Can You Tell It's A Hybrid?

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

The euro-trance exhaust note is what tipped us off. The GT3 R Hybrid is not planned for production, but will serve as a “racing laboratory” in the 24 Hours on the Nordschleife of Nürburgring, reports Green Car Congress. Williams Hybrid Power is reportedly exploring road-car applications of its Formula 1 KERS-derived “fly-brid” system. Technical details after the jump.


The 911 GT3 R Hybrid features an electrical front axle drive with two electric motors developing 60 kW each supplementing the 480-bhp (358 kW) four-liter flat-six at the rear of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid. Instead of the usual batteries of a hybrid road car, an electrical flywheel power generator fitted in the interior next to the driver stores recaptured energy and delivers it to the electric motors.

The flywheel generator itself is an electric motor with its rotor spinning at speeds of up to 40,000 rpm, storing energy mechanically as rotation energy. The flywheel generator is charged whenever the driver applies the brakes, with the two electric motors reversing their function on the front axle and acting themselves as generators. Then, whenever necessary—i.e., when accelerating out of a bend or when overtaking—the driver is able to call up extra energy from the charged flywheel generator, the flywheel being slowed down electromagnetically in the generator mode and thus supplying up to 120 kW to the two electric motors at the front from its kinetic energy. This additional power is available to the driver after each charge process for approximately 6 – 8 seconds.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Ott Ott on Feb 11, 2010

    Boy, it's a good thing it had a big rear wing, or I think it would have simply left the track due to the "massive" velocities this thing was achieving...

    • Ernie Ernie on Feb 11, 2010

      That's a wing? I thought it was a mount for the boom-mic or a camera crane! They've also got the Tahoe's hybrid badging system too!

  • ClutchCarGo ClutchCarGo on Feb 11, 2010

    The flywheel turning at 40K rpm is next to the driver? That could be pretty nasty in the event of a catastrophic failure of the flywheel. That's a lot of kinetic energy in there. I wonder what the containment system is?

  • Tom Tom on Feb 11, 2010

    That's the Porsche way: 1) Develop new technology 2) Race it 3) If it works, sell it 4) Back to step 1

  • Patrickj Patrickj on Feb 11, 2010

    A 5% fuel economy gain in a long race, even without any improvement in power to weight ratio, could make an otherwise competitive car unbeatable.

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