Lotus Helps Development of Honda Civic Hybrid Race Car

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Lotus Helps Development of Honda Civic Hybrid Race Car



Honda Civic Hybrid IMA Race CarBet you never thought you’d see a Honda Civic IMA Hybrid in the air like the one in featured in the picture above. Of course, this isn’t your ordinary hybrid but a race prepped version of the eco-friendly Civic created by Oaktec. The Lancashire based company has been developing the Honda Hybrid system for motorsport since 2004. Oaktec took part in several rallies around the UK winning the F1000 Class A Championship in 2006 with a Honda Insight. Now Oaktec has joined forces with Lotus to develop the performance of a Civic Hybrid for rallying and circuit racing.



Honda Civic Hybrid IMA Race CarThough no details on the car’s specifications have been revealed yet, Phil Barker, Chief Engineer of Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Technologies at Lotus said that the British automaker will work with Oaktec to create a revised electrical specification for more power and a control system that will allow a more aggressive regenerative braking strategy.

Paul Andrews, Senior Partner of Oaktec said: “Maximizing racetrack performance from a hybrid drivetrain is a complex technical exercise but one that Lotus Engineering has the experience and expertise to help us deliver. We look forward to seeing our success on the rally tracks replicated in the race circuits. We will be breaking new ground with the project when Gavan Kershaw of Lotus Engineering and Jamie Corstorphine of Autocar magazine will race our Honda Civic Hybrid for the first time in the Dunlop Max Sport Cup at Rockingham circuit on 28th September.”

















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Via: Le Blog Auto , Source: Lotus

[tomasro]

just bitchin...now all hybrids and alt fuel cars should rule the rally world. It would make it a hell-of-a-lot more interesting than the current status of STI vs. EVO

[djpaw]

yeah, plus its more challenging, getting a hybrid to perform like this.

Mature competition, rather than an 'all brawl and no brains, more power always wins and one doesn't care for fuel consumption' race.

[.si.love]

^ .

[bluetwo]

This is cool as fawk in my opinion. It's too bad it didn't directly say whether fuel consumption will be a major factor in the cars ability.

Having owned a Hybrid for a short time, I can attest to the electric motor. It's just too bad there wasn't something on the market to make the electric motor do more at the time that I had it or I might have upped the performance on mine quite a bit.

[gabien01]

cool!!!

[Cbeyer2]

I might be totally wrong on this, but I was under the impression that hybrids only got their fantastic mileage at cruising speeds. So, wouldn't this just be a waste of time? If this thing's being raced isn't it pretty much at WOT all the time and therefore not benefiting from the hybrid engine?

[tomasro]

electric motor=100% torque at 0 RPM

re-plumb and wire the system so that it only runs on a beefed up electric motor, and have the gas just polish up the charge on the batteries. This way you'll get the acceleration of the electric motor, and the fuel efficiency of a hybrid.

[07Ex]

I like it!

[cdubb77]

I like the mods that they did to that Hybrid. Looks good.

[06CivEXJon]

There was a video of a JDM Civic hybrid racing in a track that was posted somewhere on this site,but i don't know where it went. The problem with hybrids is that they're incredibly slow. Sure it saves gas but hybrids are slow. Unless you mod the hell out of it or something and have it mated to the battery so it gets high HP and TQ numbers it could be fast. This is a leap for racing but battery power as an alternative source of power by itself is bad,because you have to plug it in and it takes forever to charge. America needs clean coal and nuclear and other alternative energies. What there needs to be are biofuels,hydrogen and battery powered etc etc. I don't like the idea of plug in batteries to charge,batteries should charge themselves by getting energy from liquid fuel thats getting burned in the combustion chamber. Theres already VW Jetta TDI race cars out there,so why not add biofuel racers and other racers? Civic Hybrid racer seems great,doesn't need to be plugged in and charges the battery pack by the fuel like the stock car its great. Imagine putting massive power into a hybrid and achieving 40-60MPG! that would be awesome!

[RockeggRolla]

go fast and sips at the same time.... loving honda

[iCeMaN57]

Holy old thread bump

[sk33ny]

I want to play!