First I want to see how it handles a crash ... Then I want it in black.
A "zero-emission" sports car with a top speed of nearly 100mph is set to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.
The hydrogen-powered Lifecar, based on the design of the Morgan Aero-8 roadster, produces little noise and only water vapour from its exhaust.
The lightweight model packs advanced fuel cells and an energy storage system that gives the car a range of 250 miles (400km) per tank of hydrogen.
It has been developed by a consortium of UK companies and universities.
"Figures suggest the car should be capable of doing 0-60 [miles per hour] in about seven seconds," Matthew Parkin of classic sports car manufacturer Morgan told BBC News.
[snip]"The basic concept was to build an entertaining and fun sports car that would act as a showcase for the technology and would deliver 150 miles to the gallon," said Mr Parkin.
"Everything else has tumbled out from that."
The car is powered by a bank of lightweight hydrogen fuel-cells developed by UK defence firm Qinetiq.
"If you took a typical internal combustion engine and replaced it with a fuel cell, the fuel cell would be very large," explained Ian Whiting of Qinetiq. "That's not an efficient way to do things."
The fuel cells in the Lifecar produce about 22 kilowatts - roughly one fifth of the amount of power of a typical combustion engine.
"With that we can provide all of the cruise capability we need to," he said.
When the car needs to accelerate or climb a hill it draws extra power from a bank of ultra-capacitors aligned down the centre of the car.
6 comments:
ooooh! do want! i'll take mine in british racing green.
actually, you probably need to worry less about the hydrogen exploding, and more about the fact that fuel cell cars, of the foreseeable future anyway, use hydrogen split off from fossil fuels [rather than from water], so it's not like we're saving on those.
Not to worry about the crash, it comes with an ejection seat.
;>)
Hipparchia, read about the drain on fossil fuels to create the cells which is moronic.
After watching 'Who Killed The Electric Car' I realize the technology is out there to build an efficient electrical car. We need to work on solar or tidal energy or the whole list of other-than-ethanol biofuels. (Michael will tell us hemp will do really well...)
When challenged we have delivered new technology. We just need to detach the death grip of the oil companies on our political process ... which won't happen now that they are obscenely wealthy and crude is over $100 a barrel.
So instead we have wars and environmental destruction and pollution and death.
Darkblack, ejection seats are fine unless your crash happens on the freeway... or along the steep seacliffs on Highway 1.
The seats will need a parachute and airbags that let you bounce off the cars you hit or the rocks you fall on.... also an automatic GPS system which will allow the ambulance to find out where you bounced to...
There you go poking holes in my hazy fantasy with your pesky facts, Ellroon.
;>)
Lol! Sorry, darkblack.
Kinda like the pesky once-a-day bombs that Laura Bush referred to when talking about how peaceful it was in Iraq, huh?
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