The Porsche 918 Spyder is now even faster..

When Porsche began developing the 918 Spyder they promised to deliver the highest levels of “driving pleasure, efficiency and performance”.

They proved this by setting a road car lap record around the Nürburgring Nordschleife of 6:57 minutes – yet still they weren’t satisfied.

So, in true Porsche fashion they’ve continued optimising its hybrid powertrain, applying improvements until shortly before delivery of the first customer cars.

Buyers of the weight-optimised ‘Weissach’ package can now benefit from an improvement of 0.2 seconds in its 0 to 62 mph acceleration (now just 2.6 seconds), while zero to 124 mph can now be reached in 7.2 seconds (-0.5 seconds) and zero to 186 mph in 19.9 seconds – an improvement of 2.1 seconds or 10% compared to before.

“We have now used all options available to electrify the 918 Spyder, working right up to the last minute to do so,” said Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Head of the 918 Spyder programme.

The 918 Spyder is powered by a naturally aspirated 4.6-litre V8 engine and two electric motors, so you could be forgiven for thinking they’d merely raised the petrol engine’s 9,150 rpm limit, but its electrical performance has also improved.

With its two electric motors powering the front and rear axles, the 918 Spyder will now accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 6.2 seconds – a reduction of 0.7 seconds on the previous time – all without producing any emissions.

With the 1,640 kg ‘Weissach’ package fitted this time drops another tenth of a second to 6.1 seconds.

The 918 Spyder’s combined fuel consumption has also improved from 85.6 mpg to 94.16 mpg (or 91.12 without the Weissach package), while CO2 emissions have dropped from 79 g/km to 70 g/km (72 g/km without the Weissach package).

Even though their car is now quicker and more efficient, Porsche have no plans to return and better their Nürburgring record. But then, neither does it look like being beaten anytime soon..