Supples’ Pub

AutoblogGreen has a couple great articles up today, which seemed perfect to encompass both the good and bad sides of the ever-present struggle for green technology.

You may be familiar with low-rolling resistance tires, tires that generate less friction between you and the ground. But wait, isn’t that "friction" (aka TRACTION) what keeps your car planted on the road? It sure is and despite the huge push in Europe and U.S. for stricter fuel mileage standards, tire manufacturer Continental is pushing back saying that lower resistance tires are not a good solution. Braking efficiency can be reduced by 10%, meaning if two otherwise identical cars brake from 100 km/h (62 mph), the one with low resistance tires will still be doing 35 km/h (22 mph) while the other is stopped. I’ll take sticky tires in every car I own, thank you.

On the other end of the spectrum, green technology doesn’t have to mean anemic performance. This year’s "Race engine of the year" can be found in the Toyota Supra HV-R race car, which won the 24 hours of Tokachi endurance race.

The Supra HV-R uses a modified hybrid system with two special features: a set of three motors (two inside the front wheels at 10 kW each and one at the back, good for 150 kW) which allows the car to recover more energy when braking and a capacitor instead of rechargeable batteries. The Super GT-spec 4,480cc V8 is rated at 480 horsepower and 376 lb-ft of torque. The car’s weight is a little over 2,300 pounds.

Something tells me this beast would beat the GTO’s 4.3 MPG race fuel mileage, and be ridiculously faster too. The use of a capacitor instead of a rechargeable battery is a nice touch as well - in a race vehicle, you don’t need long-term power storage so a capacitor makes perfect sense.

On a related note, did you know that Porsche created the world’s first hybrid over 100 years ago?