Viritech is a British engineering company that works in the field of environmentally friendly technologies for the automotive, aerospace, and marine industries.
And, it seems, with the help of a team of engineers from F1/motorsport, as well as the well–known Pininfarina Viritech company, it was possible to create a promising product – a hypercar powered by hydrogen fuel cells, FCEV.
“Live” Viritech Apricale was presented at the Festival of Speed in English Goodwood. However, not all details and details are known yet, the interior of the car is not yet available, and it is far from a full-fledged debut – delivery to customers of the first cars from the planned series of 25 pieces is expected in 2024. Pininfarina, by the way, acts as a full-fledged partner in the project, responsible not only for design, but also for engineering and, probably, for production – an atelier in Cambiano near Turin is going to do it.
At first glance, the car resembles countless already battery-powered supercars a la Rimac Nevera or Aspark Owl. Two electric motors, one per axle, with a capacity of 400 kW each, in total – 1088 hp and 1000 Nm of torque.
[adinserter block=”7″]
Carbon monocoque (length 4550 mm) and carbon wheels, racing torsion bar suspension on double levers in a circle with active adjustment of ground clearance in the range of 95-135 mm, the most powerful AP Racing brakes – approaches from Formula 1 can be traced, but they will not surprise anyone nowadays.
As you will not be surprised by the declared maximum speed of 320 km / h and acceleration to a hundred faster than 2.5 seconds. Something else is much more important. Battery-powered supercars are heavy: the same Rimac Nevera weighs 2150 kg, like a large and thick crossover. And Viritech Apricale – just a ton, as befits a proper supercar from the past!
This is because the energy for electric motors is generated by a hydrogen electrochemical generator located behind the seats with a capacity of “several hundred kilowatts” (a specific number has not been announced). The onboard supply of hydrogen for its power supply is only 5.4 kg. Under the pressure of 700 atmospheres, it is stored in containers integrated into the body structure: for this purpose, the company has developed special lightweight composites and resins based on graphene under the brand name Viritech Graph-ProTM. This reserve should be enough for the car for 560 km of mileage.
Of course, Apricale also has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, but again it is light and small and with a capacity of only 6 kWh. And the subject of special pride of British engineers is the proprietary Tri–VoltTM energy management system and patented power electronics. These systems – plus an advanced, very powerful, and fast recovery system – allow you to continuously change the balance of energy coming from fuel cells and from the battery, playing with these parameters to achieve maximum drive efficiency.