TURBINE-POWERED CAR ACCELERATES LIKE A JET
Finally able to buy a Jaguar? How about one powered by turbine jets?
- By Eric Bland
Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:38 PM ET
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THE GIST
- Jaguar has unveiled a new turbine-powered car, the C-X75.
- The car runs on micro-sized turbine engines that burn fuel to charge the battery, which powers four electric motors.
- The car can go from 0-62 mph in 3.4 seconds and has a range of 560 miles.
Jaguar's C-X75 can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in a blistering 3.4 seconds. Click to enlarge this image.
Jaguar Cars 2010
Jaguar Cars 2010
Jaguar, working with Bladon Jets, recently unveiled a hybrid concept car, the C-X75, that can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in a blistering 3.4 seconds.
The car gets its power from two new micro-sized gas turbine engines that are slightly larger and longer than a human forearm. The jet-like engines feed four electric motors, which give the car a range of 560 miles.
"It has long been a dream to get gas turbines into a car; the automotive industry has been trying for 50-plus years," said Gary Lamb, Director at Bladon Jets. "It is only now that we have a viable proposition."
To most people a gas turbine engine is the huge cylinder bolted beneath the wing of a commercial airliner, although they are also widely used in stationary power plants.
Moving or stationary, a gas turbine works the same way. The blades rotate, sucking in air and compressing it. Inject and ignite the fuel and the resulting blast of hot gas can propel a plane forward or generate electricity for a power grid.
Whatever the application, turbines are most efficient at turning fuel into power when they run at high speed, high pressure and high temperature, said Fredic Ehrich, a turbine expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That's one reason why gas turbines work so well in aircraft; other than taxing, landing, or taking off, the engine runs at high pressure, high power and high temperature.
Cars, however, don't run continuously. They start, they stop. They creep along in miles long traffic jams on the interstate. A car equipped with a turbine engine that had to power up and power down each time a driver pushed or released the gas pedal would destroy the fuel efficiency, said Ehrich.
So how did they create a gas turbine engine that is fuel efficient yet can go from zero to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds?
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