AutoTrader Find of the Week: 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder is the Rarest of Rare (2024)

Everybody has a dream car–a car in which, if you save your pennies, everything goes right, and you can find one in good shape, you’ll fulfill a lifelong desire for a mechanical avatar.

For many of us, a Porsche 911 fits the bill. But perhaps your ambitions are even loftier and you yearn for the ultimate, most exclusive 911 – a GT3 RS with its super-limited availability and extreme performance capabilities. It may be a few hundred thousand dollars out the door, but maybe … one day, right? I mean, this is a dream car after all. What’s wrong with dreaming big?

The Porsche 918 Spyder is not a dream car. It is beyond “dreaming big.” It is pure unobtainium bordering on ridiculous fantasy. It’s a fever dream car.

Some context. The starting price of that ultimate dream 911 GT3 RS is about $300,000.

We know. “Wow,” right? That is a clown shoes bonkers amount of money to spend on a car. Any car.

The asking price of a Porsche 918 Spyder, available right now on AutoTrader through Porsche Centre London is over 10 times the sticker price on a new GT3 RS.

It costs $3.7 million CAD, plus taxes and licensing. That’s what it takes to put the most expensive, exotic, technologically advanced car Porsche has ever made into your (I’m assuming climate-controlled) garage.

It offers 887 horsepower delivered through a plug-in hybrid powertrain with a mid-mounted V8 aided by two electric motors, one for each axle. It accelerates to 100 km/h in under 2.5 seconds, and it's the first-ever road-legal production car to lap the Nürburgring in less than seven minutes.

But perhaps the only number that really matters is that Porsche only ever produced 918 examples of the 918 Spyder. And since we don’t know exactly how many billionaires smashed theirs into trees or drove them into a river, it’s unclear just how many are left.

However, MOT data from the U.K. might give us an indication. We know that there were 46 examples registered in the U.K. in 2015. But as of 2023, there are only 27 left. Sure, some might have simply left the country. But this hypercar will only continue to become more rare as time passes.

Then there’s this particular example. It’s chassis #652 of the 918 cars built. But it also boasts the desirable Weissach Package, a weight reduction option that enabled the blistering Nürburgring time. Only 356 Spyders left the factory with that option. But the rarest option? The Martini Racing wrap. Only 40 cars left the factory in this iconic livery.

Originally purchased in Tennessee, this 918 Spyder eventually made its way to a private collector in Carlsbad, Calif., just north of San Diego. Though, until 2022, the 918 was consistently registered in Montana, an infamous trick of exotic car owners to dodge sales tax.

Unfortunately, Porsche Centre London won’t tell us who “the collector” from Carlsbad is.

We tried to figure out who the original owner was, but that county is so chock full of stupidly rich people that it could literally be anybody from Bill Murray to Bill Gates … who, come to think of it, does have an infamous affinity for Porsche and a storied history with its hypercars …

It can’t be Joe Walsh, right? He’s supposed to be more of a Maserati guy …

Amazingly, Porsche Centre London has moved multiple 918 Spyders over the years.

“Yes, the 918 is rare, but there have been some extremely rare pieces seen here at the store,” Steve Rempel, General Manager of Porsche Centre London told AutoTrader. “With such a small dealer network in Canada, we get some unique opportunities to showcase some of the cars that have put Porsche at the top.”

Good news, then. If you’re just a few dollars shy of that $3.7 million price tag, you may yet get another crack in the future.

But if you do plan on buying this one, Rempel and the Porsche team say they’ll give you the white glove treatment. If you need to fly in, for example, they’ll pay for your transportation to pick up the car (wouldn’t it be hilarious if they stuck you in economy?).

Apparently, there are also some other surprise-and-delights planned for whoever is prepared to drop almost $4 million CAD in London, Ont. However, Rempel says they’ll be “kept a secret until a buyer comes forward.”

Personally, we think a nice cheese plate might be in order.