[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

The CRZ was just a cam change away from being a much more impressive car. The strength of mild hybrid assist is that you can toss any low end torque requirement out the window. They could've boosted the gas engine's power to 135hp easy, giving close to 150 total, making it about as fast as an NC1 Miata.

That's the strategy employed by the Porsche 918, that engine makes all its power up high, and has piss poor VE at low rpm, which doesn't matter since the electric motor more than compensates.

On the 86, the packaging is a little tricky for mild hybrid. Belted alternator starter would work, but it has very limited power handling capacity. Another idea is to put a constantly engaged bigger motor where the starter is, and seal off the clutch/flywheel converting it to a wet clutch sharing lubrication with the gear reduction to the electric motor. That sounds too expensive...

I would love a mild hybrid sports car. With lithium ion batteries, you can achieve similar total system mass as a normal car. You trade the mass of a lead acid battery and starter motor for a bigger lithium ion pack + 12V converter + motor controller, and the alternator weighs about the same as a permanent magnet motor-generator. Then you can tune a simpler engine for max peak power instead of trying to find low end torque with heavy gadgets like VTEC, dual stage intake manifolds, long tube headers, etc.

Subaru's hybrid tech puts the motor in the transmission, that might be the way to do it on an 86: