Here Comes the 918 Spyder

The hybrid supercars are here, and in a big way. 

Jay Leno's Garage on NBC just did a fun feature on the 918, the new Porsche hybrid supercar.  Did I say Porsche hybrid?  Yes, it's here.  It's beautiful. And it's incredibly powerful.

This is a mid-engined car, featuring a 4.6 liter V8, that can provide up to 608 HP, along with two electric motors that can give up to 279 HP, collectively delivering a total 887 HP, and 1000 pound feet of torque. 

Car and Driver has a good review of it too with lots and lots of detail, which I won't repeat here.   There are tons of pictures of it all over the internet as well. Motor Trend's video review of it is good...hang on!..there is also a salute to the old 959 in there.  And, of course the Porsche website has a lot of information about the new 918. 

I haven't driven one, but hope to someday.  As of now there are only a few of them in the US.  There is at least 1 of them at the Porsche Sport Driving School at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.  I know because I was there attending a course last week, and will have a full report on that soon. 

As with the BMW i8 and many other hybrid supercars that are in development or shipping now, this is the future and we're witnessing the ushering in of a whole new era of sports car technology.

Oh and the cost of a 918?  How about a whopping $845,000.00 base.  Save up your money and go talk to your dealer because it may take some time to get your hands on one. 

Saving the Manuals

About four years ago Car and Driver started a campaign to save the manual transmission from going into extinction.  The campaign has gotten some traction, and there is a lot of discussion going on about this.  Manuals are particularly becoming rare here in the United States, for probably a lot of reasons:  convenience, our love of cell and texting, eating breakfast on the way to work (most of us drive everywhere anyway), and whatever else we do in our cars.    

So there are a number of people thinking about ways to keep manual transmissions in production and available to North American drivers.  Over at godsavethemanuals.com you can buy T Shirts, wristbands, and all kinds of stuff devoted to this cause. There is a facebook page at www.facebook.com/SaveTheManuals.  And there is yet another discussion at www.thesmokingtire.com/2014/save-the-manuals/.

Porsche manual lovers tend to see themselves as "purists" - those who will only drive a stick-- not too long ago 911's came only with a stick and no automatic option-- and tend to like the traditional Porsche attributes of the rear engine and other trademark features.  Many view the 911 as the only true Porsche, although things are changing as technology advances and some folks are softening their once hard core views on what a real Porsche is.  A few years ago The Globe and Mail did a nice piece on the new Panamera, calling it the car the "Porsche purists hate to love." To me its a weird looking vehicle but nevertheless popular.

Personally, I'm clinging to my stick and clutch, because there's just something that feels so damn good about it. Perhaps its because there is something of an art to driving a manual where you have to engage all your limbs, hands, and feet.  Once you become intimate with your 911 (or your BMW, Audi, or whatever sports car you drive) you begin to feel when you need to shift, and don't even necessarily look at the RPM gauge.  For some, maybe it feels like you're more in control of what you can do with the car, and this is what it's like to really drive one of these things.  Plus I refuse to text in the car unless I'm parked or a passenger; texting and driving is a fool's game, and I discourage it.  As they say, it can wait.   

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

People can't help but gawk: I too can't take my eyes off of the new BMW i8 that is coming to the US this fall.  New Yorkers were salivating, as this recent Bloomberg piece on the i8 describes.

Is That Your Boyfriend's Car?

You knew this post was coming sometime.

Probably I've not seen or heard it all yet, but I've gotten the weird stares, the younger guy with the leased 911 Turbo or high end Vette pulling up to me at a light intending to challenge me to race, seeing me, then backing off, or looking surprised at the very least, and the neighbors asking my husband about when and how he got his new Porsche. 

My favorite one by far and away is the question, "Is that your boyfriend's car?" I've been asked this once in a parking lot and once when stopped at a light.   Am sure the question will come up again. And for the record I don't have a boyfriend. I did a long time ago but for many years since then I've been married to him.  

And of course there are the positive comments and gestures.  To his credit, when Tom sold me my 911 he made the comment:  "Don't take this the wrong way, but you know more about these cars than most guys."  No offense taken.  In fact, I view that as a compliment.  And it proves I did my homework.  Likewise, a dude bearing down in a new-ish black Dodge Charger came up on my right on the Washington beltway a couple months ago and gave a me an enthusiastic thumbs up, then zipped away off an exit ramp.  And when I told my current boss (also a car guy) I was acquiring a 911, he stood up, shouted "yeah!" and gave me a high five. 

I've no intention of turning this post into a deep analytical piece over why things like this happen, and no doubt there are all kinds of psychological, cultural, and gender difference reasons for the choices we make in auto purchases or other prominent things we buy or own.  At the end of the day it's all really very funny. 

In fact, about a year ago Motorista posted an excellent piece about a similar experience driving a 911.  By the way, that Crimson 4S your employer owns is absolutely beautiful.  And what a great blog that is lots of fun to read, too.   Keep posting, and drive what you love!

The Low-Down on Clay Bars

I was not familiar with giving a car a clay bar treatment until the former owner of my 911 told me that's what he did every so often.  He said it helped retain the finish by pulling contaminants off the paint, and was worth checking out.

So recently I tried this.  I'm not advocating any particular brand, but I bought the Mothers brand California Gold Clay Bar Kit, because that was what I noticed at my local Advance Auto Parts store.  But no doubt you can find this and many competing brands at any auto store and at Target, Walmart, and their competitors.  And of course on Amazon and tons of other online shops. 

With the Mothers kit you get 2 clay bars each the size of a bar of soap, a microfiber detailing cloth, and detailing liquid spray.  The basic idea is to wash and dry your car, spray the painted sections one by one with the detailing liquid, and rub the clay on that section to remove tar, tree sap, and other pollutants from the clear coat.  Then you polish it with the cloth.  The trick is to keep kneading the clay with your hands to encapsulate contaminants and so that a fresh swatch of it is on your car as it picks up grime-- you don't want grains of sand scratching your finish.  If you drop it on the ground, toss it and get a new bar.  The clay is sticky, and has the consistency of Play-Doh.  It's not real clay, but synthetic Polybutene that is pliable. 

Ideally, once you finishing buffing the excess detailing solution off the car with the microfiber cloth a good wax treatment is recommended.  

It did boost the shine, for sure.  And the surface felt very smooth. 

My garage reflected on the 911's door

The common thinking about how often to do this is once every six months, although some folks like to more often.  It depends on what kind of climate you live in and how often you drive, if your car sits outside, and other factors.  One rule of thumb is to run your hand over the paint. If it feels a little rough, it may be time to get out the Clay Bar.  As with most things, everyone will have a different opinion about this. 

To be perfectly honest, half the fun of detailing one's car is because it's therapeutic in some way, especially if you have an office or desk job.  And if you have the time.  Washing, drying, and detailing my car with the Clay Bar took about two hours-- time which I rarely have to myself or to spend doing what I want.  For me, it's probably worth detailing my 911 like this a couple times a year.  And the Clay Bar combined with the detailing liquid seems to work.  I would recommend if you have the time, or have a professional auto detailer do it for you. 

Not Under the Hood

If you're familiar with 911s, you probably know their engines are in the rear, not the front.  It's a Porsche tradition.  Way back when, Ferdinand Porsche designed the first Volkswagen with a rear engine, and later the 356.  The idea behind a rear-engined auto is to give it push from behind the rear wheels and to give it traction and improve its aerodynamics.  And it does make a difference in the way the car handles, and although the rear tires wear faster than the front, that's part of the deal with a 911.  Porsche makes other models that have a front engine, such as the current Cayenne and Panamera, and the 924, 968, and 944, all of which are no longer made.  When I was growing up my neighbor had a 944 and it seemed pretty exotic at the time.

The newer 911s all feature the rear engine, like this:

The 2010 base Carrera features a 3.6L horizontally opposed Flat 6 Cylinder DOHC, with variable valve timing and 4 valves per cylinder.  345 HP at 6500 RPM, and 288 pound feet of torque at 4400 RPM.  All controlled by that 6 speed manual transmission.  The Carrera S and higher echelon versions naturally boast higher performance engines with significantly more HP and torque.   This is also a water cooled engine, introduced to the Type 997 (this is the internal Porsche designation for the 911) a few years ago.  People have differing views on water versus air cooled, but Porsche seems to have gotten this right for the 997.  Come to think of it, water cooling seems to be trend in the HPC business lately too.

As you might guess the trunk or boot is in the front, or "frunk" as some like to call it.

It's actually a little bigger than it looks and can carry a small to medium suitcase and other items.  The back seat, or Sport Seat as Porsche calls it, is good for carrying modest sized things too and that's about it.  It's not meant for an average sized or tall person, you can't sit up straight in it.  I can just sit sideways in it and even then it's not comfortable.

The front trunk also contains the car's battery.  Batteries on a Porsche are whole matter unto themselves, which I'll write about in a subsequent post.

Business Up Front, and a Party in the Back

"Business up front, and a party in the back." - so says Motorweek of the 2015 BMW i8.  This one promises to be a game changer.  Soon hybrids will be as much fun to drive as traditional combustion engined cars.  The i8 is a true hybrid sports car with a front mounted 129 HP electric motor, and a rear 3 cylinder 1.5L turbo charged engine, capable of producing 228 HP. With both engaged, it's 0-60 in 4.2 seconds.  An informative video can be seen at http://www.motorweek.org/reviews/first_impressions/first_look_2015_bmw_i8.

Another good, brief review of it can be found in The Guardian from last week.  The swan-wing doors are reminiscent of the DeLorean.  Remember? Made famous mostly by the time machine in Back to the Future. 

But the i8 is the future.  It's not cheap at around $135,000, and they go on sale in the United States this fall.  There'll be a long waiting list.   A friend of mine-- who I won't name-- disclosed to me last week that she really, really wants one of these.  I can totally see her driving it on the California freeways in the perpetually nice weather (and yes, we're all at the same time praying for rain for California).  I say buy it!