Porsche 918 Spyder Production Approved

As of late, most of the hoopla over at Porsche has been about four-door vehicles like the all-new Cayenne and Panamera. Sportscars? On the back burner it seems like.

Not any more! Porsche is growing the model lineup, and this time in a direction that will be applauded by enthusiasts - production of the 918 Spyder.

The Porsche supervisory aboard (our version of the Board of Directors) has approved production of the car as a limited production vehicle.

As in, a successor to the Carrera GT. Fittingly for the era we are in, this time around it will be a hybrid vehicle. However, this one is a hybrid we are OK with.

The car utilizes a small 500-horsepower 3.6-liter V-8 coupled with an electric drive system for combined output of 680 horsepower.

That is good enough for a 0-62 mph time of just 3.2 seconds and a dash around the Nürburgring in 7.5 minutes. That is all while garnering a combined 78 mpg on the European cycle. Whoa, how is that for environmentally-friendly performance?

Don't expect it to be cheap though - speculation has swirled that the production model will be priced potentially around €500,000 (about $650,000 USD). Not cheap! This is the Porsche equivalent of the Enzo - a range-topping supercar.

It'll be interesting to see large of a production run it will get. Either way, there isn't much doubt it will be a huge hit - Porsche says it has been taken aback by the overwhelming demand.