Porsche 918 Spyder breaks Nurburgring track record

The Porsche 918 Spyder set a new lap record for road cars at the Nurburgring complex in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany on Tuesday.

Race car driver Marc Lieb set the record at 6 minutes and 57 seconds at an average speed on 178 kph. The previous record, set in 2009 by the Gumpert Apollo Sport, was a whopping 14 seconds slower.

The automaker said the record showed the "enormous potential" of the plug in hybrid.

The 875bhp hybrid, which was unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show, has a top speed of 344kph and will be built in a run of no more than 918 units.