Porsche 918 Spyder debuts with new Nürburgring lap record

Porsche 918 Spyder

 It's been a long time in the making, but Porsche has finally revealed the final production version of its long-awaited 918 Spyder here at the Frankfurt Motor Show. And yet that's not even the big news surrounding the hybrid hypercar.

No, the big news is that, while Porsche was preparing to take the wraps off the car here in Frankfurt, elsewhere in Germany a team was setting a blistering lap time at the Nürburgring. And not just any blistering lap time, but a new world record.

Porsche claims that, on the morning of September 4, a team of three drivers (including former rally champ Walter Röhrl and Porsche test drivers Timo Kluck and Marc Lieb) broke the Nordschleife lap record, Lieb finally setting the best time at 6:57 at an average of 111 miles per hour.

That's over four seconds faster than the Dodge Viper ACR that has held the record for street-legal production cars for the last two years. It's also faster than the Gumpert Apollo, and just behind the barely-legal Radical SR8. And maybe best of all, it gives McLaren something to keep gunning for. Go ahead and scroll down to watch a video of the 918's 'Ring adventure.