One-on-one time with the 918 Spyder

Originally written for Car Throttle. You can visit the feature here: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/i-was-given-afterhours-access-to-the-first-ever-porsche-918-spyder-and-it-was-incredible/

When I was a kid, I used to dream about spending the night in a department store. IE: I’d hide somewhere, wait for them to turn off the lights and shut the doors, then I’d rummage every floor; especially the toy department and the candy section!

North Shore’s Porsche Centre Willoughby (PCW) is currently housing the Porsche 918 Spyder that Mark Webber drove around Albert Park during the Australian Grand Prix (it’s build number 000 of 918 to ever be produced!). Last weekend they hosted an open day and invited anyone who’s interested to come and see the amazing hybrid hyper-car, as expected, the 918 was roped off so that no-one could touch it, and like a motor show unveil, it was so packed that hardly any great photos came out of the event.

Enter lady luck.

I got a call from PCW asking if I’d be interested in some one-on-one time with the 918 Spyder after hours on a Monday night. How could I refuse?! Despite my hang over from last night’s party I managed to get to north Sydney by just over 6PM and was let loose in a completely empty showroom where all but one staff had gone home.

Yes! I felt like a kid trapped in a candy store, after hours. As the lone PCW staff member excused himself and went back to his office to continue working (or surfing Facebook, or watching the security cameras to make sure I wasn’t up to no good… the mind wanders!), I was literally left with access to all areas, some of which were completely dark, eerie and totally amazing!

I started in the mezzanine.

And then, over the railing, I spotted her.

Speed Racer.

I made my way downstairs. Emptiness. All PCW staff had gone home for the day.

Oh hai! I made a bee-line for the 918.

Carbon everything!

It’s not every day that you get to sit in a $2 million dollar car (on road price in Australia). Getting into the 918 is a lot like getting in and out of a Lotus, looks like lots of people had scratched up the carbon on the way out.

I was able to hear all sorts of electronic wizardry as the 918 started up in electric mode. Rolling it around in the showroom in electric mode was so strange as the car was so quiet. Flick it to race mode though and the engine comes to life. The little ball like controller on the right changes data in the right gauge from G-Sensor to tyre pressures and even a lap timer.

The right gauge showing the G-Sensor. I got to hear the beast too. Revving it to 4,000rpm which is the highest you can rev to whist stationary (4k was more than enough to send electricity through my veins!).

She’s not a massive car, but she sure has a huge butt.

I wasn’t able to get the engine covers off unfortunately.

Wide tyres and camber, plenty of it!

Insane lines, and you can really see how much wider the rear is from the front.

Huge internally ventilated and perforated ceramic disc brakes.

This 918 was sporting the Salzburg Racing design livery.

It’s a wild livery, one that will surely polarise. I’d seen photos and footage of this car and wasn’t a fan, but in all honestly it’s not so bad in real life.

The circuit is where this car belongs. I thought that even seeing footage of Mark Webber punt it around Albert Park was exciting (whereas usually seeing factory cars around a race track looks pretty boring and slow).

Since I wasn’t able to open the back. I opened the front!

Jurassic tech?! Porsche gives 918 owners a freestanding carbon stick (felt like Harry Potters wand, but in carbon!), to which you then have to figure out which holes to put it in to keep the bonnet up! Wild!

I could have literally spent all night locked up with the 918, but at some point, almost 2 hours in, my conscience felt guilty for keeping the one PCW staff from going home to his family. I grabbed him from his office and one more time we fired up the 918, this time in race mode, with evil grins on our faces we gave it a few more happy revs to 4,000rpm then parked it up in it’s final resting space by the window and called it a night. I left with a huge smile on my face, but at the same time a blue balls like frustration that I didn’t actually get to drive the car… but where would that end? If I drove it around the block I’d surely be left wishing that I could take it to the track, and if I drove this hyper car around a track surely I’d want to have one in my garage?! That train of thought was so unrealistic that I ended up just being happy that I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with build 000 of the amazing 918 Spyder.