In the 1960s there were already concrete plans for cars with turbine engines. In the Ariel Hipercar, the vision of the past should become reality, although it is actually an electric car.
As early as 2017, the English sports car manufacturer Ariel promised an electric sports car with more than 1000 hp for 2020 under the project name Hipercar. For a long time it was quiet about the new model, but a prototype that has now been presented is fueling hopes of a possible start of series production in two years. It is an idiosyncratic, 4.30 meter long gullwing. With a weight of 1.5 tons, it is a heavy sports car – despite the aluminum chassis and carbon body. Especially by Ariel standards. Hammer acceleration The e-drive is to blame for the many kilos, of course, in which Ariel combines up to four motors close to the wheels in an 800-volt architecture with a system output of up to 880 kW/1196 hp. In addition to the powerful all-wheel drive version, a 2WD variant with two units on the rear axle and correspondingly half the power is also planned. In the case of the 4WD version, the sprint from 0 to 100 should take exactly 4.4 seconds. However, 100 does not mean km/h, but miles and thus the equivalent of around 160 km/h. Ariel promises a maximum speed of over 250 km/h. Low-power turbine The range, on the other hand, is modest at 240 kilometers, although the battery pack, which is optimized for fast delivery of a lot of power, has a storage capacity of 62 kWh. Nevertheless, drivers of the Hipercar should not be plagued by real fear of range, because a range extender in the form of a 35 kW turbine is intended to generate electricity for further kilometers from e-fuel or hydrogen. Special performance and technology naturally have a cost. In this case, probably around one million pounds, which corresponds to a good 1.14 million euros.
source site-13