2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid to wav ... s green flag this weekend

Posted Nov 10th 2008 3:28PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski
Filed under: Motorsports, Hybrids/Alternative, Sedans/Saloons, Green, Ford



For the first time ever, a NASCAR Sprint Cup event will be paced by a hybrid, Ford's fresh-faced 2010 Fusion Hybrid to be exact. The race is scheduled to take place this Sunday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The box-stock Fusion hybrid will be able to travel on electricity alone for up to 47 miles per hour, which isn't quite fast enough to kick off the race, so this one will be burning some gas. One thing that the hybrid can do that the Sprint Cup cars only wish they could is travel up to 700 miles per tank of fuel. Anyway, the leafy-camouflaged hybrid will lead the race cars to the green flag (waved by none other than Mark Fields) to kick things off, after which a 2010 Ford Fusion Sport will pick up the mantle as pace car for the rest of the event.

Both the 2010 Fusion hybrid and Fusion Sport will see their formal debut at the LA Auto Show on the 19th. Both models are new for '10, with the hybrid posting a rumored best-in-class fuel mileage of at least 38 mpg in the city, while its Sport sibling gets Ford's new 3.5-liter V6 engine producing 263 hp and 249 lb-ft of torque. Best of all, every Fusion model will come standard with a six-speed automatic.

Gallery: 2010 Ford Fusion


[Source: Ford]



prehistory OHV machine jump to the top of trend:banana:

Pointless PR Exercise, Go!

what a misleading thread title.

A hybrid in nearly full throttle racing? Completely pointless bullshit PR move. Wow look at the 200gr fuel saved during start and pitstop! Unbelievable! Also look at the overall worse fuel efficiency because it has to haul an electric engine + battery around.

Quote from AndroidXP :

A hybrid in nearly full throttle racing? Completely pointless bullshit PR move. Wow look at the 200gr fuel saved during start and pitstop! Unbelievable! Also look at the overall worse fuel efficiency because it has to haul an electric engine + battery around.

Emmm....did you actually read the first post? It's just the safety/pace car. Stupid, but good TV time for the car itself.

That said, the worst misleading thread title in long time.

Finally technology in a Nascar race that you can not find from your relatively modern road car - but this time the newer tech is on the track!

Will the rest of the safety car still use 1590s technology, like all the other cars on track?

Oops just the pace car? Still a completely useless PR stunt.

38 mpg? That's it? How pathetic; this is 2008. With my 1998 2.3L 4-cylinder Acura CL I got 32 mpg on my last fill-up, and that's when I drive vigorously while delivering.

Ford is a joke. GM is a joke. Chrysler is a joke. To hell with their bailout.

Of course it is a publicity stunt, but TBH if hybrid pace cars and bio-fuel race cars can get motorsport a greener image without producing a field of diesels and hybrids I'm all for it.

Quote from Lateralus :

38 mpg? That's it? How pathetic; this is 2008. With my 1998 2.3L 4-cylinder Acura CL I got 32 mpg on my last fill-up, and that's when I drive vigorously while delivering.

Ford is a joke. GM is a joke. Chrysler is a joke. To hell with their bailout.

In fairness as a city figure it's not bad for an overweight car with a big engine.

Quote from ajp71 :

In fairness as a city figure it's not bad for an overweight car with a big engine.

True, but my point was that it isn't nearly good enough to compete with cars from other companies which can get much better mileage. Just being "not bad" doesn't cut it when the company's going bankrupt.

Quote from Lateralus :

True, but my point was that it isn't nearly good enough to compete with cars from other companies which can get much better mileage. Just being "not bad" doesn't cut it when the company's going bankrupt.

The Prius gets 48mpg city (and is a considerably smaller car with only a 1.5 litre engine).

Closer comparisons would be:
Ford Fusion 3 litre - 18mpg
BMW 328 (auto) - 19mpg
Lexus ES350 - 19mpg
Passat (3.6 litre) - 17mpg

As much as I hate the concept of hybrid technology if people are insistent on driving around cities in cars with large engines they do make sense. Of course the better option, in terms of cost and driving enjoyment, would be well developed small engines. A modern 1.6 litre conventional 4 cylinder engine developing in excess of 120bhp should be more than enough to propel a medium size 5 door car (which should weigh no more than 1100kg) far faster than is legally permissable and it should be able to cruise comfortably at motorway speeds, if it can't then the car needs to go on a diet.

what's so exceptional about this news? When I first saw this I thought NASCAR teams were actually going to be racing with hybrids....

Quote from lizardfolk :

what's so exceptional about this news? When I first saw this I thought NASCAR teams were actually going to be racing with hybrids....

give it a year or two. They might actually decide that fuel injection actually works!

Does my head in on how they are using such 'old' tech on these cars. They did look at moving to FI a couple years ago abut in the end they didn't because of 'costs' associated with regulating the new engines. Total BS IMO. This was looked at the same time of the COT car IIRC.

Quote from lizardfolk :

what's so exceptional about this news? When I first saw this I thought NASCAR teams were actually going to be racing with hybrids....

It is what I want...
OHV 2 vlave carburettor is a pre-history relics

Overhead valves are too high tech for Nascar!

They use valves?

They still use carburettors?

I've never understood that argument. What is it about carburettors that people don't like? The fact they can produce just as much power? They fact they are easier to fit, fix and use? Or just the fact they are slightly worse on economy and emissions?

actually I am pretty keen on carbs, it has an oldie and primitive feel to it, and it leads to some special driving technics that just don't happen with fuel injection, how you deal with the leaness and try to get the maxium power with your throttle control is very amusing.

It's actually one of my lifetime dream to have a project car with a carburated engine with the simplest electronics with no computer, that I would keep for the next decades when the rest of the world are on hybird/electric/nuclear whatever powered cars.

Nice bullshit story, those hybrids are, aye? I mean, everybody that don't know how they're made are all like "zomg, green car, I'm friendly to the environment driving this!", but when you look at the way they're made, and see that they're not so good energy wise, you realize it's bullshit.

I wonder how long it will be before the general opinion becomes bad towards hybrids and embraces a new and truly clean technology?

I understand the PR from Ford, though. The fusion is one of the 'not so bad cars' they're making and having a hybrid of that is certainly a good idea for them. It probably won't save them, though.

On a relatively close subject, I heard GM uses like 3 billion USD per month of their cash bank and that in a few months they're be out of order