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BMW to Satisfy Formula One’s Need for Greener Speed
Jun 12 2008 by Courtney Messenbaugh
6/12/08
Automaker to Develop Hybrid Racecar
I am a fast girl who likes fast cars (that just sounds wrong, but it’s true, kind of…). The opportunities I’ve had to drive high-performance vehicles around a track have been some of the most thrilling of my life. My only issue is high-performance technology plus speed usually equals one gas-guzzling machine, which causes my thrill-o-meter to ebb. Were it not for that, I probably would be a world-famous-racecar-driving mama…well, at least in my dreams.
The geniuses at BMW in Frankfurt, Germany, are trying to turn that gas-guzzling formula upside down. To be more precise, BMW recently announced it’s developing hybrid technology for a Formula One racecar. The racecar is scheduled to hit the track sometime next year.
I’ve never driven a Formula One vehicle, but since it would be about twice as powerful as any “high-performance” vehicle I have driven, I guarantee I’d enjoy it. Furthermore, as a hybrid it would be love at first drive.
BMW is simply responding to a rules change made by the Formula One governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, based in Paris (natch). The FIA decided it will allow Formula One teams to boost the power of their vehicles by using fuel-saving technologies. Without getting into the higher engineering aspects of this, the ability to add electric power translates into more horsepower for these cars as well as some gas-saving goodness.
You’re thinking, “So what? How does this relate to me?” When a manufacturer researches beneficial technologies for a racecar, the ones that work could ultimately show up in our normal-life cars. What I’m trying to tell you, ladies, is that if BMW and other manufacturers come up with successful hybrid technology for Formula One racecars, we soon could get our hot little hands on the everyday car of our dreams. Imagine it: sleek, fast, super-duper fuel efficient, roomy, can win every race from the playground to the proving ground and, of course, sexy! Bring it on BMW.
