The Frazer-Nash Namir by Giugiaro claims to be the world's fastest hybrid. The car unveiled in Geneva is a 187 MPH missile miserly enough to run on vapors. How fitting.
The Namir hybrid concept is a collaboration between Italdesign Giugiaro and Frazer-Nash, and starts off with a carbon fiber chassis mounted to a searing orange body, a substantial underfloor battery pack, a 0.8-liter gasoline rotary engine and two electric motors, one front and one rear. The total combined power output is a respectable 370 HP and Giugiaro claims 0-to-62 times of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 187 MPH with a 1,200 mile range — we suspect the last two figures are mutually exclusive. And in actuality, until we see video of instrumented testing, we're still going to call this car the world's fastest vaporware.
One quick aside — why anyone would go through the trouble of completely rendering a golf bag to put in the trunk for the cutaway model, we don't quite understand, but it serves to reinforce our notion of electric and hybrid cars as toys of the wealthy.
FRAZER-NASH NAMIR BY GIUGIARO The fastest and most ecological hybrid in the world
Namir is a concept car born of the collaboration between Italdesign Giugiaro and Frazer-Nash, a company specialized in the design, construction, and marketing of hybrid systems deeply rooted in the historical automotive manufacturing company founded in England by Archie Frazer-Nash in 1923.
Presented during the 79th edition of the International Motor Show in Geneva, Namir represents the turning of a new page in the book being written by the Torino-based firm since 2004, opening with the Alessandro Volta project and followed up with the commemorative dream car – Quaranta - the result of research and development on sports cars fuelled by hybrid systems produced last year in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the company's founding.
The Arabian name Namir, meaning "tiger", sums up the main features of the concept car: elegance and power, aggressiveness and litheness of lines. Without any doubt it is a sports car: a coupé with two bucket seats and an accurate equilibrium between style and mechanics, aesthetics and contents. The sophisticated mechanics as well as the avant-garde electric and electronics systems are wrapped up into an aggressive package with an exquisitely balanced proportion of volumes and a stunning contrast between the sharp accents of the rear end and the sinuous front lines that emphasise this supercar's performance: over 300 km/h (187 mph) at maximum speed and an acceleration of 0 to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds and from 0 to 200km/h in 10.4 seconds, making this the fastest hybrid car in the world.
Namir is also an ecological vehicle. The hybrid system developed together with Frazer-Nash combines an 814 cc endothermic rotary engine with four electric motors, guaranteeing autonomy of 39 km with one litre of fuel CO2 emissions of less than 60 grams per km travelled.Namir is not merely an exercise in style in and of itself, but rather a fully developed project followed in each and every phase by the Torino-based firm: chassis, body, and mechanical layout were designed and constructed by the Engineering Division, the exterior and interior style was entrusted to the Italdesign Giugiaro Style Centre, while the electrical and electronic elements were developed in collaboration with Frazer-Nash.
The prototype was built entirely in the Italdesign Giugiaro plant.
Photo credit autoblog.nl