You may have heard that the celebrities’ favourite Toyota Prius doesn’t give as much economy as hoped for, but this depends on how you drive it; the regenerative braking works best when you brake hard rather than gently coasting down. Really, it suits a driving style of hard acceleration and braking in short bursts, rather like racing. Will we see a Prius race series? Hmmmm.
However, a number of race car companies are now working full tilt on fitting hybrid drives, even the LeMans regulations for next year have been changed to allow them.
This year Gumpert fitted a 100kW electric drive to the front wheels of their Apollo supercar, with full regenerative braking and a traditional 3.3 litre twin turbo V8 driving the rear. This gives the four wheel drive grip advantage when accelerating hard but also gave an unexpected benefit - in this year’s 24 hour Nurbergring the V8 blew the gearbox, which would have been game over but the electric drive kept it going over the finish line.
As hybrids get more common, parts will start turning up in scrap yards, how long before the Banger Rallies are won by a smoking Porsche 928 with and extra 200bhp electric drive to the front?