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Ferrari Unveils World's Fastest (and Most Expensive) Hybrid
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Fred Meier reports that Ferrari has unveiled its fastest car ever, a nearly 1000 hp. gas-electric hybrid dubbed LaFerrari that does 0-62 mph in less than 3 seconds, 0-124 in less than 7 seconds, 0-186 mph in 15 seconds. "We chose to call this model LaFerrari," says Ferrari's President, Luca di Montezemolo, "because it is the maximum expression of what defines our company – excellence. ...Aimed at our collectors, this is a truly extraordinary car which encompasses advanced solutions that, in the future, will find their way onto the rest of the range." LaFerrari is the company's first hybrid and has a system that incorporates technology developed for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One race car's KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) setup. In LaFerrari, the hybrid (HY-KERS) version uses a 6.26-liter, non-turbo, V-12 gas engine rated at 800 hp coupled with a 163 hp. electric motor for a combined rating of 963 hp. A second, separate electric motor drives the power accessories."
I know this site has an international audience, but did anyone really think that this thing ran on some non-specific, presumably flammable "gas"? In the US, "gas" is the most common way to refer to gasoline/petrol. We would call a CNG vehicle a "natural gas" car, and propane or hydrogen would be referred to as just propane or hydrogen.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Can't wait until I pull onto a freeway with one of these, driven by an idiot, suddenly is spotted in my rear view mirror fish-tailing and spinning towards me as the driver attempts to slow down and miss me. It'll be the experience of a lifetime. Of course I may not see this for the rest of my life.
If you do see it, it's likely to be for the rest of your life.
Massively overpowered cars don't fishtail and spin anymore - at least they don't need to unless the owners choose to turn off the electronics. In the last 5 years, I've watched the motorcycle magazines shift from being very leery of fly-by-wire (or even fuel injection, 10 years ago), to dismissing aging models based mainly on the inferiority or lack of traction control, wheelie control, ABS, and dynamic throttle response. Now real-time suspension tuning is the big thing. Ferrari is obviously deep into F1 where the allowable degree of automation is a matter of constant debate and rule changes every year, so their street cars probably have more electronic control than their race cars do.
..nuff said.
1000 hp of Postage Stamp, disappearing under a dustsheet in some collectors exclusive lockup garage near you soon.
Can't wait until I pull onto a freeway with one of these, driven by an idiot
So you claim to be an idiot then?
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
We should also make clear that this is an automobile. The term "car" is ambiguous and may give rise to the misconception that this vehicle must be pushed or pulled, perhaps in series, by a locomotive.
Additionally, the term "hp" as used in the story refers to "horsepower", not "hit points". This is not to imply that 1000hp means that the automobile will be pushed or pulled by one thousand actual horses; merely that the power is roughly comparable.
If you can imagine the resources necessary to stable and feed one thousand horses, this is an incredible engineering feat indeed! Not to suggest that engineering alone was responsible for the construction of this automobile -- indeed, one can imagine mathematics, robotics, welding, and any number of other disciplines were involved in harmony. But likely not music theory, regardless of the ambiguous term "harmony" I employed mere seconds ago.
Odd that neither linked story tells us what kind of gas mileage to expect. I'd hate to buy one of these and then find out I can't afford to drive it.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Uhhh...you expect grammar nazis to care about logic? Really? You must be new here.
As for TFA frankly ALL hybrids might as well be toys for the rich because if you remove all the government subsidies? The math just doesn't work. The problem is we haven't had a real breakthrough in battery tech in years and the lithium batteries just don't make economic sense. From the tests I've seen depending on where you live and whether you own a climate controlled garage (because of differences in temps affecting battery life) you are looking at 5-7 years on the battery. Now from what I read the batteries in something like the Leaf or Prius cost around $20,000 to replace yet thanks to government subsidies these cars only cost $24k-$39k depending on feature set so already you have a car that is gonna be practically worthless on the used car market (because the battery costs more than the used car is worth) and any economist will tell you its the used car market that seriously hurts our fossil fuel numbers, currently the USA averages 14MPG and that is because of all the poor folks in used cars on the road.
So while we need to invest in R&D of new battery tech frankly at this point in time hybrids and electrics are just money sinks, all that money sank into subsidizing hybrids is just money pissed down a rathole. If you truly wanted to put the USA on a path of energy independence what you would be better off doing is putting that money into a "people's car/truck" that ran on diesel (so you could later on switch to bio-diesel if the tech becomes viable) with a minimum of 38 MPG for the truck and 45 MPG and a price target of under $30k, THEN you could do a "cash for clunkers" and other subsidies to get the poor out of the older gas guzzlers. If you were to do this with the current national MPG being 14 you could cut our fuel usage by half (figuring in that some will not switch) while having something that would actually make economic sense. With economies of scale you could probably make the vehicles profitable and as the years went by and more and more of the used market was filled by these higher gas mileage vehicles the savings would continue to rise.
But hybrids are just a symptom of a larger disease, the fact that subsidies end up becoming entrenched and continue long after it has been shown not to be economically viable. Just look at ethanol, it causes higher food prices, damages engines, yet we continue to shell out all this money on a tech that has proven to be a dead end because so many in the agra business lobby to keep it. What we need is to spend our money wisely on tech that works economically and hybrids just aren't there yet.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Massively overpowered cars don't fishtail and spin anymore
That depends on how much cough syrup Justin Bieber and his pals have been chugging.
Many massively overpowered cars suffer from the mechanical fault of a loose nut behind the steering wheel, where the drivers have more money than driving skills.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
What you want at the moment is a VW Golf TDi. Same or better MPG as a Prius, goes like stink (considering what it is), no battery to worry about and it's a nicer car inside and to drive. However, just a week ago or so, some guys claimed a breakthrough with graphene for use as batteries. Which could make hybrids or even full electric cars actually viable.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
...was not a hybrid Ferrari going past.
Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
Uhhh...you expect grammar nazis to care about logic? Really? You must be new here.
As for TFA frankly ALL hybrids might as well be toys for the rich because if you remove all the government subsidies? The math just doesn't work. The problem is we haven't had a real breakthrough in battery tech in years and the lithium batteries just don't make economic sense. From the tests I've seen depending on where you live and whether you own a climate controlled garage (because of differences in temps affecting battery life) you are looking at 5-7 years on the battery. Now from what I read the batteries in something like the Leaf or Prius cost around $20,000 to replace yet thanks to government subsidies these cars only cost $24k-$39k depending on feature set so already you have a car that is gonna be practically worthless on the used car market (because the battery costs more than the used car is worth)
Unfortunately, you seem to be reading "studies" put out by FUD-spewing shills. Most of the "facts" in your analysis are simply incorrect.
(A) "the lithium batteries just don't make economic sense": the Prius and Honda hybrids use NiMH batteries, not Lithium tech (which is coming into use in newer vehicles, e.g. Tesla and Chevy Volt); focusing on Lithium while bashing the Prius shows your ignorance of the subject.
(B) "you are looking at 5-7 years on the battery," "practically worthless on the used car market": the Prius was introduced in Japan in 1997, and on the world market in 2000. They aren't dropping dead on the road --- real life longevity/reliability is quite high, with a decade and a half of data to back it up. Feel free to check actual used car prices to see whether a Prius is "practically worthless."
(C) "...batteries in something like the Leaf or Prius cost around $20,000 to replace yet thanks to government subsidies these cars only cost $24k-$39k": many ridiculous (and intentionally deceptive) estimates of "OMG huge gov subsidies" are floating around with no basis in fact. They are usually based on highly faulty economics, e.g. dividing (Gov. subsidy for building big new factory)/(# of batteries produced per year) to produce "scary" numbers, while ignoring that the factory will continue producing batteries for decades. Actual Prius battery replacement from Toyota is ~$4k, and might need to be done (if ever) after ~300,000 miles.
Assuming that the steering wheel is (eventually) mechanically connected to the tie rods, and that the electronics cannot add unrequested throttle: Any car can suffer from throttle-lift-induced oversteer in a long turn, or the beginning sequence of the Scandinavian Flick, and unexpectedly be flung wildly out of control with an unprepared driver.
I dare say that this is do-able on any surface, even with the most front-heavy FWD car you can get your hands on.
It really has nothing at all to do with being massively-overpowered, and everything to do with the fact that they're still just cars that ride on 4 wheels. Neither fancy automatic braking, nor throttle reduction, nor magic transmissions, nor AWD, nor instantaneously self-adjusting suspensions will fix the two (related) scenarios that I describe above.
In other words: Put an idiot into a car that "can't spin," and he'll do it anyway, same as a decent driver who is putting effort into making it happen. This shouldn't be surprising (and really has nothing to do with the reluctance of the motorcycle press to accept technological change).
Weight transfer FTW.
Kid-proof tablet..
I replaced my 2001 Prius battery pack at 9 years for $1,500. That was me taking out the back seat, disconnecting the battery, unbolting it, screwing it to a pallet and telling them it's ready.....then the opposite. The dealership wanted $3,000 but would have provided the old battery design while the one I received was rebuilt from new generation battery cells.
I've heard over and over the outrageous claims of $10K+ for a new battery by the clueless. Toyota since 2004 has a 10yr warranty on the batteries in the standard Prius.
If you are talking about the lithium batteries in the Leaf or plugin Prius then the $10,000 range is probably correct but you are also talking more about electric cars than the lighter hybrid like the standard Prius. But all these cars are super efficient, little to no polution out the pipe, and are very quiet and enjoyable to ride or drive. All of which has value to some. Just as a Porche has different value propositions from a VW Beetle. Should the government be subsidizing non or lightly polluting vehicles is another topic but the fact is they do and air quality has been improved from it.
[...] and any economist will tell you its the used car market that seriously hurts our fossil fuel numbers, currently the USA averages 14MPG and that is because of all the poor folks in used cars on the road.
Where do you get your numbers from?
I found a NY Times article that said this:
"The average on-road fuel economy of all vehicles in 1923 was 14 m.p.g., the report said, compared with 17.4 m.p.g. as recently as 2008."
Now, the only reason for low fuel economy averages are large trucks/SUVs.
They drag the averages down for everyone, though the new 6-cylinder models have lessened that effect.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Why? Seems to me to be a good idea- electric motors have gobs of torque even at standstill (Hence the use in locomotives) Why not put a second engine in that performs best where the V12 is at its worst? So long as you can keep the weight of the system down enough it should be a big win.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Why? Seems to me to be a good idea- electric motors have gobs of torque even at standstill (Hence the use in locomotives) Why not put a second engine in that performs best where the V12 is at its worst? So long as you can keep the weight of the system down enough it should be a big win.
Because sports cars are meant to be light and have good handling. Sports cars typically have low torque because of their low weight.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Don't you talk bad about Justin Bieber.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'd concur with most of that ...
We have a decent number of Prius taxis in my part of the world ... with heavy city driving and hence a lot of battery cycling, the battery seem to last between about 200,000 and 350,000 miles - I'd say 300,000 miles is a fair estimate of average life ... very much in line with a typical gasoline engine anyway
Replacement costs seems to be even less than $4k ... often under $3k
Overall running costs (fuel and maintenance) is said to be roughly half of the typical large sedans used
However, I am genuinely curious from the original poster's rant about subsidies - who is subsidising the Prius? Is it a rant at US motor companies and their subsidies, or US hybrids (Tesla & Volt), or hybrids in general which is the why it was phrased??
I would say you're probably right about you can get from a horse for a few minutes or maybe a little longer but a "horsepower" is probably accurate for the work you can expect from a horse over the course of it's shift. Remember Horse where literately the engines of industry. You can gallop a horse for a while but he'll take you further if you let it trot. So I think Watts guessed pretty well for what he was going for which how many horses one of his engines could replace.
Any car can suffer from throttle-lift-induced oversteer in a long turn, or the beginning sequence of the Scandinavian Flick, and unexpectedly be flung wildly out of control with an unprepared driver.
Nope, they route torque to the front wheels and it will understeer instead. Braking induced oversteer/spinouts is non-existent as well, because the moment the back starts sliding out the brakes are released to bring it back in. And all of this is happening hundreds of times a second, so that little patch of gravel/oil/dirt isn't going to cause an issue either. You have to try pretty hard if you want to spin out a car with full 4WD/ESP/ABS/ACRONYM.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
See this as using both your CPU and your GPU working at brute force cracking a hashed password. Your CPU is used for generic functions like powering the steering and air con, as well as using the surplus power to do some driving the wheels. The real powerhouse is your GPU with 12 parallel cylinders optimized for driving the wheels.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
WTF.
The original horse use to set the standard was a pit pony - very small so that they could go down coal mines (which was the environment where the people who invented steam engines lived/worked).
No sig today...