Not sure if an electric race car can technically meet all the requirements and specifications of Le Mans racing today, but GreenGT of Switzerland has designed an electric racer to do just that.
Meet GreenGT's first design study for a Le Mans prototype that could possibly compete in the 2011 24-hour race at Le Mans.
The Le-Mont-sur-Lausanne-based GreenGT team commissioned the young French designer Thomas Clavet of the ISD Valencienne Design School to create this Le Mans prototype.
The prototype is made up of an FIA-spec carbon chassis with a fiberglass body. It comes with 2 water-cooled electric motors each with 100 kW (2 x 100 kW) coupled to a differential gearbox patented by GreenGT. Power supply comes from flexcell photovoltaic solar panels (What? You don't know what those are?) and two lithium-ion batteries, each with 30kWh of juice. The whole thing weighs in at a ship-shape 860 kg.
The numbers?
Maximum speed: 275 km/h (171 mph)
0-100km/h (62mph): Under 4 seconds
Horsepower: 350 to 400
Torque:...
No, torque should be posed as a mindblowingly-mental rhetorical question.
Torque? 2000 "Nee-hah!" Newton Meters (1475 ft-lb).
GreenGT is also hoping this car will be more than a pioneer on the track, and become a retail-ready road car for the masses. Or at least, the masses who can afford a high-tech, electric supercar.
You know, with Swiss-watch precision being what it is, a Swiss car doesn't sound like such a bad idea, does it? And the car looks good too.
