On-track testing of the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid racer is continuing at high speed - if you'll forgive the most Teutonic pun we've ever heard! - with the car now resplendent in white Martini livery with red and blue stripes, echoing the glory days of the 1970s.
The latest test car is now lapping the infamous Nurburgring in the Eifel region of Germany - a fundamental element of the testing programme for the plug-in hybrid sports car, as with all Porsches. The goal is to get round the 20.8km Nordschleife in less than seven minutes 22 seconds.
The 918 Spyder combines a high-performance petrol engine with electric motors on both axles for a total of 570kW, at a projected fuel consumption under ideal conditions of three litres per 100km, equivalent to CO2 emissions of about 70 g/km.
The car is built on a carbon-fibre monocoque that reduces vehicle weight and delivers remarkable rigidity and dynamic precision, and features fully variable aerodynamics, adaptive rear axle steering and a 'top pipes' exhaust system the routes the exhaust upwards at the rear of the car as part of the airflow management.
CULT COLOURS
It all started when a privateer Porsche 917 sponsored by Martini's parent company Bacardi won the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Almost immediately Porsche started cashing in by offering special 'hot' version of standard road cars, dressed in white with the distinctive blue and red Martini stripes - but without the badges.
The Bacardi guys didn't mind - nothing succeeds like success! - and Martini became the official partner of the Porsche factory team from 1973 to 1978. A succession of white cars - 908s, 917s, 935s, 936s and various 911 RS and RSR racers - all wearing the distinctive Martini Porsche livery, won the 1973 Targa Florio in Sicily, took the World Sports Car championship in 1976 and overall victories at Le Mans in 1976 and 1977.
The Martini colour scheme has become part of motor racing legend, like the pale blue Gulf GT40's of a decade earlier, and some Porsche customers to this day still ask for it.
Which is why Bacardi and Porsche have got back together to revive the Martini Racing livery, exclusively for the 918 Spyder, and make sure the legend lives on into the hybrid-powered future.