Ariel P40

[fuxhound 793]

World exclusive: Ariel to launch world-beating supercar with 1180bhp

All-wheel-drive electric machine set to be fastest accelerating supercar in history, with 0-100mph time of 3.8sec

 

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British firm Ariel is poised to unveil what it believes will be the fastest-accelerating and most advanced supercar in history, a 1200bhp, four-wheel-drive electric two-seater with a revolutionary turbine range extender powertrain.

The vehicle will be capable of 0-100mph in just 3.8sec, and is scheduled to go into production in 2020.

The chassis and powertrain of “tomorrow’s supercar today”, as Ariel puts it, is the result of a three-partner, three-year project supported by the British Government. It is due to be revealed later this month – but you can read extensive details about the car in this week’s Autocar magazine.

Codenamed P40 and built on an aluminium monocoque chassis, the new Ariel is expected to weigh around 1600kg and to be clad with carbonfibre body panels, although the exterior shape is still in development. 

The P40 is powered by four separate electric motors, each producing 295bhp. Each is fed from a centrally mounted, 42kWh liquid-cooled battery mounted at the car’s base. As well as the 4x4 model, Ariel is proposing a slightly slower two-wheel-drive model with a 56kWh battery. 

Both models will include a turbine range extender, which produces a maximum of 35kW, that sits atop the two rear motors and can produce sufficient power to maintain a fast road performance once the initial 100-120 miles of electric range is exhausted. It is estimated that the car will be good for around 15 minutes of flat-out track driving before needing around 50 minutes of fast-charging.

The flagship 4x4’s official maximum power runs to a staggering 1180bhp, with an eye-watering torque peak of 1328lb ft, all of it intelligently deployed by advanced electronic traction control and torque vectoring, and incorporating regenerative braking. Ariel forecasts the new supercar’s 0-60mph and 0-150mph acceleration times to be 2.4sec and 7.8sec respectively, with the maximum speed restricted to 160mph.

Ariel, based in Crewkerne, Somerset, is best known for making lightweight performance machines such as the Atom sports car and Nomad off-roader.

Company boss Simon Saunders said: “We’re building tomorrow’s aspirational car using our small-company agility to beat the big companies. We love the Ariels we make now, but we know we have to embrace new technology. If we don’t, in 20 years we’ll be making antiques, and we could even be legislated out of existence.” 

The new Ariel is the result of a three-company co-operative project called Hipercar – an acronym for High-Performance Carbon Reduction – and backed by a £2 million grant from Innovate UK, the government technology agency. 

For full details of the revolutionary Ariel P40 project check out this week’s Autocar magazine, on sale tomorrow (Wednesday).

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/world-exclusive-ariel-launch-world-beating-supercar-1180bhp

[fuxhound 793]

 

[fuxhound 793]

Ariel is building a hypercar. Yes, the company so far known only for its lightweights is making the jump to hyperspace. It’s hard to know where to begin with this, but let’s start with the numbers: 1,180bhp, 1,327lb ft of torque, 0-100mph in 3.8secs (well over a second ahead of a McLaren P1 or Porsche 918), 155mph top speed and a 1,500kg kerbweight.

It’s powered by four electric motors, “each of which delivers the same power as a supercharged Type R motor”, says Ariel boss Simon Saunders, “and they’re tiny, around 330mm in diameter”. But there’s more. Besides a 42kWh battery pack running 680 volts, the car codenamed ‘P40’ sports a radical range extender motor.

It’s a turbine. Jaguar promised it on the C-X75, but now it’s Ariel that looks set to make a turbine range extender a reality before anyone else. The turbine runs at 120,000rpm, delivering 35kw (47bhp) to charge the battery pack.

"The simulations show we could be wheelspinning at 100mph in the dry"

And that’s not the end of the radical engineering solutions. “The car delivers so much torque and power, the simulations show we could be wheelspinning at 100mph in the dry”, says Saunders. “We need downforce at a standstill basically, so we’re actually looking at using ground effect technology like the Brabham BT46 F1 car, using fans to suck the car to the road.”

The car is a closed cockpit two-seat design, built around a bonded aluminium monocoque with carbon bodywork. The electric motors sit inboard of the wheels, with their power inverters on top. The turbine is mounted above the rear motors and the battery pack runs in an upside-down T shape along the central spine of the car.

On the road Ariel believes that even in fast driving, the turbine will be able to keep pace with all power demands, topping up the batteries beyond the 120-mile range, while the plan for track driving is that the car should be capable of running flat out for 15 minutes before undergoing a 45 minute recharge. Whether it will target lap records is yet to be decided.

Ariel will market a 4WD version first, hopefully as early as 2020, but a 690bhp 2WD car will go on sale as well. As far as cost goes, “it’s likely to start with a two”, Saunders suggests.

The car is not only the work of Ariel, but has been developed in conjunction with Delta Motorsport (who are responsible for the battery pack and management system, turbine and torque vectoring among other things) and Equipmake (electric motor experts looking after the motors, gearbox, power electronics and inverters). Ariel themselves are working on the chassis, suspension, bodywork and aerodynamics.

The joint project is known as ‘Hipercar’ – short for High Performance Carbon Reduction - and is part funded (to the tune of £2 million) by the British government’s Innovate UK foundation.

“Why are we doing this now? Well, if we don’t get involved now we will be left behind, and we will be making antiques in a few years time” says Saunders. “Plus there’s a raft of things that aren’t necessarily pure automotive that this project could help with. And if we can develop this stuff in the UK, keep the IP [intellectual property] in the UK and bring work in, it’s all a good UK news story.”

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/first-look/ariel-will-build-1180bhp-hypercar

[Le Capri Mauve 909]

120000 toeren. Da's geen spelfout. Dat zal zo'n microturbine zijn waar dit artikel over gaat

http://www.hybridcars.com/wrightspeed-combines-gas-turbine-and-batteries-for-big-fuel-savings/