Delightful (and devilish) dozen: what to drive when styling and performance are paramount

2015 Porsche 918 Spyder

Base price range: $847,975-$931,975

This Porsche 918 Spyder represents a monumental shift in supercar development and delivers unheralded levels of performance, frugality and environmental responsibility, but that kind of innovation certainly doesn’t come cheap. It definitely isn’t the norm for a manufacturer to produce a car that is this powerful and to also be able to boast as much about its ‘green’ credentials as it can about its performance. The 918 is a mid-engine, two-seater plug-in hybrid that combines a 4.6-liter V-8 gas engine that delivers 608-horsepower with a hybrid electric drive system that brings the total output to 887-horsepower with 940 pound-feet of torque. The 918 does 0-60 mph in less than 2.8 seconds, it has a top speed of 211 mph and only 918 of them are ever going to be being built by Porsche. The 918 Spyder features an all-wheel drive system that can also put power to just the front wheels in all-electric mode, which gives the car a range of around 18 miles on a full charge. The 918’s fuel-efficiency is rated at 67 mpg when driving with a combination of gas, hybrid and electric power, although that number reduces to 22 mpg on gasoline-only, which for a car with this kind of performance is still very impressive.