The world is trying to go greener and every automobile company in the world is supporting this cause in some or the other way. Not one to be left behind is German car maker, BMW. They have most of the cars in their range using the brand’s EfficientDynamics concept. In layman’s language, this means efficient methods to propel cars without much compromise on the performance, fuel efficiency and continuous development of greener means for their vehicles. This time around, BMW are trying for a hybrid supercar which would run on diesel as well as electricity. This concept car was shown at the recently concluded Paris Motor show. This plug in hybrid has a rear axle mounted, 3 cylinder, common rail turbo diesel with electric motors on each axle.
These electric motors on each axle are charged by 98 lithium polymer batteries. These batteries are to be charged by regular plug point and it would take 2 and half hours to get it recharged. Moreover, the car’s brakes are equipped with regenerative braking to get the car’s batteries recharged while the brake pedal is pressed on the move. This concept car is a sports coupe and has a seating capacity of 2+2. The meaner part is that this car would produce 332.5 PS and in the test runs, this car shot from 0-100 kmph in just 4.6 seconds whereas the greener part is that this car returns 26.5 kilometers on the highway and only emits 99 g/km using the diesel motor and about 23 g/km using the hybrid power train.
The car features a low drag coefficient of 0.22 Cd whereas its ride height is very low at 1.24 m. Going by the looks of the car, it is focused mainly on reducing the drag and improving aerodynamics overall. The car looks the part that any BMW car would go by. It has those traditional kidney grilles at the front with an eyelid shaped head lamps. The doors are butterfly shaped and are quite innovative. The stance of the car makes one realize more about the Buggati Veyron influence. This car would go into production by 2013 and all the time until then is to be spent on its further development.
On the other side of the performance bracket, BMW or rather one of their tuning firms, G-power has gone ahead and made the BMW M5 one of the fastest 4 door cars in the world. This was done in 2008 when they tinkered around with a BMW M5 and made it the scorching M5 Hurricane RS which reached a top speed of 370 kmph. For the year 2010, they embarked on another ambitious project and that is to make the BMW M6 a more powerful coupe. They have plonked in a V10 engine which is bi-supercharged and makes 811 PS of power and a thunderous 800 Nm of torque. To bring about all this change, G-power replaced the engine components with high performance parts to bring about as well as handle the extra power. To extract maximum performance, most of the ECU commands were re-mapped and also position of the 10 cylinders altered. The outer look gives one of the impression of a much meaner looking car. The front carbon fibre skirt and rear spoiler are one of the major aids to increase the aerodynamics. The new BMW M6 Hurricane RR roars from 0-100 km/h in a scant 4.3 seconds. Scant because this car weighs more than 2 tonnes. 200 kmph is dispatched in 9.3 seconds whereas the 300 mark comes in just a shade under 20 seconds. The top speed falls just shy off the 400 km/h mark, at 391 km per hour.
To retain the exclusivity of this car, G-power are going to make only 10 units across for the world. It is believed that 4 have been already booked and the price tag for this car is pegged at Rs.1.5 crore. This amount is excluding duty and all the taxes. A superb toy for the wealthy few. Unfortunately this car isn’t greener in any aspect since it wasn’t made out for that. The car is been provided under full warranty from BMW.
