Porsche 918 Spyder and GT3 R Hybrid

Porsche takes the plug-in hybrid concept and adds an F1-style steering-wheel button for a push-to-pass power boost (when that 500-plus horsepower V-8 alone isn’t quite enough) and a pair of torque-vectoring motors on the front axle to get enthusiasts onboard with going green. Porsche claims its plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder is quicker around the Nurburgring Nordschleife than its Carrera GT forebear–just under 7:30.

And for even more extreme duty, the endurance-racing-optimized GT3 R Hybrid mounts a twin-electric-motor drive unit at the front axle, with each motor capable of delivering 80 horsepower to its wheel, with more going to the outside wheel in a turn (torque vectoring). But to enable these motors to recover a lot of braking energy very quickly–way more than it would be possible to feed into a chemical battery–the recovered energy is used to spin up a flywheel. Yes, Porsche is planning to put the flywheel energy storage device on the track. You’ll recall that Chrysler tried to power a LeMans prototype racer with a flywheel and met with disastrous results, but that was a very large flywheel storing many orders of magnitude more energy storage capacity. This one is compact (it fits on the passenger side floor), low mass, and spins at 40,000 rpm. Its mass is easily contained within its ribbed aluminum housing. And if something does go awry, the flywheel stops, and all energy is dissipated–this isn’t always the case with electric batteries. The Porsche system provides 6-8 seconds of E-Boost at a time. Porsche plans to run the car at the 24-hours of Nurburgring on May 15-16. We’ll be cheering for the flywheel.

Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid

Behold the hybrid, as conceived on the altar of lightweight. This Chevy-Volt-style series hybrid shaves mass by using a dedicated three-cylinder range-extending engine with an aluminum monoblock that integrates the block, head and exhaust manifold in one casting. The engine weighs just 187 pounds and runs on gasoline, ethanol, methanol, or any combination of the three.; Acceleration to 60 mph is claimed to take less than 4 seconds. Electric-only range is quoted at 35 miles, with hybrid range at 307. One of the coolest tech tricks here is the “HALOsonic” Internal and External Electronic Sound Synthesis system which offers four driver selectable engine sounds–a V-6, a V-12, a futuristic sound (think Tron bike) and a combination of the futuristic one overlaid on the conventional engine. The system, designed in conjunction with Harmon International, grew out of a noise-cancellation effort (which will also be employed to mask the monotone of the range-extender when it kicks in). Steering wheel paddles direct HALOsonic and the power controller to simulate the sound and feel of accelerating with a seven-speed twin-clutch. Using them during acceleration will blunt acceleration a bit (it has to taper torque slightly before each shift to give you the up-shift shove in the back), but it’s quite useful for providing precise control of the regenerative braking during deceleration.

Ferrari 599 Hy-KERS

This concept is still in its infancy. The show car was just completed and will commence dyno testing upon its return to Italy. According to Franco Cimatti, Concept Engineering Manager, the net weight increase of the hybrid system is 176 pounds, which shifts the weight bias by a welcome two-percent toward the rear. Only 44 pounds of that comes from the lithium-ion battery pack, which is divided into two one-inch thick aluminum-sheathed units packaged beneath the floor in openings cut in the underbody tray. They’re as smooth and flat as the aero tray, and the air cooling saves the mass of a battery cooling circuit. The batteries store 3 kWhrs, enough for about 10 km (6 miles) of Euro city-cycle range or 10-12 seconds of auxiliary thrust with the hammer down. The 80-kW (107-horsepower) electric motor powers the dual-clutch transmission’s odd-gear shaft, but by selecting neutral on the odd gears and closing the odd-gear clutch, it also powers the car when even gears are selected. (This works because Ferrari’s exceptionally robust triple-cone synchronizers can engage and disengage way quicker than most.) A separate motor in the front runs the accessories. Many other opportunities for weight savings and driving dynamic improvements may prove possible as development continues. For example:
Use the electric motor’s regenerative capabilities to rapidly slow the engine for faster gearshiftsUse the electric motor to smooth the resonance vibration peaks that naturally occur in the transmission during hard accelerationEliminate reverse gear and drive the car backward electrically
It remains to be seen how customers would react to a silently accelerating Ferrari, and Cimatti is opposed to adding weight for external speakers generating synthetic noise, but concedes that in-vehicle speakers could serenade the driver with faux V-12 music. It’s also unknown how one might jump-start the car if the entire battery system discharged (a voltage converter supplies 12 volts for ancillaries, and only a tiny 12-volt battery is used to power the radio preset memory and energize the car for startup). We’ll be keeping a close eye on Maranello’s hybrid efforts.;

Geneva 2010 Tech Highlights

 It seems as though every auto show for the past six or eight years has attempted to out-green the last one, but the 80th annual Geneva show featured more electric, hybrid, and fuel cell cars than I can ever remember seeing on one show floor. Not counting the boutique company stands, it was a struggle to find anybody in Geneva that wasn’t touting some manner of electric drive. The good news for us enthusiasts is that this technology is now being used for evil as well as good–if you consider using that electrification to boost performance as the evil side of green. Below are highlights of these and a few other technologies I encountered on the show floor.

2013 Subaru BRZ Limited: Believe (most of) the hype

Take a moment and mentally process all of the hype surrounding the launch of the 2013 Subaru BRZ. Go on, I'll wait. Now take that hype and dial it back to 80 percent. That's how good the Subaru BRZ is. It's not the second coming or the messiah for performance driving -- it's not perfect -- but it is quite good.

The B in BRZ should stand for "balanced" because that's exactly what Subaru's new rear drive coupe is. This car is all about balance with a near 50-50 weight distribution between its front and rear axles and a low center of gravity that is helped in part by its engine configuration, but is mostly due to the BRZ's purpose-built sports coupe design. This is no repurposed and hotted up econobox; it's a bona fide sports car.

It's also rather lightweight. Tipping the scales at 2,882 pounds in its heaviest BRZ Limited with six-speed automatic configuration (the heaviest setup the BRZ comes in), the BRZ is only 263 pounds heavier than a similarly equipped Mazda MX-5 Miata PRHT. Ditching the automatic gearbox in favor of one you shift yourself further closes that gap, but we'll come back to that in a moment. Even thought it is heavier, the BRZ has a slightly better power-to-weight ratio than the Mazda, only toting around 14.41 pounds per pony versus the Miata PRHT's 15.3 to 16.6 depending on configuration.

Speaking of power, the BRZ's comes from a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine that can be tucked low and far back in the engine bay, thanks to its horizontally opposed "boxer" configuration -- which is what the B in "Boxer Rear-drive Zenith" actually stands for. We've already gone into detail about how this Subaru engine makes use of a Toyota head that supposedly combines the best bits of port and direct injection tech. And many of you have gone into detail about your thoughts that its output of "only 200 horsepower" seems a bit low. We'll come back to that bit momentarily.

The Virtually New Infiniti M sedan

Infiniti wanted to reveal;its lower, wider, sleeker, more powerful, upcoming;2011 M Sedan during Pebble Beach weekend.; Just one problem: they didn’t have one yet.; Or at least, didn’t have a real one that they could show.; They have one or two well-detailed clay models.; And they’ve got some M test mules running around, but those still wear the old M bodywork.; The fix;that the Infiniti team;came up with is a clever one.

Pebble Beach 2009: The Cars of the Concours

So many cars, so little time: Here, in no particular order, are some of the cars — and motor cycles — that caught my eye on the lawn at Pebble Beach as they gathered for the Concours early Sunday morning. (Note: Captions at right correspond to the photos from the top)