Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid to Debut in Geneva

A vehicle that runs on electric power alone is call an electric vehicle (EV). Since this Porsche has more than one source of gaining momentum, it's therefore considered to be a Hybrid. Hybrid: anything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds: a hybrid of the academic and business worlds.

Well yeah, what I ment was that I think a hybrid car is a car that can run using only the electric engines in certain situations, without the help of the combustion engine. This Porsche only uses the electric engines for tiny bits of time to help with acceleration. This kind of system would be completely useless on a road-going car. How many times a day do you floor your gas pedal and think: "I still need a small boost to my acceleration right now." What I'm saying is that this kind of KERS system is only good for racing. And I admit, it helps. But I don't think the KERS makes this a hybrid. Yes, it is a hybrid in the meaning of the word hybrid, but it isn't a proper hybrid if you compare it to road-going hybrids and the philosophy of them.

Yeah the one that dragged them to the bottom of the tables with its massive weight and lack of reliability in each race after they introduced it. Oh wait....

we will know after the 24h Ring race. if it works i hope they will put it in the 998 GT3 and GT2 in place of the rear seats.

i'd like to know the loss in power due to the flywheel, i feel like it should be in the ball park of a AC unit.

it's spinning at 40k PRM, that's the key. quicker recharge times. even NASA uses this technology, every gram counts on a rocket.

Scratchy: If i understand it correctly they use a flywheel as an energy storage medium. They make it spin via an electric motor that uses the recuperated energy from braking and so on, and when power is needed the flywheel energy is used to run the electric motor again which gives the power boost to the car. If that is the case, i cant help to think that it is a bit primitive. I mean transfering kinetic energy into electric energy and back to kinetic and back to electric to create kinetic again seem terribly inefficient, because evrytime it is converted there will be a loss of ennergy. Not to mention that the flywheel will loose its momentum over time and the energy gets wasted completely. Now that i thought of it they probably only use it because they cant get the a battery to charge quick enough for race use and before it looses momentum they would have used the energy up in a race anywy but still... It definately looks very heavy but i gues it is worth it. I am pretty sure the 998 will feature a hybrid but luckily in the same form as the s400. Not this monstrosity

I just looked at the diagrams and it does seem to have a battery too..i am confused now how this works

Did you read the complete press release? "developed especially for racing, standing out significantly in its configuration and components from conventional hybrid systems" ... "The flywheel generator itself is an electric motor with its rotor spinning at speeds of up to 40,000 rpm, storing energy mechanically as rotation energy"

Rublazar: Well thats basicaly what i said, i was just wondering why they use this instead of a battery (probably chargin times issues) and then i was also confused by the fact that there seems to be a battery next to the generator on the diagram.

@Benzomatic: Looking at the diagram, I think you're spot on re: how it works. I share your concerns too; I'm not an electrical engineer or physicist or anything, but I know the second law of thermodynamics states very clearly the method they have set up to recover kinetic energy is horribly inefficient. While I don't doubt the extra weight can be offset by the performance enhancements of such a system, to reap the benefits would require an entirely new layer of strategy. That said, by not having a battery, they are saving quite a lot of weight versus other hybrid systems. Altogether, though, I don't really think any hybrid system is at all necessary in a Porsche. Ever. Also, watch this one crash... I put 3:1 odds the KERS will cause the driver to mess up.

The BMW Vision Dynamics runs only on electric motors, and the diesel engine is only used to recharge the batteries. So I would say that these two aren't similar at all.