February 11, 2010

Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid: shown at Geneva, Raced at the 'Ring

Porsche will show a hybrid 997 gt3 R at the Geneva auto show and enter it in the Nurburgring 24 hour this spring. The car, based on the RSR chassis, will reportedly use a flywheel inertia type KERS rather than a battery system. Most bizarre is the resulting extra 80hp will be used to drive, via two electric motors, the front wheels!

This hybrid system could lead to a return of an official Porsche factory team (as opposed to factory sponsored teams?) to Le Mans in the near future.

Ferrari had recently announced a 599 hybrid prototype will be in Geneva.


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  1. officially confirmed as the Williams KERS system!


  2. It's always very difficult how much of this announcement is "fake green marketing" and how much is real.
    Anyway, what's very curious in this car is the use of the Williams KERS.
    I studied it in depth last year and it's so different from what everybody else was using.
    The idea of the carbon flywheel with the magnetical bits melted in is great, the physics which move all the system are amazing.

    I was very disappointed for Williams not racing it in 2009, and I'm very curious to see how it works!

  3. @Zizzo, I always wondered about the flywheel KERS, does it not create a gyroscopic effect? In any case, driving the front wheels via two separate motors make a lot of sense, decoupled from the drivetrain and, as it's likely to be used in straights anyway, has no effect on cornering dynamics. Very cleaver.
    Not sure why other sites are harping on the "it's a race car not meant for winning" just getting to the end of a 24 hr first time out would be a win of sorts.

  4. @AC, they will try to cope with the gyro effect by mounting the flywheel vertically. That should be enough to not affect cornering.
    However, the car, especially at Nurburgring, undergoes lots of vertical movements (hills, kerbs) and it will be interesting to see if the Porsche behaviour will be affected in some ways.
    Besides that, the high turning speed mass is made of carbon fiber, so it's very very light, even if I don't have figures to tell you how light...

  5. This is an advance version of 993 model because 993 has the same features but it has extra 75hp where as this model has extra 80hp is used.


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