The 24 hour race at Le Mans held every year is among the most punishing automotive tests on the planet: race-bred machines running top-speed (or close) for a full day. Recently, gasoline-powered cars have had their dominance usurped by diesels, who themselves are now losing to hybrids. The next step? It could be EVs. The GreenGT H2 will take the grid of next year’s 24 hour race as an experimental entry, driving the full race distance pushing only water vapor out its tailpipe. Hydrogen is stored in the two large tanks running down the sides, while the massive fuel cell stack itself is situated behind the driver. Power output is somewhere north of 500 horsepower, which is quite healthy for a car that the company hopes will be down under 1000Kg (2,200 pounds) by the time it hits the track in anger. Enough to win Le Mans? Almost certainly not, but it’ll be fun to watch it try.
Steve Dent contributed to this report.
Filed under: Transportation
GreenGT H2 eyes-on: the first fuel cell-powered racer to tackle Le Mans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Over the years, the Batmobile has shown up in all kinds of crazy designs. It’s amazing how geeks change things around and create all kinds of cool versions of the classic Bat car. And now it has been converted into an Formula One race car by Knightvision3D. I can only imagine how awesome the Joker’s car would look if he had an F1 racer too.
It is pretty impressive and was made in 3DS Max 2013. It’s a combination of F1 design, Tumbler technology and powered by jet turbines. They even added hydraulic flaps and allowed the air collected above the cockpit to be funneled around the turbine exhaust and out under the rear diffuser. Who cares that it defies good aerodynamics?
Man, if I had Bruce Wayne’s money I would so build one of these.
[via Obvious Winner]
Formula 1 car technology has come a long way since it first hit the asphalt banks 62 years ago. It’s been hard to convey the sheer amount of change in a succinct way, but Rufus Blacklock may have nailed it in exactly one minute. Abstract versions of the cars show us the progression from the bullet-shaped cars of the 1950’s through to the low-slung, wing-laden beasts we know today. If the clip is a little too F1-fast, there’s also an infographic that details exactly when certain technology changes came into play, starting with the first wings in 1968 through to modern (and at times controversial) introductions like KERS in 2009. Click past the break for the video, and check out the relevant source link for a quite literal big picture.
Continue reading Visualized: the history of the Formula 1 car in 60 seconds (video)
Visualized: the history of the Formula 1 car in 60 seconds (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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