Onlydominican.com

Made as a demonstrative show-car, the 918 RSR ‘Racing Lab’ is part of a new initiative called Porsche Intelligent Performance which will likely develop hybrid racing cars for outright victories at events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The concept version revealed at Detroit has the same visual styling cues as the Spyder released in 2010 with the hybrid drive system from the 911 GT3 R Hybrid. The new project will be developed under the direction of engineer Wolfgang Durheimer and Wolfgang Hatz who will oversee drive-train development as Porsche's new chief engineer.

With the 918, Porsche hope to create a link with their legendary 908 and 917 coupes, but no race schedule or program has been announced for the 918. Likely, Porsche will run the car in a number of exhibition races such as the E1-XP class at the Nürburgring 24 with aim at a more serious effort in 2012.

For the 918 RSR, a power-train similar to the LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder has been employed with its sequential transaxle. An electric accumulator sits in the cockpit beside the driver and can send up to 150 kW to the electrically-powered front wheels. Such a system is likely to be accepted by the ACO regulations in the near future for Le Mans.