What's It Like To Drive The World's Most Exotic Hybrid Sports Car?
Coming from a racing family and working timing & scoring at Riverside International Raceway all the way back to gradeschool, I can tell you that racing technology really does get developed beyond the track. Some of the KERS they mention here is already being developed for the street. I just hope the cheap little flywheel kinetic storage on streetcars will be so safe as the carefully engineered devices on expensive racing machines. 40,000 rpm offers some tremendous fly off potential.
I just wonder how well so much of this technology will age. I have the under 6,000 mile elecric scooter I can't seem to fix, but cars from the 1980's and 90's are out there with over 300,000 miles on them. And don't doubt it's the routine. Some people spout opinions that show they don't have the knowledge to be writing columns, but Detroit would love to have you keep buying parts to fix your old cars; that's where the REAL money is. My Duramx diesel reaching 1,000,000 miles? Diesels from the 50's, 60's, 70's etc. have already done so.
And if the electrical does hold up, how well will the platform do over the years? My old Rabbit diesel had the engine running around 300,000 miles, but the rest of the car had worn out around it. Hey, that's the one thing I think that is missing from modern racing, it used to be a racecar took the beating for years so a decade old chassis might win the 24 Hours of LeMans. Now a carbon fiber Indycar tub lasts around 16 races. If they went back to aluminum monoque or steel space frames, they'd outlast the modern cars. But look how many of the new electric cars are made from composites. Cheap, light, temporary.
