A new British sports car was unveiled at the British Motor Show, and it wasn't a new Aston Martin either. The Lightning GT, produced by the appropriately named Lightning Car Company, packs some serious juice with a claimed 700hp. A classic GT design with a long hood, low roofline, and massive wheels comes with a major surprise. The blue discs that you see aren't exactly traditional brakes. The Lightning GT uses four hub-mounted electric motors, providing direct drive to the wheels. Combined with just 30 battery packs, these deliver the electric equivalent of "700 horsepower" and each motor can be individually controlled. All this means that the car is able to modify the speed of the wheels based on steering angle and velocity, and a number of other factors that the design team wants to dial in. This can add up to exceptional handling, provided all of the computers can talk to each other.
This all sounds lovely, of course. But there are some doubts as to whether it can actually happen. The Lightning packs only 30 batteries (which isn't nearly as many as other electric cars) which are supposed to give the car a 186 mile range on a 10 minute charge. The Lightning Car Company does have video of the car moving on it's own accord, but a full demonstration is yet to be seen.
The company says that deliveries could start in 2010 but that it requires significant investment to make that happen.
For those of you that fear missing the intoxicating sound of a real engine with the purchase of a car like this, it does include a sound module to replicate the noise of everything from a smooth V6 to a throaty V12. Just imagine the fun that can be had with that...
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