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Porsche Unveils 911 Hybrid With Flywheel Booster

Posted by timothy on from the yeah-well-I-get-better-mileage dept.

MikeChino writes "Porsche has just unveiled its 911 GT3 R Hybrid, a 480 horsepower track vehicle ready to rock the 24-hour Nurburgring race this May. Porsche's latest supercar will use the same 911 production platform available to consumers today, with a few race-ready features including front-wheel hybrid drive and an innovative flywheel system that stores kinetic energy from braking and then uses it to provide a 160 horsepower burst of speed. The setup is sure to offer an advantage when powering out of turns and passing by other racers."

8 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. A little more info (but not much) by flewp · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/a-rumour-explained/ As this post's title says, it doesn't give much more info. Essentially it just adds the information that the flywheel system is derived from the Williams F1 Team's KERS (kinetic energy recovery system).

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    1. Re:A little more info (but not much) by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Informative

      A rule change in the F1 league requires Kenetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) systems for all F1 cars in 2010 and is pretty much the main driver behind the technology. LeMans is also requiring hybrid systems, though they've banned anything with a flywheel. Williams developed the only flywheel KERS and AFAIK is the only team which developed any system in-house & without a partner in the auto industry.

      Here's some better info explaining the technology:
      http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/11/videos-porsche-911-gt3-r-hybrid-uses-williams-f1-flywheel-kers/

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      [Fuck Beta]
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    2. Re:A little more info (but not much) by hibiki_r · · Score: 3, Informative

      Except Ferrari and Mercedes of course: Neither of them is short of money, and aren't all that interested in passing their tech to the competition.

      They could get an updated KERS without talking to the F1 teams themselves though: Magneti Marelli developed KERS systems for at least 3 teams last year.

    3. Re:A little more info (but not much) by flewp · · Score: 5, Informative

      Uh, no. No team is running KERS in 2010. KERS is not banned in 2010 (regulations still allow it, but it is neither banned, nor required), but the FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) teams have agreed to not use KERS in 2010. All of the teams so far are members of FOTA, which means unless one of them breaks ranks, we won't see KERS on the grid in 2010.

      --
      WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
  2. Will Porsche succeed where KERS failed? by psperl · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is very similiar to the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) that was used by some F1 teams last year such as McLaren and Ferrari. The system failed because the gains weren't enough to offset weight and bulk of the system. All F1 cars weigh 600kg, but the cars themselves are actually much lighter and need to be ballasted to reach this weight. The distribution of this ballast is very important, as keeping the center of gravity low on a race car is critical. Cars with KERS has a higher center of gravity than other cars because the KERS systems couldn't be placed as low as ballast. Add to that the loss of development time on other areas of the car, and the result is that all of the teams with KERS performed very poorly. This Porsche could make a hybrid system work, as it has more design flexibility and a longer race. Fuel savings will be exxagerated by the extreme length of the race, which is 12 times longer than the maximum time allowed for an F1 race.

  3. Re:Porsche Hybrid by Nexus7 · · Score: 3, Informative

    > By the way, most of not all hybrids license technology from Toyota for their operation.
    > Can't wait to see what faulty brakes or accidental acceleration on a Porsche 911 looks like.

    Very unlike a Toyota, I think.

    Note: This is a flywheel hybrid, not a battery hybrid.

  4. Re:Wow, they incorporated technology... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    They're talking about a different flywheel you twit. All internal combustion engines including the one in your car (duh) have a flywheel on the main shaft. If they didn't then when you let the clutch out then there wouldn't be enough kinetic energy in the engine to compress the next cylinder and it would stall. You have a flywheel (for instance, a giant disc that your clutch will engage) to smooth out the RPMs and add some mass to the system.

    What they're talking about is a giant flywheel that they spin up to store kinetic energy. Like a giant mechanical capacitor. Like something which, if you crashed and it was damaged while it was charged up it would make a very impressive shrapnel cloud.

  5. Re: No KERS in F1 in 2010 by pmontra · · Score: 3, Informative

    They allowed the KERS to store only 80 HP and it could be used for at most 6 seconds per lap.
    Add to this that none of the teams that planned to use KERS designed a car with a double diffuser, an aerodinamical device allowed by a loophole in the rules initially exploited by only three teams. The double diffuser turned out to be far more important than the KERS for the performances of the car. Brawn GP got an expecially good implementation of the device and won 6 of the first 7 races. After that they coasted to win the championship as the other teams struggled to catch up. KERS teams got on par only on the last races of the season.
    By the way, BMW abandoned KERS quite early in the season and it used it only on one of its cars.