This Insight gets 30 mpg and we're proud of it
The jewel of the PARD Hybrid Vehicle Exhibition last June was the Oaktec Honda Insight. The event, the first of its kind for hybrids in the UK, was held at Prodrive's test facility in Warwickshire and hosted hundreds of delegates including FIA technical consultant Peter Wright. This particular Insight is a class A winner in the Formula 1000 rally championship which is based in northwest England. That's right, a rally car. More impressively, it competes with all of its low-emissions systems intact resulting in a gas mileage of 30 mpg while it's competing.
Paul Andrews is the man who originally conceptualized a competitive hybrid and reaps his reward by piloting the car. He and Oaktec are constantly experimenting to optimize the car's performance while maintaining its low emissions levels.
At the time of exhibition, the Insight ran on "petrol," however, an update on green-car-guide.com notes that the car has successfully raced on E85. Andrews said, "The car ran faultlessly through out the event and the ethanol fuel gave us no noticeable drop in performance."
Oaktec now has an agreement with Warwick University's International Automotive Research Center (IARC) which has previous experience in hybrid research and together they are further developing the hybrid system for motorsport as well as optimizing E85 performance.
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[Source: EEMS]
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