Frankfurt Motor Show: The Record-Breaking Porsche 918 Spyder Has Arrived FRANKFURT - Before the 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder arrived for its debut Tuesday at the Frankfurt Motor Show, it was taken out for a little joy ride at the Nürburgring. The $846,000 hybrid-electric supercar broke a record that had stood for four years on its first attempt. The limited-edition model 918 ran the serpentine 12.8-mile road course in a time of 6 minutes, 57 seconds, at an average speed of 111.5 miles per hour, Porsche announced. Porsche claims the time "shaved 14 seconds off the previous Nürburgring record for a street-legal automobile." "We promised a great deal with the 918 Spyder, namely to redefine driving pleasure, efficiency and performance," Wolfgang Hatz, a Porsche management board member, said in a statement. We have kept our word. "The radical hybridization of the 918 Spyder from the very outset is what made this lap record possible," Frank Walliser, head of the 918 Spyder project, added. The lap time on the Nordschleife is and remains the toughest measure of a super sports car. Posting a time of 6:57, we achieved a result of which everyone in the development team and at Porsche as a whole is rightly proud. Three drivers took a whack at the record on Sept. Walter Röhrl, former European rally champion; Timo Kluck, a Porsche test driver; and Marc Lieb, a Porsche factory driver, each broke the record in a 918 Spyder, with Lieb setting the quickest time. The Spyder is powered by a 4.6-liter, 608-horsepower V-8 engine and two electric motors that raise the total horsepower to 887; the record-breaking versions were equipped with an optional "Weissach package" that tweaked the driving dynamics to an undisclosed degree. The version shown at Frankfurt seemed reasonably faithful to the concept version, which made its debut at the 2010 Geneva auto show. The production version is to go on sale in the United States in early 2014.