The premise of any sports car is to be nimble, light and fast. As it is popular among car manufacturers, there is a trend to substitute newest technologies, mainly related to environmental considerations for at least one of the basic ingredients.
There is the Porsche 918 that lost the lightweight factor but still managed to preserve the speed and handling, mainly due to clever packaging and placing the ICE behind the driver and there is the McLaren P1 which managed to remain relatively lightweight while actually gaining performance due to hybrid power source design.
Then there is the upcoming Acura NSX which may end up the Porsche 918 way, losing some speed but also losing some of the asking price the latest Porsche commands.
On the other hand, there are cars that are outright failures and pure embarrassments to their makers. The newest Cadillac ELR (a thinly disguised Chevrolet Volt, a resounding failure on its own) and BMW i8 are more of a joke than something that can be mistaken for a sports car by long shot, with non existent sales to further prove the point.
By now, it is already obvious that both pure electric and so called hybrid designs are band aid approach with time running out and soon to repeat the fate of Chevrolet EV1.
Since the future belongs to fuel cell and anything else is already obsolete, not to mention the liability the obsolete approaches carry, one can only wonder if geniuses like +Tadge Juechter , in the typical retarded and short sighted way do not consider some kind of hybrid design for the next generation of Corvette.
Seeing the idiocy of impractical and weight adding technologies such as AFM, it may actually not be a big surprise if Juechter and rest of the team do not jump on the bandwagon of the already obsolete technology. Will Juechter get a hint from Volt and ELR? Most likely not. As a matter of fact, chances are very good that the Corvette team will include hybrid technology.
The recently appointed Barra and Reuss are very good indication that both the state of denial in face of failure and catching up with yesterday will be the prevailing theme for GM for foreseeable future.
Seeing how much technological and sales failures both Volt and ELR are and how much denial takes place on the corporate level, there is no doubt that hybrid technology will find itself in the next Corvette.
Besides being obsolete, the biggest problem with both plug in and on board charging hybrids is the extra weight. The more weight, the more energy is required to move a vehicle, depleting the energy storage unit faster than it would happen otherwise and not any different than with conventional ICE.
The problem with Corvette is that is already heavy, thanks to all the fuel saving and weight reducing technologies-quite a feat on its own. Neither Reuss or Barra favor large displacement ICE approach, smaller six or four cylinder engine and extra electric unit is what may very likely end up in the next Corvette. In the end, the next Corvette will be even heavier than the current porker, struggling to deliver any performance at all and fewer and fewer actual performance figures will be released.
What should happen instead is a lightweight true space frame or better yet, CF tub, with carbon fiber body panels. Lighter car requires less power to deliver performance. The Alfa 4C proves this point very well.
Unfortunately, GM lacks the dedication and so does Juechter, the extent of counterproductive junk that keeps aftermarket in business defeating it is all what is coming from this numbnut.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Do you have any pic to share? Use this code [img]image-url-here[/img]