(NU) - When most peoplethink of hybrid cars, they imag-ine practical, mild-mannered ve-hicles. But could we someday seehybrid racecars burning up thetracks?

In March of 2010, Porsche(www.porsche.com/usa/) un-veiled three hybrids at the Gene-va Auto Show: one for the road;one for the race track; and onethat is a genuine Porsche super-car. These innovative newPorsches -- the Cayenne S Hy-brid, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid andthe 918 Spyder -- show that hy-brids can be sporty, fast and pow-erful.

The Cayenne S, Porsche’sfirst production hybrid car, fea-tures a sophisticated parallel fullhybrid system with the combinedpower of a 380 horsepower V6combustion engine and an elec-tric motor. The car has the po-tential to significantly enhancefuel economy at high speeds --when the driver lifts off the ac-celerator at cruising or highwayspeeds, the gasoline engine canbe switched off and disengagedfrom the drivetrain. This enablesthe vehicle to move without com-bustion or electric power.

The GT3 R’s innovative hy-brid technology has been devel-oped especially for racing. Thefront axle features two powerfulelectric motors that supplementthe car’s 480 horsepower, natu-rally aspirated four-liter flat-sixthat drives the rear wheels. In-stead of the heavy batteries foundin hybrid road cars, an electricalflywheel power generator resides

next to the driver to deliver ener-gy to the electric motors. The 911GT3 R Hybrid competed in the24 Hours on the Nordschleife ofNürburgring in May 2010, lead-ing for eight hours before retiringafter 22 hours and 15 minutes formechanical reasons. In the 2010Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta itfinished 18th out of a startingfield of 41 cars.

With the 918 Spyder high-per-formance mid-engine concept hy-brid sports car, Porsche is dis-playing its expertise in the fieldof highly efficient and low-emis-sion drive technology. The 918Spyder prototype with plug-inhybrid technology combineshigh-tech performance featureswith electric mobility to producea fascinating range of qualities. Ithas an ultra-compact car’s emis-sion levels of 70 grams of CO2per kilometer, and it consumesjust three liters of fuel per 100kilometers, but can go from 0 to62 mph in just under 3.2 secondsand reach a top track speed over198 mph.

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Hybrid cars can hold theirown on the racetrack.

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