dis[PLACE]ment architecture

A hybrid that will make you feel like a man.

Not a big fan of the hybrid Escape's grocery-getter image? Does your Honda Civic or Accord hybrid just blend into the crowd? Are GM's hybrid full-size trucks pointless (A real man drives a diesel anyway, right)? Is a Prius just too damn effeminate?

Well, have no fear.

Two big players who fabricate Formula One dream machines, N.Technology and Tatuus, have teamed up to build the first hybrid formula car. The single-seater open-wheeled race car will have a 250hp engine, along with an electric motor that uses regenerative braking to recharge its batteries.

The fact that hybrid engine technology is even being considered by world-class Formula One designers serves as an ad hoc endorsement for the idea. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, right?

This of course begs the following question: Why are all the hybrids currently on the market so damn boring? Sure, the Lexus GS450h is a swift car, but as we all know, Lexuses are cars marketed to the nouveau riche who think they are too good for Toyotas - not to true aficionados of automobilia. Several years ago, Honda promised that the next iteration of its NSX uber-car would be a hybrid, but that car is a piece of vaporware that has yet to materialize. And I'm not just talking expensive cars. Why aren't hybrid versions of GM's inexpensive and hot-selling Pontiac Solstice / Saturn Sky / Opel GT roadsters available? At least it would but a prettier face on the world of the hybrid.

posted by clintor @ 11:29 PM