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New Speed Record For Hybrid Cars

Posted by timothy on from the record-ticket-too dept.

prostoalex writes "According to CarPages, Toyota Prius set a new world record for hybrid vehicles. It 'set the mark at 130.794 mph on the three-mile short course using a standard Hybrid Synergy Drive power-train - a mixture of 1.5 litre petrol engine and an electric motor.'"

10 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. The FASTEST...erm... by Sensible+Clod · · Score: 5, Informative

    actually, it's the only hybrid ever entered. In fact, they had to convince the people to open a new category in order to allow the vehicle, because it has more than one 'engine'. IIRC, it may also have been because the other 'engine' (elec. motor) doesn't 'use conventional fuel'.

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    The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
    1. Re:The FASTEST...erm... by Andy_R · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, almost all land speed record breakers in recent years have been dual engine hybrids. The LSR rules require the car to be able to go in reverse, and the common solution to this requirement is to stick a tiny electric motor in somewhere that can strain itself half to death while dragging the car a few inches backwards to fit the rules.

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      A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    2. Re:The FASTEST...erm... by ph43drus · · Score: 5, Informative

      The parent is right that the cars only get their energy from gasoline. However, there is a deeper efficiency story here that just isn't as quick and easy a sound bite as "getting your car's energy from two sources---gas and electricity"---which is an awful marketroid half-truth.

      Anyway, to clarify on hybrids:

      The efficiency story goes like this: your normally car engine sucks as far as efficiency is concerned. This is because they have to operate over a wide range of speed and power requirements. Eg. from just taking off from a dead stop to running up a hill at 70mph or more. A spark engine can get to be about 30% efficient (this is from memory, it might even be up to 40%, I'd have to go look it up, and I'm feeling lazy ;). But anyway, the point is, that because of the requirements put on the spark engine in a car, it has to be designed for maximum power output, and this means for most driving the highest efficiency a car engine can attain is 20% (this would be for a tiny Japanese car which is engineered for fuel efficiency, like a Toyota Tercel or Honda Civic, other cars, like most SUVs, perform worse).

      The trick with the hybrids like the Prius is that they have the battery+electric motor to supplement the gas engine. So, the designers can do something important: they can pick a median power output (much below maximum required power output), and design the spark engine to be maximally efficient for that power output. This allows them to get the 30-40% efficiency out of the gas engine mentioned above. The hybrid only ever runs the gas engine at this power output. If this is too much, the electric motor run the wheels. If this is too little, the motor and the engine drive the wheels. If the batteries are getting low, the gas engine drives the electric motor to charge the batteries. When braking, part of the axel motion is used to drive the electric motor and charge the batteries (reclaiming some of the energy already expended to be reused---this is the regenerative braking that others have mentioned). Note: the designers at Toyota and Honda have taken advantage of the fact that an electric motor and generator are merely the same device, which one it functions as depends on which end the energy comes in, so there is no separate generator. (And if it occurs to you that the clutching system would be complicated because of this, you're right.)

      As far as being able to charge up your hybrid, there are some experimental models with that feature. You might eventually be able to do that; so if you just drive around town, you'd only rarely have to fill your tank (however, this feature requires that the bank of batteries is bigger, and 50% of the electricity in the US comes from coal, so the pollution/energy expenditure could end up being worse off the wall charge, depending on where your power comes from ;).

      Jeff

  2. Not exactly standard... by avalys · · Score: 4, Informative

    This car was not exactly "standard", as the summary claims.

    "An engineering group from Toyota Motorsport in the USA prepared the car by changing the gear ratios (4.32:1 to 3.2:1) and increasing the inverter voltage from 500 to 550 volts. A transmission cooling system was added to decrease the temperature of the inverter and electric motor to maximise efficiency. Ambient temperature on the salt flats was nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit with nearly 100 degrees humidity. Ice was added between runs to keep the system cool.

    The interior of the car was stripped to save weight, a roll cage added for safety and the whole car lowered by five inches to improve the aerodynamics for this highly specialised record attempt. Even the 26 in front and 25 in rear tyres were made especially by Goodyear."

    With that in mind, hybrids have a long way to go.

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    1. Re:Not exactly standard... by iamhassi · · Score: 4, Informative
      Ford hybrid SUV

      Lexus hybrid SUV

      Toyota hybrid SUV

      Hybrid trucks and SUVs from other manufactures

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  3. Hybrid technology needed a little redneckization.. by CodeWanker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Let's face it, cool car ideas come from people who love cars the way most /.ers love processor overclocking, water-cooling, and case mods. Convincing a wider audience that tweaking a hybrid will make it jump up and dance is never a bad idea.

    Of course, as a side note, the industry's approach to hybrid autos is flat out wrong. Railroad trains are very efficient, well-proven hybrid designs: their diesel engines are always running at the most efficient level, and their momentum is provided entirely by electric motors. Tres spiffy.

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    "Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
  4. Re:OOOOH WOW by Infinityis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, that myth will likely be futher crushed with the release of a retrofittable hybrid electric vehicle kit, such as the one being developed by Ecolectric Technology (www.ecolectrictechnology.com). Then, you can take any vehicle, retrofit it to be hybrid electric, race it, and claim a new world record. The inherent increase in low-end torque (and thus acceleration) will probably make it as desirable a modification as turbochargers or superchargers on any performance vehicle.

    A hybrid McLaren might be pretty nice if you as me...

  5. Re:They did cheat a little by stripping it. by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, but a steam powered vehicle did hit 127.66 mph in 1906.

    Besides, Model-T's weren't speed machines, they were consumer machines that opened up the market to sectors who had never before been able to afford a car. A model-T modified for racing could reach 100 mph

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    I don't read AC A human right
  6. Re:Many years ago ... by killbill! · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you still think diesels stink, think again. In my country, even BMW sales are over 80% diesel.

    A nice example of modern Diesel engineering is the VW Phaeton V10 Tdi. It has 313 HP and, while officially electronically limited to 250 kph (155 mph), was tested at over 290 kph (180 mph) when it was released one year ago. It does 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) in 6.9 seconds (not too shabby for a 3 metric ton car). And yet, it still gets 27.7 mpg.

    To put it in a nutshell, I don't quite get what this hybrid frenzy is about. Soot emissions used to be a problem, but the latest cars get a soot filter that tackles it. On the other hand, batteries are an additional weight, and once at the end of their lives, are an environmental nightmare.
    Or could it be all about oil companies being too lazy to invest into cleaner gas-oil (like they sell in Europe)?

    If you're an American looking for a new car, I strongly suggest you gave the few imported diesel VWs, Audis or Mercedeses a try before you go the gasoline route.

  7. According to Honda... by scott9676 · · Score: 4, Informative

    My Insight can go 115 mph. And this is stock without being stripped, having a roll cage, or any other modifications.

    It has a 995 cc 3 cylinder gas engine putting out about 63 hp. In series it has a 13 hp electric engine. Because the 2 engines have different hp/rpm curves, it puts out 68 hp. But it only weighs 1850 pounds.

    The car goes 0-60 in 10.5 seconds, has really good handling, and drives kind of like a go kart. The only real bad thing is there isn't much sound insulation, so there is a fair amount of road noise.

    But even going 90 mph, it can still click off about 50 mpg. At 45 mph, you can get it into 'lean burn' mode and get a bit over 100 mpg.

    It's a really good commuter car, has a lifetime mileage of 56 mpg (would be a lot higher if I drove a bit more conservatively and didn't live in a hilly area).

    Also, there are some electric cars that go 0-60 in 3.6 seconds IIRC.