NAIAS 2011: Porshce 918 RSR experimental race car

January 18,2011

The Porsche 918 Spyder is a mid-engined hybrid sports car that was recently given the green light for production. Meanwhile, Porsche showed off a racing version of the car, called the 918 RSR.
The 918 RSR is a single-seat mid-engined coupe that features technology from the company’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car, which competed on the Nurburgring, American Le Mans Series, and International Le Mans Cup in Zhuhai, China. Decked out in “liquid metal chrome blue,” the car follows the design heritage of the car’s legendary 917 race car.

918 RSR has a carbon-fiber monocoque. Its V8 engine utilizes direct injection to produce 563 bhp at a dizzying 10,300 rpm. In addition, two electric motors mounted on the two front wheels contribute 102 bhp each, for a total of 767 bhp. The additional power is generated during braking and is stored in a flywheel—that’s what you can really call brake horsepower.

The cockpit is a strange mixture of classic elements like a brown leather bucket seat to a high-tech display, and the looming presence of the flywheel accumulator in place of the second seat. The flywheel, an electric motor whose rotor rotates at up to 36,000 rpm, stores kinetic energy from the wheel-mounted electric motors. The driver can then call up the energy with a button-push—similar to F1’s KERS system. An eight-second burst of power is available when the system is fully charged. If I were the driver, having that high-energy system spinning right next to me would have me just a little bit tense–sounds as risky as having Doc Brown’s flux capacitor on board.

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