Palumbo M-80 New Green Supercar Coming 2009

Father and son engineers Joe and Jason Palumbo are the driving forces behind the small company, based just outside Milwaukee.

They announced their plans to build a sleek high-performance Ferrari fighter that uses hybrid technology to deliver a fuel-efficient and user-friendly supercar called the Palumbo M-80.

The hybrid gas-electric engine uses a normal internal combustion engine coupled with an electric motor. For times when high acceleration is needed, both the IC engine and the electric motor power the drive wheel simultaneously. The electric motor supplementing the IC engine is similar to feeling the surge from a low-pressure turbocharger. The driver feels a substantial power increase that comes on as very linear and is easy to control in all driving and racing situations.

The M-80 is designed to cut through the air with less than a 0.30 drag coefficient. It has full ground effects with the bottom completely enclosed and diffusers in the front and rear. It’s designed to have explosive performance, a top speed of over 150 miles per hour, a 0-96 kilometers an hour time of 3.9 seconds and more than 800 miles (1,287 km) on a tank of fuel, thanks to a parallel hybrid design that will help the M-80 achieve a stunning fuel economy of a combined 46 miles per gallon., although the firm is keeping details of the engine that will achieve this under wraps for now.

The two-seat, mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive M-80 features a special roll bar design to maximize structural rigidity in a convertible. A constant variable transmission (CVT) and 350 horsepower are featured. Because there is no clutch pedal, the driver doesn’t need to know what gear the car is in, so anyone can drive a CVT.

They are looking at a five-year run of 500 M-80 production models a year. A working prototype will be ready early in 2008.

The company will take pre-orders at year-end and pre-sell “a lot of the production”—at a price of $85,000 per vehicle.

The greater fuel economy is a huge environmental benefit. Jason Palumbo says, with pride, “We’re coming close to our vision of delivering a high-performance sports car that treads lightly upon the environment.”

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