Speedy green: Italdesign-Giugiaro's Frazer-Nash Namir

Whatever uncertainties await us on the other side of oil, there will still be speed. If the Frazer-Nash Namir is any indication, there will still be a frightening amount of it.

One of the stars of this year's Geneva motor show, the Namir points the way to a responsible generation's supercar--and sets out to prove the technology for its mass-production cars, too.

It's incredibly fast, capable of punching from 0 to 62 mph in 3.5 seconds and on to 124 mph less than seven seconds later. It will run beyond 187 mph.

Using Formula One simulation software, the Namir has an indicated lap time at the Monza track equaling the quickest FIA GT2 racing cars. On road tires.

OK, if you push enough engine and rubber into a conventional supercar's body, you could probably do the same thing. But the Namir, designed personally by Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro, is different. At full throttle, the Namir will pump out less carbon dioxide than the Smart's cleanest city car. Frazer-Nash cites 50 grams per kilometer (the diesel Smart emits 88) but says this number could be improved around town.

And here's the clincher: The Namir's 13-gallon fuel tank will last for up to 1,250 miles. Around town, it will travel even farther.

The Namir is a series hybrid, using a more efficient technology than the parallel-hybrid systems favored by Toyota, Honda, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz.

In the hybrids we already know, the wheels can be driven by either electric or gasoline-powered motors. In the Namir, the energy from its 814-cc rotary engine is sent directly into a lithium-polymer battery pack. When you squeeze the throttle, that energy is sent to the Namir's four electric motors, which directly drive the wheels. They are capable of 90 kilowatts each, giving the angular supercar 270 kilowatts of power; with no drivetrain losses, every last twist of torque reaches the wheels.

There is no gearbox, so the Frazer-Nash is an all-wheel-drive supercar. The electric motors recharge the batteries when the driver brakes or rolls to slow down, and in town, it can be directly charged at a power socket, as with a full-electric car. That's why its urban emissions will actually be lower than its highway outputs.

It's all based on the carbon-fiber chassis of Giugiaro's Quaranta concept car, seen last year at Geneva. Unlike other carbon chassis, the Namir's doesn't have alloy subframes bolted to either end. This carbon chassis runs from the front axle line to the rear, with a carbon F1-style crash cone on the nose and another for the rear to carry the engines.

The Namir's carbon chassis runs from the front axle line to the rear, with a carbon F1-style crash cone on the nose and another for the rear to carry the engine.

The modified Quaranta was already designed with space for the battery exactly where Frazer-Nash wanted to put its batteries. Italdesign-Giugiaro co-chairman Fabrizio Giugiaro said the Namir weighs 3,200 pounds, including 330 pounds of batteries. "But we can make it better if it needs to be," he said.

A rotary engine might not be an obvious choice for good economy and good emissions, but Giugiaro explained that while there were limitations across a normal rev range, the Namir's rotary only ever operated at one rpm level. "It comes from Germany, and it's the best way to generate electricity," he said. "It can run low rpm all the time, and the vibrations are very low, too. In a city like Turin, we calculate it would do 40 kilometers for every liter [about 160 mpg]."

Aerodynamics and cooling have been a big focus, because the water temperature can't rise past 65 degrees Celsius, but the Cd must still come in at less than 0.30.

There is a low nose with a small central radiator that only cools air for the climate-control system, and the small radiators on either side are for the two front electric motors.

"Frazer-Nash has no styling language, so I had to invent it," Giugiaro said. "This is a traditional shape for this kind of car. The customer wanted something traditional to be seen along with Ferrari and Lambor-ghini. A simple, mid-engine exotic car, oriented to production."

The interior is large, too. With no gearbox, no exhaust, no propeller shaft and no center differential, the Namir doesn't need a traditional box-shaped central tunnel. All it needs is the space to run electrical cables from one end to the other.

Giugiaro insists the car is ready for homologation, and the heavy-shouldered body would not need to change. If it ever goes into production, he said, it would have to switch to an alloy engine carrier to ease repair costs.

Almost certainly, the Namir won't be built in great numbers. It might be the world's fastest hybrid (and the FIA is considering a one-make Namir race series), but that's not the point. Instead, the Namir exists so that Frazer-Nash can prove that its systems work and to attract attention from mainstream manufacturers looking for the hybrid edge in more consumer-focused models.

"Can you imagine what it will be like as a city car? Quiet, fast, with this sort of mileage?" Giugiaro asked. "To do it as something that can be really used on a track, to compare it with the traditional systems and to test for the future. That's why we went this way to start. If we went to Geneva with a beautiful compact car with new features like these, nobody would care.

"Maybe next year, we are going to put that knowledge and system in a small, economical car. Then Geneva might be ready for it."

Today's Frazer-Nash is a far cry from the English company that became famous for chain-drive racing cars between the wars. Its revival has come about because the Kamcorp Group needed a brand to consolidate its electronic research and concept operation. "Frazer-Nash is investing like crazy in this technology," Fabrizio Giugiaro admitted exclusively to AW. "They have turned Frazer-Nash into a design and R&D center for electronics. It's the division where they make experiments, so the point is not whether they make these cars. It's using these cars to prove it all works." Italdesign-Giugiaro is also working with Frazer-Nash on a monorail in Dubai. There is also a taxi experiment running with one electric motor and a one-rotor Wankel in London, and Frazer-Nash is researching electric-vehicle, multiplexing and multimotor-driveline technologies.

By Michael Taylor