Porsche 911 GT3 RS hybrid (Associated Press)
Porsche flywheel
Porsche debuted its 911 GT3 RS hybrid, which uses a flywheel rather than batteries to store electricity, at the Geneva auto show earlier this month. The system allows the German racer to recover kinetic energy when braking, and quickly release it again to power the engine or to give it an additional boost.
Mustang first
The 2011 Ford Mustang is the first production car to produce more than 300 horsepower and get more than 30 mpg highway. The car's official EPA rating, completed earlier this month, has the V6, automatic transmission version achieving 31 mpg highway. The engine gets 305 horsepower.
7 Comments
By Seren on March 21, 2010 7:16 AM
I had to laugh, in the midst of a global meltdown with millions unemployed, milliions more to declare med bankruptcy and more , FORD announces a 300 HP vehicle !! OMG Earth to FORD, wake up, humans live in one global community like it or not, and FORD helps us with an engine thats almost 3 times bigger than the planet would ever need for 2-3 morbidly obese white guys to relive their childhood !
give me a break
By ryan on March 21, 2010 10:41 AM
Seren , your comment made me laugh, in the midst of the global meltdown with millions unemployed, millions more to declare medical bankruptcy and more, the only thing that I can count on to cheer me up is driving my mustang with 550 rwhp that gets 6 and a half miles a gallon. The whaleskin interior caresses my skin, and I know, just know, that I can beat up on any prius around.
By gametheoryman on March 21, 2010 12:38 PM
The flywheel does not store electricity. The kinetic energy from the forward motion of the car is recovered from the brakes and stored as kinetic energy in the spinning flywheel. When extra power is desired, the energy in the flywheel is converted to electricity in an attached generator and passed to two electric motors.
By JP on March 22, 2010 9:19 AM
For the first time in 10+ years I am considering a Ford vehicle as my next car (last Ford was a 95 Ford Aerostar minivan to get the kids around). Just one problem though, a 305 hp / 30 mpg / V6 or 400 hp / 26 mpg / V8 (5.0) ? Great job Ford!
By Nathan on March 22, 2010 12:44 PM
You gotta love some people, such as Seren, because their ignorance is so adorable. Their heart is in the right place, but man is their head way up stink creek.
By Terry Parkhurst on March 22, 2010 11:25 PM
In the mid-1990s, there was a company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington that was working on a methodology, utiltizing a flywheel to either create energy (for vehicle applications) or store it. (It's been a while and, at this writing, can't locate a photocopy of a piece on them.) The Puget Sound Business Journal did a piece on them, if memory serves.
One has to wonder if any portion of their research, their design(s), contributed to this worthy effort by Porsche.
As for a Mustang getting 300 horsepower, while achieving 31 mpg, it recalls a line from a song by Sting, back when he was with The Police. The line was, "When the world is going down, you make the best of what is still around."
Besides, 25 years hence, that Mustang will likely be a treasured collectible; assuming there's going to be enough petroleum then to power it.
By jeffery cassell on April 5, 2010 6:53 AM
this stuff is stupid