The guys behind the Gumpert Apollo supercar hope to prove that "green" and "performance" aren't mutually exclusive when they line up at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring endurance race in a hybrid producing 800 horsepower.

It will compete alongside gasoline-powered cars from the likes of Porsche, Audi and BMW on one of the most famous tracks in motor racing, and it opens another front in the campaign to make auto racing more environmentally responsible. The Indy Racing League runs 100 percent ethanol and Formula 1 teams must use kinetic energy recovery systems beginning next year, and German boutique automaker Gumpert wants to see more gas-electric drivetrains on the grid.

"Motorsports cannot ignore the necessity to save energy," says former F1 driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who with Dirk Müller will drive the Apollo. "I see a chance that our sport will go back to the forefront of technical development, making cars outside the race track more energy efficient."

These guys know what they're doing. Roland Gumpert was the head of Audi Sport when the automaker scored two World Rally Championship driver's and constructor's championships. Frentzen raced scored three wins during his F1 career and is ranked 59th among the "100 Greatest Racing Drivers Ever" in this month's issue of F1 Racing magazine. Müller has raced in F3 and the American Le Mans series.

Gumpert hasn't released photographs of the hybrid racer, but it probably will look a lot like the car pictured.

Gumpert worked with Lithium Technology Corp. to develop the hybrid drivetrain, which mates a 3.3-liter V8 twin-turbo engine to a 100-kilowatt electric motor to produce the equivalent of 800 horsepower. The motor uses a 9-kilowatt hour lithium ion battery comprised of 90 high-power 27 amphere hour cells connected in series. It weighs about 420 pounds and provides a full-electric range of 31 miles. The battery will be fully charged before the race and the car will use regenerative braking to keep it charged. Company CEO Klaus Brandt says motorsports is the perfect place to test its technology.

"LTC believes that racing plays a significant role in pioneering the use of new technologies, such as lithium ion batteries, and offers the opportunity for us to demonstrate the performance of our batteries under extreme conditions," he says.

This isn't the first time a hybrid has gone endurance racing. The Toyota Supra HV-R handily won Japan's Tokachi 24-hour endurance race last year. But the 24 Hours of Nurburgring is more famous, having started in 1970 as a low-cost alternative to the 1000 KM of Nurburgring, and will expose the technology to a wider audience.

Photos: Gumpert Sportwagenmanufactur

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