Aston Martin and Alset Global, a technology and engineering company founded in 2005, have announced that they will be entering an Aston Martin Rapide S into the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race, which takes place May 19-20.
The car they will be using is a prototype, and it features a twin-turbo system, in addition to the fact that it can also burn both hydrogen and gasoline (in tandem or separately). The company whose name is “Tesla” spelt backwards says it plans to complete the first ever zero-emissions hydrogen-powered lap of the ‘Ring, and “make history.”
There are not that many details about the car itself, but they do say that it can hold up to 3.23 kg of gaseous hydrogen, which is good for a claimed maximum range of 250 km (155 miles), on top of the range the car already has when using regular fuel, though, this isn’t directly mentioned. The aim for this whole exercise is to prove that hydrogen-powered cars can be successfully engineered today, and if an equivalent system would be put into a regular road-going Rapide S, it would only increase the price by 15 percent, according to Alset Global.
Now, so that there’s no confusion, this is not a fuel-cell car, as it actually burns the hydrogen, instead of merely adding oxygen to create water and a faint electric charge which goes to batteries and then electric motors. This car has no extra batteries, which would have weighed it down, so performance should be improved, especially since a twin-turbo system was previously mentioned…
Furthermore, when the car is running completely on hydrogen, it only emits water vapor, so they claim the system can be as green as any other alternative, without the added complexity, weight and cost of conventional efficiency-boosting methods.
Note: Standard Aston Martin Rapide S also pictured below
By Andrei Nedelea
PHOTO GALLERY
