996FourEss:

Here is a question for the group. 918 or Carrera GT ??

I am completely jealous of anyone that owns either of them, but more trying to take the pulse of which one it is for the ages…..

 

CGT's claim to fame is it's V10 engine. Arguably the best sounding Porsche engine ever. It was first developed for racing, but that didn't happened, twice, and ended up in a road car. For some it's the 'purist' Porsche with the manual. Also infamous for Paul walker dying in one. That's the legacy of the CGT. It was a 'dead end' branch in Porsche's history, nothing else came out from the branch, outside of the double panel roof design that the 918 also used and also the carbon fibre engine suspension cradle design that the 918 also used.

918's claim to fame is it's the first production car to go under 7 mins at the Ring and the fastest halo car when it was launched. It was a technology tour de force at the time, showcasing Porsche's engineering prowess. The world's first performance hybrid, also the fastest. At the time, the public's view of a hybrid is a econobox like the Prius, the 918 changed that notion forever. No car from anyone is more complex before, and none since, pinnacle of automotive engineering. It even forced McLaren to haphazardly slap a hybrid system to their halo car, the P1. Technology, designs and parts of the car still live on to this day. On paper the race bred engine, derived from the RS Spyder engine, is the 2nd highest specific output NA engine, but in reality it actually tops that. Spec output is 608PS, but none of the 918 engines came out of the factory making that little in validation dyno testing, exact output for each is a secret locked away in Porsche's database. I can't even find out mine's exact output. The engine in turbo charged form will be racing again next year. 918 stuff propelled Porsche forward for the last 10 years, and it's still driving forward. That's the legacy of the 918. 

It really isn't fair to compare the CGT with the 918, they served 2 different purposes for Porsche. CGT was the salvage project by Porsche to recoup money sunk into their failed racing programs, with the s, at a time when Porsche was tight with money as they went all in with the Cayenne. The CGT should be lumped with the GT1 road car instead. Both are 'race derived' but doesn't contribute much, if at all, to future Porsche projects. 

The proper halo car to compare the 918 with is the 959. Both were the tech showcase cars for Porsche with parts and technology and developments trickle down to their other road cars. 


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