Want a brand new Porsche 918 Spyder? You can’t have one. The last new one rolled off the assembly line this week. It’s that dark red one up there. Go ahead and feel your sadness-feels.
Porsche announced today that just as they intended all along when they launched the car in 2013, production has ended on the 887 horsepower hybrid-electric hypercar. They made exactly 918 examples of them. And now its watch has ended.
Unquestionably, the 918 Spyder has been the most advanced road-going Porsche ever made, one that has pushed the boundaries of performance and redefined what it is to be a hybrid car. It could do zero to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, hit a top speed of 214 mph and lap the Nürburgring in the same time it takes you to sneeze. Okay, not that fast, but close.
Before the 918 Spyder and its competitors from Ferrari and McLaren came around, a “hybrid” meant a Toyota Prius. Obscenely expensive as they are, these hypercars showed us that we don’t have to fear the future.
We never did get that Top Gear comparison between the three, though. Damn.
In announcing the 918 Spyder’s end of production, Porsche said that the car served as a rolling tech lab that will help lay the foundation for what’s to come. Leaps and bounds were made with hybrid tech, aerodynamics, cooling, lightweight materials, and production techniques. Expect this stuff to trickle down onto the Porsches of tomorrow in different ways.
Now seems like a good time to share your favorite memories of the 918 Spyder. I’ll go first:
I saw one in a parking lot once, I think at Circuit of the Americas. That was neat.
Was the 918 Spyder the best hybrid hypercar, or did the P1 and LaFerrari have it beat?
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.