How cool is this: Jaguar is developing a range-extended luxury hybrid that may use a tiny gas turbine to power the electric motor. As crazy as the idea might sound, the British government is bankrolling the idea to the tune of $24 million.
Jaguar Land Rover is working on the car with British gas turbine manufacturer Bladon Jets and electric motor manufacturer SR Drives. The Technology Strategy Board, which funds business development in the U.K., is underwriting the first serious attempt at a turbine car since Volvo built the Hybrid Environmental Concept in 1993. The goal, according to Bladon, is the “world’s first commercially viable – and environmentally friendly – gas turbine generator designed specifically for automotive applications.”
Previous attempts at turbine-powered cars, of which the Chrysler Turbine Car might be the most famous, used the technology to turn the driveshaft. But the Jag — like the Volvo — would use a miniature gas turbine only to generate juice for the electric motor. Bladon says its axial flow turbines are small, lightweight and run on anything from natural gas to biofuel. That, it says, makes them a great alternative to the conventional engines used in range-extended hybrids like the Chevrolet Volt.
The announcement follows a long heritage of turbine research in the U.K. Rover built the first gas turbine-powered car, the Jet-1 (pictured above) in 1950. The two-seater was capable of 88 mph at a dizzying 50,000 (!) rpm. It could run on nearly any fuel, but it burned a heck of a lot of it. Fuel economy was around 6 mpg, while the exhaust was often hotter than an oven and came out faster than the car itself.
Rover continued experimenting with gas-turbine concepts through the 1950s and teamed up with British Racing Motors in the early 1960s to build a race car. The Rover-BRM produced 150 horsepower and ran at Le Mans from 1963 until 1965. It was as quick as it was quirky, topping 140 mph on the famous Mulsanne Straight at the hands of Graham Hill in 1963.
“You’re sitting in this thing that you might call a motor car and the next minute it sounds as if you’ve got a 707 just behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster,” Hill said of the car.
The Jaguar turbine-hybrid surely will be more refined, if not as fast, and luckily for anyone who drives it won’t use any components from Lucas.
source: wired
