Here’s the thing: The Porsche 918 Spyder could have been faster. Yes, the fastest production Porsche in history, a car that already accelerates to 100 kilometres in 2.6 seconds and tops out at over 340 kilometres an hour, could have been even more rapid. Porsche actually chose to not take advantage of every ounce of speed they could squeeze out of the carbon-fibred, hybridized supercar. Yes, it was deliberate decision. There’s even, as one would expect from anything engineered in Germany, perfectly logical reasoning behind the decision.

Allow me a quick walk through wonk land to explain. Much has been made in the motoring press that while the 918 is quicker to 265 km/h than Bugatti’s all-conquering Veyron Gran Sport Vitesse, it lags (as if lagging behind a quad-turbocharged, 1200-hp road rocket is somehow a serious insult) above that speed.

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The explanation for this deficiency is that one of the 918’s two hybrid electric motors, the front 129-horsepower unit, is directly geared to the front tires, and by the time 265 km/h is showing on the speedo, the little permanent magnet motor is already spinning its 16,000 rpm maximum Above 265, Porsche expediently disconnect the front electric motor, lowering the 918’s 887 peak horsepower to somewhere around 760. Hence, the 918 is comparatively slow above 265 kilometres per hour, if one can even remotely imagine that a 19.9 second acceleration time to 300 km/h can somehow be deemed slow.

Of course, Porsche could have added a two-speed gearbox to the front motor, the second cog allowing the front electric motor to function past 265 km/h and presumably erasing that high-speed acceleration disadvantage to the Bugatti. And, indeed, that’s what Fabian Grill, the 918’s electronics and hybrid’s expert, says Porsche investigated as it sought to make its super-hybrid the king of all supercars.

But, says, Grill that extra gear would have added eight kilograms to the 918’s all-up weight, an expansion Porsche was unwilling to accommodate. As Grill points out, just the 41 kilograms that the US$84,000 Weissach edition (3.5 kg alone by eschewing paint) reduces compared to the regular Spyder is worth three seconds a lap at the Nurburgring and, ultimately, it was determined that saving those eight kilos was of greater importance than any theoretical gain in top speed. It might have been faster in a straight line, says Grill, but slower round corners. The blogosphere may not agree, but Porsche made a wise decision.

You can do a lot in six minutes and 57 seconds. If you’re in a Porsche 918 Spyder, that means a record-setting hot lap around Germany’s Nurburgring.