The Trident Iceni
If you're looking for speed, without giving up gas mileage, then you definitely need to add this car to your list.
The Iceni comes with a Duramax turbo diesel engine that produces 550 horsepower at 3800 rpm. The car can go from 0-60mph in just 3.9 seconds, the quarter mile in 12 seconds, and has a top speed of 170mph. All that sounds impressive, but it's the gas mileage that's really interesting.
The car has been set up to run on biodiesel, so it's better than the normal gas guzzler right off the bat. The next piece of the puzzle is that the car maker Trident has created what they call "torque multiplication".
“Diesels operate more efficiently within the right rev range and fewer revolutions mean less friction. So a 2.5-litre diesel engine hammering down the M4 at 4,200rpm is not very efficient when with modification it could be doing it at 1,000rpm. Diesel engines are torque rich, but brake-horse power poor," says Phil Bevan, the chief designer.
Probably with the Bugatti Veyron’s 1,000bhp-plus in mind, Bevan insists he is not interested in bhp. “It’s a myth,” he says. “The most important thing is optimizing the efficiency of an engine. In Formula One, the optimum rev point is 18,000rpm, which means that all gear changes occur at this figure. With the Iceni R it is 3,500rpm, and our computer model shows that at 56mph the engine generates 402rpm and that works out at 71.5mpg.”
That's right, the car can get up to 70 plus miles per gallon. A single tank of gas will take you over 1,000 miles.
There's even more to it than mph though. Bevan explains that the General Motors diesel engine has its first service at 100,000 miles and the gearbox is sealed for life. “The stainless steel chassis has a 100-year guarantee, while the Kevlar carbon fiber body means that it’s a car that you can hand down to your grandchildren,” he says.
The car will still cost you a pretty penny or two, starting at around $110,000. You can read more about the car over at the Trident site HERE.
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Posted by Ghostshark under Cars |
