Porsche’s 918 Spyder is already the fastest production car to ever lap the Nürburgring, having managed the feat in an incredible 6:57, and now we have a better understanding as to why such a blistering time is possible for the car. It turns out the 918 Spyder is considerably quicker than Porsche had first let on.

Equipped with its available Weissach package, which helps lower the car’s weight from 3,715 pounds to 3,616 pounds and also sees an improvement in aerodynamics, the 918 Spyder will accelerate to 60 mph from rest in just 2.5 seconds, making it just as quick off the line as the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and quicker than the McLaren P1.

With the pedal floored, the car will pass 124 mph in 7.2 seconds and then 186 mph in 19.9 seconds. Note, the P1 needs just 6.8 seconds to pass 124 mph and 16.5 seconds to pass 186 mph, meaning the McLaren most likely fails to outrun the Porsche initially due to a lack of traction--the 918 Spyder has the benefit of all-wheel drive whereas the P1 is rear-wheel drive.

Interestingly, with only its electric drive system working, the 918 Spyder equipped with the Weissach package will sprint to 62 mph in 6.1 seconds, which would still put some top sports cars to shame. In electric mode, a motor driving the rear wheels produces 154 horsepower while a second motor driving the front pair produces 127 horsepower.

The car’s 4.6-liter V-8 produces 608 horsepower on its own, and working with the electric motors it sees combined output rise to a staggering 887 horsepower and 940 pound-feet of torque. Fuel economy, meanwhile, is as high as 78 mpg for the European combined cycle, although such a figure is likely to be very difficult to achieve in real world conditions. Final EPA fuel economy estimates will be available closer to the 918 Spyder’s local launch early in the new year.

"The best way to illustrate the 918's speed potential is to describe what happened on the press launch. And to talk about the 2014 911 Turbo S.

The '14 Turbo S is as fast as unholy snot. It produces 560 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque. Porsche claims the car can sprint to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds—just a few tenths slower than a Bugatti Veyron—and early tests indicate the car circles a skid pad around or slightly above 1.0 g. You stand on the throttle in that thing, and the earth reverses its rotation and spits your spleen into your spinal column.

There was a Turbo S at the media drive. It was driven by Porsche test driver Timo Kluck, an affable dude with a driving resume a mile long. Each journalist got seven laps in the 918 playing chase to Kluck in the 911. And two laps in, almost all the journalists present had to lift to avoid running Kluck over.

This is not a statement about the driving talent of the average journalist. Far from it; journalists aren't known for being decent drivers. (Ahem! Except yours truly, who is a super genius in everything he does. And also incredibly attractive and modest.) And Kluck is a pro. But it speaks volumes about the 918's insane thrust and eye-sucking grip.

Kluck was on the ragged hairy edge in the Turbo S, one of the fastest street cars on the planet. He was skittering over the limit and generally driving the wee out of the car. And the 918 might as well have been driven by a dead hamster for all it took to keep up. You can knock the 918 for weighing close to two tons. You can wonder what it would be like in a purer, simpler world, where hybrid this and battery that didn't exist. You can talk all day long about how you'd buy a Carrera GT or a Ferrari Enzo or God knows what instead if you had the cash. But you can't deny just how bloody capable the thing is."