'm no driving God but I enjoy a B blast as much as the next man.

Oh and Ring times are irrelevant for most users regardless of the make or model of car.

[nightflight]

At last, a good looking Porsche.

[Quat]

I hope the final version is a bit more interesting to look at and are those E28 door handles?

[Quat]

Quat said:

I hope the final version is a bit more interesting to look at and are those E28 door handles?

Sorry E34 - better not get my 5 series mixed up - not here anyway....

[bebee]

Love that