Martini Racing Porsche 918 Spyder: Is There Room for Nostalgia in the Future?

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Classic race livery sells.?If you doubt that fact, visit any vintage motorsports gathering from Limerock to Le Mans and you'll see cars, t-shirts, and countless memorabilia branded with long abandoned logos from the likes of Gulf and STP. The stuff is undeniably sexy, and evokes a romantic era when cars were endowed with extra servings of soulful panache.

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Porsche is certainly in touch with its own rich history. Few manufacturers can rival Zuffenhausen's achievements at the world's racetracks, and the carmaker has embraced the past with clever hat tips like the 917-style wooden shift knob in the late, great Carrera GT, not to mention their left hand ignition keys which pay homage to the?Le Mans?running starts from yesteryear.

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But as much as I love a great retro logo, this particular Porschephile found himself disappointed?by the recently revealed 918 Spyder decked out in vintage Martini livery. The 918 Spyder is a shimmering vision of an automotive future worthy of the most ardent enthusiast's dreams: thanks to an artful marriage of lithium-ion batteries, twin electric motors, and a 9,500 rpm V8 wrapped up in a carbon fiber reinforced plastic chassis, this forward thinking package delivers swoopy lines, delirious performance, and surprising efficiency.

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While the Martini theme complements the 918's curves nicely and the?paint certainly looks snazzy, the whole concept left me cold. Modern automotive designs like the Mini Cooper and Ford Mustang ape the past, and arguably get away with their crib sheet styling because buyers are hungry for motoring's kinder, gentler roots. The 918 Spyder, on the other hand, is a bold, ballsy reach into the future, a genre-slicing, envelope pushing expression of everything a high-tech sports car can be. The last thing this bleeding edge design needs is a nod to the past; slapping Martini livery onto a 918 Spyder is like embellishing the Mars rover with Von Dutch pinstripes. The design-- as cool as it may be in the vacuum of racing history-- does a disservice to the technology underneath, and the progress promised by its radical engineering.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/porsche-918-spyder-martini?src=rss

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