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| Editor Alwyn Viljoen in the world’s fastest (and so far only) hybrid 4x4 Daewoo Matiz |
IT is, in theory, quite simple to turn any car into an electric
hybrid with four or two-wheel drive.
Former Maritzburg mechanic Jens Denks and I proved in September
2014, when we created just such a hybrid car to race with at Hakskeenpan.
We are
still very proud with the results of our late-night labours with the angle
grinder. The rough calculations on the back of an oil-stained envelope show ours to be the world’s fastest, strongest (and so far only) hybrid 4x4
Daewoo Matiz. It even has a big red knob marked “electric” to engage the
otherwise rattling motorbike chain between the fork-lift motor and sprocket
welded to the rear diff.
Now, we are not sure if it was our effort alone that inspired four
major companies to do what we did, but we can sell them a lot good advice*. And
they certainly can afford to pay.
Various UK government agencies have granted some R73,6 million in
total to four companies to research a “through-the-road” hybrid system, in which
the internal-combustion engine drives the front wheels and the electric motor
powers the rear wheels.
The four companies with a finger in this R73-million pie are
Controlled Power Technologies (CPT), Ricardo, Provector and Tata.
CPT will develop the electric motor and control system, Ricardo is
a global engineering, strategic and environmental consultancy with a vision to
maximise efficiency and eliminate waste, and Provector is a small company in
Cambridge that specialises in power-electronics, control and battery systems for
hybrid and electric vehicles. Tata will provide two small cars.
There is a good chance that the fine engineers employed by this
foursome won’t need, or heed, our advice and that their hybrid may as
consequence be a bit faster than our Atos.
We still blame the lack of space on the back of that envelope for
not allowing us to factor in just how much slower the weight of four big truck
batteries, a fork-lift motor and a Corolla steel axle would make our little car.
As things stands, the bar for the next “through-the-road” hybrid
system is not set very high.
The unofficial word record for a hybrid 4x4 Matis (noted on the
down slope of Victoria Road in Pietermaritzburg) was about 32 km/h.
We simply called our project the 4x4ing Matiz (and as the deadline
for the race got closer and closer, the forking Matiz).
The well-funded foursome calls their axle-in-a-little car project
“Fever” — for Forty-Eight Volt Electrified Rear-axle.
We like to think the companies are in this way paying oblique
homage to our Witness Wheels effort,
for Fever is also the group title for our community papers.
* Mainly, don’t do what we did.
(First published in Witness Wheels, 19 May 2016)
