WrightspeedWickedPowerfulSeriesHybrids-+GarbageTrucks!

[MitchJi]

Hi,

http://wrightspeed.com/products/the-circuit/

The Circuit™
The Wrightspeed Circuit: Taking Luxury Performance Brands from 0 to 60 in under 3 seconds. Become Part of the Future of Acceleration: Switch to Wrightspeed.

The Wrightspeed Circuit has all wheel drive and all wheel control, making it the most advanced powertrain ever. With a 250 hp electric motor individually controlling each wheel, the Circuit sets a new standard for power and handling.
Highest performance system available – more than 1,000 hp
Integrated motor, 2-Speed Gear-Reduction, and Power Electronics Module
Vehicle Dynamics Control, including stability, regenerative braking, and traction control
Native All Wheel Drive System, with no differentials or right-angle drives

The GTD (Geared Traction Drive)
Wrightspeed was able to make the fully integrated GTD by designing the inverter, 250 hp motor, and multi-speed transmission from the ground up, optimizing compatibility and system efficiency.

This Silicon Valley “systems approach” has yielded an exceptionally high-power, compact, and lightweight system. Wrightspeed’s Drivesystem is geared to optimize low-end torque, for hauling up hills, while preserving top highway cruising speeds.
Wrightspeed demonstrates software controlled clutch-less shifting

Wrightspeed’s Powertrains move the complexity from mechanical systems into electronic and software systems, making them lighter, cheaper, and more efficient. Clutchless gear shifting is a good example of this:

Traditional multi-speed transmissions use clutches (synchro rings, multi-disc wet clutches, twin-clutch arrangements) to achieve synchronization before engagement; this makes them, heavy, expensive, and less efficient. But with electric motors, it becomes possible to control the motor speed so precisely, and change it so quickly, that the shifter dog-clutches can be engaged without clashing. The sync function that used to be performed by mechanical means has been shifted into software control of electronics, driving the electric motor with precision. The system is therefore lighter, cheaper, and more efficient. Wrightspeed’s control software weighs nothing, costs nothing to manufacture, doesn’t wear out, and uses the electronics that are already present to drive the motor.
[youtube]TXQGw7S-xOU[/youtube]
imulated Truck Acceleration, Full Torque Stop

• Motor is accelerated to 20,700 rpm in first gear, Upshift (Shift from 1st gear to 2nd gear)
  Motor torque is reduced to zero
  Shift actuator is moved to neutral position (mid-stroke)
  Motor speed is synchronized to the correct speed for second gear, 9000 rpm (80 ms)
  Shift actuator moves to second gear
  Torque is reapplied to maintain “vehicle speed”, Downshift (Shift from 2nd gear to 1st gear)
  Motor torque is reduced to zero
  Shift actuator is moved to neutral position (mid-stroke)
  Motor speed is synchronized to the correct speed for first gear, 20,700 rpm (80 ms)
  Shift actuator moves to first gear, Full-Torque Traction Drive Stop
  Motor comes to full stop

http://www.hybridcars.com/wrightspeed-combines-gas-turbine-and-batteries-for-big-fuel-savings/

As for automotive applications, Wrightspeed says it sees taxis as its best use for the fuel-saving and emission-slashing plug-in series hybrid technology, but it is now working with a supercar manufacturer using Wrightspeed’s “Circuit” derivation of its REV powertrain.

As far as we’re told, no publicity has been garnered for the car with four 250-horsepower motors – one inboard at each wheel – and the microturbine and related hardware, but this is not the Rimac car we’ve seen from Croatia, but a “real OEM” is making it.

Will we one day see a car roll out of a secret garage with two-and-a-half times the power of a Tesla Model S combined with significantly lower curb weight?

True, it will be a series hybrid like Fisker might have wanted to build if its engineering was up to it, and the company had survived, but instead of a clunky gas engine and mediocre mileage, it could make the Batmobile look run of the mill – and sound like it.

Wright said the company has just patented the system that enables torque vectoring, stability control, traction control and ABS.

Whether it will run toe-to-toe or faster than a McLaren P1 or Porsche 918 Spyder remains to be seen, but this will have more power, and Wright says, unprecedented four-wheel control to make even ordinary drivers perform like heroes.

The software, which Wright says was just patented, dynamically controls each of the four wheels independently. If the car is driven hard into a corner, it controls slip angle, torque speed, and can even apply reverse torque to, say, the inboard wheels or as necessary.

A brain does the thinking in microseconds and does what no ordinary car could do.

The less than complimentary term for such tech is “nannies” but all the supercar makers are going this way to keep their high-paying patrons on the road, and pointed forward when they romp out and play in cars with too much power for an average driver.

Of course, says Wright, if you dive into a 15 mph corner at 100 mph, the car “won’t prevent suicide” and even the laws of physics – while seemingly stretched with each tire monitored and manipulated – will take over if the absolutely ham-fisted insist.

Here is a video about their truck technology:
[youtube]8rKsk6hEcNQ[/youtube]

And one of their trucks drifting on The Bonneville Salt Flats at about 100 mph:

spot featuring the Wrightspeed electric/turbine powered truck performing on The Bonneville Salt Flats as it is tailed by a turbine powered Bell 206 Ranger Helicopter.

[youtube]FemZBlGlmOE[/youtube]

 

[Hillhater]

Wow...
I can see how that Hybrid Truck system could be a game changer for bus's as well as delivery/garbage trucks.
But the "Circuit" concept with each wheel not only having its own drive motor, but also it own 2 speed gearbox !!!..
...that is really risky. Imagine one of those transmissions just hesitating a shift by a fraction of a second at full power ???
It would throw the vehicle off the road.
Is this the AWD drive package that Jaguar used in their concept C-X75 gas turbine Hybrid ?