Batman's next car. And it has a friggin' jet engine (as a range extender!) 😲🤣😎
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1200bhp via 4x electric motors. 0-60mph under 2 seconds. 0-100mph under 4 seconds. Jet engine to charge the batteries. Holy cow batman!!
That's brilliant!
Everyone should have a jet turbine on their car!
I watched the video, it is utterly bonkers. Its the first time anyone had used a turbine as a range extender and it took a bloke in a shed in Somerset to think of it
It's bloody brilliant, as he says it can run on multiple fuel sources; petrol, hydrogen etc
Give it a few years and it'll probably run on garbage (methane) like the back to the future delorean!
Very obvious styling nods to the original jet batmobile too, which I love.
Awesome. Like a cross between an RS200 and an Alfa.
Looks very cool, somewhat sceptical about their ability to actually pull it off though, beyond a prototype! The e-hypercar market is going to get extremely competitive, have they got deep enough pockets? Especially once Tesla brings out theirs with similar specs at a quarter of the cost! (and doesn't need a fossil-fuel range extender)
...they've sold out - it's got a roof and doors! 🙂
In Red please 🙂
Its the first time anyone had used a turbine as a range extender and it took a bloke in a shed in Somerset to think of it
Volvo ECC was 1992. Got to about the same development status as this...
I'm sure that Jaguar had a concept car many years ago that used the same principle of charging the batteries via micro turbines.
Just looked it up - Jaguar cx-75 in 2010.
I've got a good memory for useless info!
We have a simulation called 'driving like a tw*t on the road'
🙂
What a bloody superb car. Looks are, erm, challenging, but wow. Just wow. It's got a friggin jet engine!
Volvo ECC was 1992. Got to about the same development status as this…
A quick read says it was only ever a concept, and the gas turbine powered the car rather than acted as a battery charging method, so not exactly the same.
If anyone can pull off this sort of car, it's Ariel - look at how bonkers the atom was, and that was released well over a decade ago.
The Tesla roadster and this are going to have different target customers too, I doubt there'll be more than 10 or so of these built.
I watched that last night. Crazy. It even sounds like it's 'reasonably' practical without the range extender jet engine, which they are going to do as an option.
richmtb
I watched the video, it is utterly bonkers. Its the first time anyone had used a turbine as a range extender and it took a bloke in a shed in Somerset to think of it
Well, Jag came up with it as a concept 12 years or so ago but it didn't really get any further than that. I'm not sure if anyone else has done anything more with that concept.
I wonder what the legality is of having a hot jet exhaust on public roads is? I guess there will be some kind of exhaust cooling prior to it leaving the car.
McMurty says ‘hold my beer’….
It's a bit quick.
I wonder what the legality is of having a hot jet exhaust on public roads is? I guess there will be some kind of exhaust cooling prior to it leaving the car.
I don't think it'll be fitted with an afterburner. Although... 🤣
that makes no sense though. The Atom is a mechanical marvel, hammered together by a man in a shed. This thing is all computerised. There can't really be much similar, beyond them both being cars and going fast.If anyone can pull off this sort of car, it’s Ariel
This thing is all computerised. There can’t really be much similar, beyond them both being cars and going fast.
Is it though? Apart from the motors being electric and it being fueled by batteries rather than petrol, it looks to be a quite basic car - no touch screens, no complex control systems - it seems to be primarily engineering which is what they're good at. Just because it's electric, doesn't mean there's thousands of lines of code running everything.
Edit: looks like it's being developed along with some other big names like Cosworth...
A quick read says it was only ever a concept, and the gas turbine powered the car rather than acted as a battery charging method, so not exactly the same.
The car did drive on electric power, but had a much smaller battery than we see these days and much more reliance on the turbine. Think it was about 80-100km electric range and ~600 total. And you needed the turbine to run to get full power.
And it was a fully driveable prototype. Have seen footage of it on the test track.
They used a lot of the design feature in the P2 S80.
So, yes, pretty much the same, but 30 years ago, with era appropriate batteries.
The US/Cali clean air laws mostly killed it as a idea.
yes. [i]everything[/i] to do with the motors will be software.Is it though?
According to the Autocar preview:
Four drive modes will be on offer in the Hipercar: Eco, Sport, Serious and Fun. (Read drift mode for the last of those.) None has been fully finished in our prototype, with the Ariel’s asymmetrical torque-vectoring motor control software in particular still to be written by key systems partner Delta-Cosworth.
The software is a huge job, they’ve sensibly outsourced it! That also means it’s out of their control, though.
Just because it’s electric, doesn’t mean there’s thousands of lines of code running everything.
Eldest_oab begs to differ. He's just programmed the throttle control and 'basic' buttons for an electric Formula Student car. It's been a month or more of work by two teams - one in charge of inputs needed for the motor, one for creating those inputs through pedals and buttons...
Probably count the lines of code in the hundreds of thousands on something this "simple".
Just coordination of all the cooling systems will be a massive job.
They should be glad they haven't yet got as far as integrating regenerative braking into the car. That's *really* hard to do well.
While I don't deny the engineering, it does look like shit
That is by far the worst looking car I've ever seen.
Have they specifically designed it for cruising around Belgravia so teenage car nerds can vlog it on their youtube channels?
1200bhp via 4x electric motors. 0-60mph under 2 seconds. 0-100mph under 4 seconds.
I'm skeptical. That's basically about 1.3 G acceleration, which is utterly brutal. I don't believe that street tyres would give enough grip to accelerate that fast and I don't believe a car without huge wings would achieve times like that, they'd just spin their wheels.
Very odd thing, looks awful.
And they have designed a track car, which they say is not a track car ?
Interesting concept though that its still a petrol car.
bonkers that it's road legal with all the arm & feet removers sticking out!
I don’t believe a car without huge wings would achieve times like that, they’d just spin their wheels.
Hence why the McMurty has a pair of fans. 500kg downforce at standstill, no wings for drag.
I’m skeptical. That’s basically about 1.3 G acceleration, which is utterly brutal. I don’t believe that street tyres would give enough grip to accelerate that fast and I don’t believe a car without huge wings would achieve times like that, they’d just spin their wheels.
A Tesla Model S Plaid edition is already doing verified runs of around 2s to 60mph on relatively normal tyres
The McMurty has 1500kg of downforce at standstill: 1000kg is provided by gravity.
Guess how much the Hipercar weighs?
You don't need wings to keep a cars tyres on the ground, gravity does a pretty good job. An F1 car has wings not for traction but, to generate turning acceleration of 4G+
There's an electric rallycross car which does 0-60 in 1.4 seconds too, not sure what tyres it's on but that's pretty rapid 😲
Having not long returned from Alton Towers and experiencing 0-60 in just over 2 seconds on Rita, anything quicker than that is going to be even more unpleasant. I thought I was prepared for it but being launched at that speed for the first time was still a shock.
I’m skeptical. That’s basically about 1.3 G acceleration, which is utterly brutal. I don’t believe that street tyres would give enough grip to accelerate that fast and I don’t believe a car without huge wings would achieve times like that, they’d just spin their wheels.
A Tesla will do <2.0s to 60 (if you subtract rollout, and I think it assumes the right kind of tarmac), and wings don't do anything for you at a standstill.
I don’t believe a car without huge wings would achieve times like that, they’d just spin their wheels.
Maybe that’s the answer to the jet exhaust problem.
Point it straight up to add downforce 😉
it seems to be primarily engineering which is what they’re good at
Engineering software is engineering, thank you very much.
Yours,
A Pro SW Engineer.
PS hacking code without a plan is not engineering.
He’s just programmed the throttle control and ‘basic’ buttons for an electric Formula Student car. It’s been a month or more of work by two teams – one in charge of inputs needed for the motor, one for creating those inputs through pedals and buttons…
How long is the testing going to take? I'd assume minimum of another month by both teams.
Someone sits in it? It has to work... and not bluescreen at 100mph heading toward the tyre wall 🙂
Typical Ariel bonkers idea. Shame it looks minging.
I remember when Ariel mooted the first idea for this it was to be a 1000/1000/1000 car (kg/bhp/miles range) - I can see they've missed their targets by a bit.
What they have been very successful at (as ever) is hoovering up several millions of "matched funding" from UK Govt R&D for what is essentially a fun/vanity project. OK there might be a bit of learning comes out of this for the partners but it's unlikely to come to market in any meaningful way.
Best of luck to them but it's not really offering anything new.
Depends. Maybe they get the turbine charger into production? A true multi-fuel range extender unit would be a step up from petrol / diesel hybrid IC powertrain?
Missed that it was 4 motors, that's just added another 100000 lines of code. Per motor.
Trying to synchronize the motors and traction delivery even when there are only two is not easy. Can't just let them dump all the torque into the tarmac without limitation and/or control. Or it'll get through a set of tyres in a week.
Even the Plaid has limitations on torque in place for their ~2 second 0-60.
Its the first time anyone had used a turbine as a range extender and it took a bloke in a shed in Somerset to think of it
I did a uni project on an electric vehicle with a built in petrol powered charger back in '92 (also considered a flywheel motor that was spun up by the engine and topped up by the brakes). It was a dustcart rather than a super car, though. I thought it made sense for city use and stop/start driving. The numbers didn't quite add up cost wise back then, but it would probably work now.
OK, not turbine-electric, and not production, but both pre-date the Jag!
1963 Chrysler turbine car, 50-ish made, back in the days when cars had style!
And some bloke's home-made turbine-powered Porsche 928:
Ah, if you're going down the pure turbine car, you're got to include the Rover-BRM Le Mans car...
it took a bloke in a shed in Somerset to think of it
I thought of it years ago, and I'm sure I wasn't alone. I didn't make it, of course, because I do not design cars for a living.
Jet engine power units aren’t new they’re called Auxilliary Power Units (APUs) and are fitted to most jet aircraft and helicopters - it’s what’s used to power all the aircraft systems when the main engines are off. Some of them are quite dinky - no bigger than a suitcase.
Great toy but what is the point really? I'd be more impressed if this effort was going into hyper efficient practical vehicles.
