Porsche have unveiled their 918 Hybrid Racer in Detroit. Originally built as a concept car at last years Paris Motorshow, Porsche decided to build a few for sale due to the high level of interest shown. The 918 is built on the same base platform as the 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car that saw significant racing successes in 2010, it also uses the same flux-capacitor/electromagnetic flywheel (shown above).

The 918 RSR develops 555hp from its V8 gasoline engine plus an additional 212hp from the twin electric motors when you hit the boost button, the electric motors are fed power from the flywheel which uses electromagnetic braking to generate a burst of electrical power, think of it like an electric nitros system that never requires NO2 refills and won’t blow up your engine.

No word yet on when Porsche will begin selling the 918 Hybrid RSR or for exactly how much, it will be interesting to see if the flywheel is incorporated into other sports cars in the coming months/years.

Formula 1 will be using the same KERS flywheel (kinetic energy recovery system) in the upcoming 2011 season, interestingly the Porsche flywheel was developed by the Williams F1 team, Williams used KERS in their 2009 F1 car along with a few of the other big name teams.

The KERS system was dropped from F1 in 2010 as a cost cutting measure, since then agreements have been made to bring the hybrid system back for 2011 onwards, which of course means that the fastest race cars on the planet will all be hybrids. Tell that to the next person who derides your Prius.

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