Car turns you green with envy
She stood motionless on the pavement near Washington's National Mall,
beams of late summer sun caressing her sleek body as dozens of men ogled
her and made secret wishes.
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Porsche’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid |
'She', German luxury carmaker Porsche's new 911 GT3 R Hybrid, is the
world's first hybrid GT racing car, and it was in the United States to
compete in the American Le Mans Series, a proven ground for green
technology race cars.
"This car shows that being environmentally efficient doesn't have to
be boring. It can be fast, it can be sexy, it can be competitive,"
Patrick Long, a 29-year-old Porsche factory driver and one of a handful
of men to have gripped the wheel and shifted the gears of the new
Porsche GT hybrid said.
The car has the body of a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 R with a four-litre,
flat-six, 480 horsepower combustion engine in the rear.
Up front, its unique hybrid system harnesses two electric motors and
a flywheel to generate, store and release power.
The Porsche is the first car to use an electromechanical flywheel as
the battery, said Christoph Michalik, Porsche's director of motorsports
strategy and planning. When a driver brakes on one of the many curves on
a race course, the electric motors, which are coupled to the wheels,
generate an electric current that powers up the flywheel, located in the
front passenger seat.
Energy is released from the flywheel during normal acceleration and
automatically delivered to the front wheels to support the combustion
engine and reduce fuel consumption.
"This Porsche is a glimpse into the future of what high-performance
efficiency will be," American Le Mans Series -only major motor sports
series in the world in which cars use alternative energies President
Scott Atherton said.
The Hindu |
