Geneva 2009 – Like a tiger

This wild looking thing—the Frazer-Nash Namir—has its roots back in 1920s England would you believe. The Namir, arabic for Tiger, apparently, has been revived by Italdesign-Giugiaro. Frazer-Nash was a sports and racing car manufacturer which made cars from the 1920s–1950s and also had links with BMW and Porsche.

The car has been styled by Fabrizio Giugiaro, and built at the company’s Turin design and engineering centre. It has a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis with honeycomb panels. But, the really cool thing about this car is that is has around 370bhp and can get to 100km/h in a mere 3.5 seconds, or, if you dare, 0-200km/h in 10.4 seconds. Must have a pretty special engine to put down those numbers, right?

Well, here’s the thing, it’s as crazy under the bonnet as it is on the outside. The Namir is powered by a hybrid powertrain, which combines an 814cc endothermic rotary engine with four electric motors with an equivalent output of 370hp. And, being a hybrid, the car can travel for 39km on a litre of fuel, emitting less than 60g/km of CO2.

The rotary engine runs on petrol and acts as a generator that charges the lithium polymer power cells, and a 50-litre fuel tank capacity gives a total autonomy of almost 2,000km. “It was an interesting and profitable collaboration that resulted in a unique vehicle with very exciting performance levels in terms of speed and pick-up, above all in terms of low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions,” said Fabrizio Giugiaro.

As nice postscript to this project, the original Frazer-Nash company has bona fide DNA in this 21st century supercar, despite not making a car since the 1950s. A successor firm to the original manufacturer has played a major role in the project—Frazer-Nash Research is now part of the Kamkorp group and specialises in developing electric drivetrains for hybrid cars and mass transit systems.