Posted on 09/29/2014 7:33:59 PM PDT by xp38
Because of its nature as one of the priciest, fastest, rarest super cars in existence, a Porsche 918 Spyder involved in any kind of incident will make headlines. But when one burns to the ground in a Canadian gas station, well, that goes viral.
The 893 hp hybrid hyper car is reportedly owned by Michael Werkerle, the CEO of investment firm Difference Capital and star of CBC's Dragon's Den (Canada's equivalent of Shark Tank). Witnesses state that gas spilled during the car's refueling in a Toronto gas station and ignited via the twin exhaust pipes. Those pipes protrude upwards from the engine compartment, rather than exiting out back like most other vehicles. The near-$900,000 Porsche was captured engulfed in flames by various onlookers with their cell phones. According to AutoGuide, Porsche of Canada is aware of the incident and will provide technical resources to those investigating, but as of yet does not know what occurred. Porsche has dealt with its fair share of fire-related incidents of late, as it recalled all its 911 GT3s due to engine fires in February.
Fortunately all involved in this blaze are said to be unharmed, although Werkerle's 918 Spyder is toast. May we suggest the Dragon's Den star's next move involves investing in an insurance company. (Just not the one footing this bill.)
That’s US dollars. Much more in Canada, and Canada probably has higher taxes on it too.
Track racing has even taken to using alcohol fuels because ignited fuel spills are easily put out with water, which will mix with the alcohol.
If they insisted on the optics of a raised exhaust, they should have paid attention to the physics. It should not be possible for spilled gas to get on a part that is hot enough to ignite it.
Ah, yes.
Its 0-60 time has been measured by car magazines as... 2.5 seconds.
I cannot even afford a model of this thing but yeah it would be interesting to know.
“You killed the car.”
I once timed my old 55 Ford 272 V-8 in 9 seconds 0 to 60. It probably was slower than that as the speedometer was a bit fast.
Ban cars. And gas stations. It’s for the children!
Definitely looks like a job for 1-800-BAD-AUTO and you don’t have to pay unless he wins.
With much tire burnage?
Plenty of exotic materials - titanium, carbon fiber, laser-etched tire sidewalls - and then there’s the fact that Porsche has the highest profit margins in the auto industry.
In the true supercar segment of Veyrons and McClarens, the 918 is a bargain (kinda).
“.....893 hp hybrid hyper car...”
My Tundra has about 400 hp and I can’t even imagine what it might be like to have over twice that hp in a car.
Ten pounds per horsepower makes a vehicle dangerously fast. The 918 would be half that or less.
When I pulled the nozzle out of the car, it was dripping some gas.
Take that situation, and imagine in the arc of your hand holding the gas nozzle, it swings to the right just a tad.... plus angular momentum... and where would the gas drip to? BOOM!
Expect to see Porsche making some major changes somewhere here. They'll probably move the gas cap somewhere radically else.
Maybe they'll go über-retro, and have it go behind the rear license plate...
Whew!
Guess I’ll get the exhaust on mine moved to the other side!
It almost broke my heart when I read this. Sorry, just couldn’t help myself shedding a couple of tears. What a shame...
I can’t look.
LOL! The final pic after the fire was out, looked just like my wife’s Corvette after it caught fire when they were welding a exhaust bracket under the car while it was on a lift. There was no fire extinguisher in the garage.
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