It's a hyper-performance two-seater with an all-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid drivetrain. It shares barely a single component with any other vehicle. But if you think that gives grounds for uncertainty, you just don't think like a Porsche engineer thinks. The company decided to build a concept-car only in September 2009; it was unveiled at Geneva in March 2010. But that really was just a show-pony, not an engineered package. Feasibility studies were undertaken that summer, so the production green light occurred a scant three years before job one. In an industry where it usually takes two years just to perform a mid-cycle facelift, the 918 Spyder represents engineering at lightning speed.

Yet here I am at the Nardo high-speed test track in southern Italy standing by the 918 Spyder test car, and precision engineering might not be the first phrase to come to mind. It's mostly un-bodied, and even where there are panels they have several-inch gaps between them. Everywhere you look it's duct tape, cable ties, crooked screw heads and unintelligible German scribbles. Exposed pipes and wires untidily snake all over the place. The cockpit is near uninhabitable; you share it with any number of temporary controls, data acquisition equipment and a noodle-salad of cabling.

Don't be deceived. This is the very first rolling chassis. It's only seven weeks old when I ride in it. That's in itself an astounding fact: a major manufacturer letting an outsider experience a car so early in its development journey. This vehicle contains all the major production-intent systems. These systems are bewilderingly exotic in themselves, but they don't just need to work as standalone pieces. Obviously they will need to integrate with each other under the command of 55 electronic controllers.

The prime mover is a bespoke 4.6-liter V-8, with flat-plane crank and titanium connecting rods. It's derived in principle from the V-8 in the RS Spyder ALMS racer, but no parts are shared. It revs to 9000 rpm, an astonishing figure in isolation but even more so when you consider it has direct injection. The engine weighs just 290 pounds, a scant 25 pounds more than the race engine, even though it's rated to pass all Porsche's road-car durability tests. It makes 570 horsepower -- wildly impressive for just 4.6-liters, and a better power-to-displacement number than the 5.7-liter V-10 found in the 604 hp Carrera GT. Still though, Porsche's old super-duper car made more power, right? Not quite.

We haven't yet talked about the 918 Spyder's the two electric motors. The one at the back, between engine and transmission, makes 90kW (121 hp), and the one for the font wheels is 80kW (107 hp). These numbers are provisional; they might rise some more. Porsche R&D chief Wolfgang Hatz isn't shy of talking about a final total system power north of 800 horsepower.

The rear powertrain consists of the V-8, and behind it a decoupling clutch, then the e-motor, then a seven-speed PDK twin-clutch transmission. The decoupler aft of the V-8 means it can be shut down permanently for the driver-selectable electric-only mode, and temporarily for the hybrid mode. So the rear electric-motor drives through the seven-speed box and can operate at all road speeds up to the 202 mph top-end. The front motor runs a single reduction ratio and is decoupled at 146 mph to avoid over-revving. In pure-electric-mode, the 918 Spyder can pull 0-60s in about 9 seconds, and thanks to its 6.8 kWh battery capacity should go about 15 miles if you drive like the man from the EPA.

But you don't drive like that, do you? So for you there will be a little rotary knob on the steering wheel. Turn it out of e-mode, through hybrid mode and into sport mode. Now the V-8 is permanently clutched in, which should do away with worries about system lag when you mash the gas. It also means permanent exposure to its ear-tingling cadenzas: the exhaust system is packaged inside and above the V, and the two pipes fire obliquely backwards like anti-aircraft guns, from a position just less than two feet behind your ears. Where you see them on this mule is where they will be in real life. In this position, their heat is easily vented, rather than soaking into the engine bay and towards the battery.

Another twist of the dial and you're in race mode. All systems are set to maximum, and the battery will cycle deeper. In two-second bursts the electric motors alone will make 271 hp -- the same total amount as a 1974 911 Turbo. And the output power of the electrical systems means they have huge input power too: the system can generate 0.5g worth of deceleration via regenerative braking. That means more electrical energy is available next time the car accelerates. Zero to sixty should fall under 3 seconds flat -- in fact Porsche claims 0-100 km/h will be under 3.0, and it always claims conservatively. More fantastically, 0-125 mph should happen in less than nine seconds, and 0-186 mph (300km/h) in under 27. Those are hypercar figures boys and girls.