Eight cylinders or 1 2 , top or bottom exit,
when the pipes are short, stand back.We’re going pretty good now, much
faster than I ever expected to when the
museum people finally acquiesced to my
driving the 917 at all. Donohue is inten-
tionally pushing harder in the carousel
than I’m willing to, opening up space for
me to hammer wide-open throttle for a
few delicious seconds on the back straight
before the accordion closes. I’m just begin-
ning to get an appreciation for how easy
this car is to drive fast (shifter notwith-
standing) when he heads for the pits.
I can’t recall how many laps we did,
and no one else counted, either. If it were
a thousand, it wouldn’t be enough, but
there’s no time to dwell on it. The 918
Spyder awaits.
Maybe it’s because I’ve had some
number of laps to refamiliarize myself
with tricky Sonoma Raceway. Maybe it’s
because I’ve driven the 918 on two other
tracks previously and am familiar with
how it handles at the limit. Maybe it’s
not having to worry about the shifter.
Whatever it is, I’m immediately comfort-
able getting back out there in the same
less than ideal conditions on cold, barely
street-legal tires and going fast.
That, the 917 and 918 have in common.
They’re surprisingly easy to drive fast.JUNE 2020 MOTORTREND.COM 59