Dubai has been known to be a haven for supercars; and both the locals and residents share a great love for SUVs too! And it is not uncommon to see 1000 horsepower Nissan Patrols and Toyota Land Cruisers around town. Even so, when we saw that ‘unassuming’ Nissan Patrol take on and beat a Porsche 918 Spyder hypercar – piloted by none other than The Grand Tour’s Richard Hammond – on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road couple of weeks ago…it truly blew us away.
Incase you haven’t seen it yet, I have pasted the video below, for your viewing pleasure.
Now, you must be wondering, how in the world did a heavy, square-bodied 3-door Nissan Patrol beat the Porsche 918 Spyder – a hypercar that has an aerodynamic body shell to match an F-15 fighter jet and is powered by a hybrid engine that makes a combined output of 887 metric horsepower (652 kW) that lets it race from standstill to a 100 km/h in about 2.7 seconds!
Well, we did some studying and we found out that this particular Nissan Patrol is owned by a Dubai resident and was built by a local garage named F Performance Garage. Under the hood of this 3-door SUV is a VR38 engine, the same powerplant used in a Nissan’s GT-R sports car, except that here it makes over 1900 horsepower as opposed to the “mere” 565 bhp it makes as stock. And to ensure that all the power is translated onto the road, they have also used slicks (racing tyres) designed specifically for maximum grip required for drag racing…and they have also given it a set of high-performance disc brakes. So that should set the story straight…
However, we think that this 1 minute video, as dramatic as it may be, clearly undermines the capabilities of the incredible Porsche 918 and we think you should also know….
The Porsche 918 Spyder lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife – known as Green Hell – in 6 minute 57 seconds; making it the first series production street-legal car to break the 7-minute. Its faster than the Nissan GT-R Nismo, the Lamborghini Aventador SV, the Mercedes-AMG GT-R. While manufacturers of “equals” like the Mclaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari have yet to announce their times…probably for the fear of losing.
While this Nissan Patrol may have consumed enough petrol to launch a Boeing 747, the Porsche 918 Spyder is capable of returning an unbelievable fuel economy of 3.0 L/100 km (94 imperial mpg/78 US mpg) under the New European Driving Cycle – which basically makes it more economical that a hybrid econo-box like the Toyota Prius that does around 5.0l/100km (and just so you know, in this case a bigger number is worse). Also, CO2 emissions for the 918 are extremely low at 79 g/km…so its as environmentally friendly as a polar bear!
And even if you do run out of fuel, in pure electric mode, the Porsche 918 Spyder can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in under 7 seconds and can reach speeds of up to 150 km/h. But if this souped-up Nissan runs out of juice, you’d need to call a tow truck, let alone the fact that it isn’t probably street legal and you can’t drive it on the roads everyday, like you can with the Porsche 918 Spyder.
And to top it all off or rather the by taking the top off, you have a hypercar that is also targa, It will let you enjoy the wind-in-the-hair experience…which you can’t do in the Nissan Patrol.
