First one up the drive

THE Goodwood Festival of Speed is rapidly becoming Britain’s de facto national motor show. Its backdrop, Goodwood House, is home to the Dukes of Richmond, the first of whom acquired his title by the clever expedient of being an illegitimate son of Charles II. But there is nothing antiquated about the festival itself, which features a 1.9km (1.2 mile) sprint up a hill by some of the world’s newest and fastest cars. At this year’s event—held last month—they were joined by a dozen or so electric and hybrid cars.

Most of these vehicles, such as Tesla’s Model S and BMW’s new i8, were powered by lithium-ion batteries, sometimes backed up by a petrol-driven engine that drives a generator and may, in a hybrid arrangement, also drive the wheels directly. One, however, was not like this. For instead of batteries, the Toyota TS040 hybrid (pictured above) has a supercapacitor. When the car needs a kick that its 520 horsepower 3.7 litre V8 petrol engine cannot provide, an additional 480 horsepower is available from two electric motors connected to this supercapacitor. And when the car is decelerating or braking, the motors work in reverse, as generators, to charge the supercapacitor up again.