Gumpert is entering a hybrid version of its supercar, the Apollo, in the Nurburgring 24-Hour race. Instead of the normal car's Audi 4.2-liter twin-turbo with 650 HP, the racer gets a 3.3-liter V8 with something like 630-HP, in addition to a 100kW electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. The 190 kilos of batteries will be recharged by application of the brakes, but it isn't clear exactly how the electric motor will be applied -- slow speed (aka pit lane) use only, or to provide an extra boost during the race.
The car will be driven by Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Dirk Muller. The hybrid Apollo will test its fortunes against the Audi R8 and Lexus LF-A, both of which are in the same class. If the car does well, it could mean good things for the introduction of hybrid technologies into other race series like Formula 1.
[Source: BridgeToGantry]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Johnson @ May 19th 2008 7:17PM
Wow, HHF is still racing? I'm watching the 1997 F1 season now, and he's racing - odd reading his name as Murray says it :p.
They will have to use the batteries to their advantage on the track, maybe an added boost at top speed on the straights or something. They have to be able to justify the significant weight addition.
Richard @ May 19th 2008 7:23PM
If its more economical and/or at least presumably lighter, it sounds like the move from the 4.2 to the 3.3 would be a good thing in and of itself...
Quattrofan @ May 19th 2008 7:40PM
Gullwing hybrid. Awesome!
Ted @ May 19th 2008 7:50PM
Don't F1 cars have some sort of push-to-pass button? This seems like it'd be most applicable in that sense, since you get a bunch of instantaneous torque from the batteries.
bduddy @ May 19th 2008 8:02PM
@ Ted: They don't, although in the days of unlimited revs some engines may have had such a feature at the expense of reliability. There are proposals to add such a feature (possibly linked to the KERS hybrid systems), and it has been used most notably in A1GP and ChampCar.
JD @ May 19th 2008 8:06PM
Ted-
Sort of. Some of the teams have a button that will temporarily raise the rev limiter by a few hundred RPM's that can only be used a few times, for the sake of letting the engine live through 2 weekends. Honda in particular had a name for theirs, "Step 6," I think it was, but this really just led to jokes about pushing the engine to "Step 7" when the engines exploded. And Honda in particular made some nice, highly explosive engines for a while.
Next year, I believe, they are implementing some sort of regenerative thing, but I'm not up on the exact details of those plans. I guess it's a good idea, but I wish that the FIA would stop toying with F1's specs. It's frustrating and expensive, both of which will run off the independent teams F1 so badly needs.
Patrick Culligan @ May 19th 2008 9:54PM
OK autoblog....and Johnathon
why on earth would it be used for the pit lane when fuel consumption is near nothing and there is no advantage to using the precious energy regained from braking? clearly it will be an advantage to use the much needed torque of the batteries with the smaller capacity 3.3L coming out of low speed turns. Additionally its also much more tractable power then from the high rpm focused race engine.
chiohmann @ May 20th 2008 12:13AM
Dude... chill...
nagmashot @ May 20th 2008 2:00AM
The Audi R8 (private race team) and the Lexus LF-A do not drive in the same race class..
Lexus LF-a drives SP8
SP8 = 4.0l to 6.5l displacment and 1300kg minimum weight
Audi R8 driven by sportauto car magazine
SP7 = 3.5l to 4.0l displacment and 1250kg minimum weight
The Gumpert Apollo starts in the E1-XP class a class for experimental green cars..
Trevor @ May 26th 2008 10:58PM
This could be a really interesting prospect.
I'm exicited to hear of lap times and performance figures
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