ATLANTA – 110 years after Ferdinand Porsche developed the world’s first hybrid, the Lohner-Porsche, Porsche engineers are now expanding this visionary drive concept with a production-based GT race car: Over the past 45 years, Porsche 911 race cars have recorded more than 20,000 victories and on March 4, a Porsche 911 GT3 featuring an innovative hybrid drive will make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show, opening a new chapter in the history of Porsche.

This innovative hybrid technology has been developed especially for racing, differentiating itself from conventional hybrid systems by way of its configuration and components. In the case of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid, the front axle features two electric motors, each developing 60 kW and supplement the 480 hp, naturally aspirated four-liter flat-six that drives the rear wheels. Instead of the heavy batteries usually found in a hybrid road car, an electrical flywheel power generator is installed inside next to the driver delivering energy to the electric motors.

The flywheel generator is also an electric motor, with its rotor spinning at speeds of up to 40,000 rpm while mechanically storing energy. The flywheel generator is charged whenever the driver applies the brakes, as the two front axle electric motors reverse their role and act as generators. Then, when accelerating out of a bend or while overtaking, the driver can use the extra energy from the charged flywheel generator, sending up to 120 kW of stored kinetic energy to the motors. This additional power is available after each charge for approximately six to eight seconds.

Energy formerly converted into heat upon each brake application, and therefore wasted, is now converted into additional drive power in a very efficient manner.

In addition to increasing available drive power, depending on racing conditions, the hybrid drive can also be called upon to save fuel. By increasing the efficiency and, accordingly, the performance of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid, reductions can be made to the weight of the fuel tank or the car can make less frequent pit stops, for example.

After its debut in Geneva, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid will be tested in long-distance races on the Nürburgring. The highlight of this test program will be the 24 Hours on the Nordschleife of Nürburgring, May 15-16, 2010. The focus is not on the 911 GT3 R Hybrid winning the race, but rather spearheading technology as a “racing lab.” The intent is to provide hands-on know-how for the subsequent use of hybrid technology in road-going sports cars.

The 911 GT3 R Hybrid is a perfect example of the Porsche Intelligent Performance philosophy, a principle to be found in every Porsche: More power on less fuel, more efficiency and lower CO2 emissions – on the track and on the road.

ADAC awards “Yellow Angel” innovation prize to Porsche Consulting for speeding up highway improvements

Stuttgart/Munich. In recognition of its exemplary work in speeding up highway improvements, the consultancy company Porsche Consulting GmbH, Bietigheim-Bissingen, was today awarded the “Yellow Angel 2010″ innovation prize in Munich by Allgemeine Deutsche Automobil-Club (ADAC) – the most prestigious German prize when it comes to mobility, road safety and environmental protection.

During practical implementation on German highways, the subsidiary of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart used its tried-and-tested methods to eliminate any wastage of time, resources and costs in order to prove that tangible improvements are also possible in highway construction. By ensuring the optimum balance of workflows, it is possible to cut construction times by almost a half and save up to 40 percent of costs and millions of tons of pollutant emissions.

“Environmentally-friendly, stress-free and free-flowing traffic is one of our core goals. The Yellow Angel will provide additional support for the consultants at Porsche Consulting as they try and make the construction industry, public contractors and politicians more aware of intelligent solutions that can significantly reduce construction times on highways,” said Michael Macht, Chairman of the Executive Board at Porsche AG, during the prize-giving ceremony. Bosch and Fiat were also awarded innovation prizes at the event.

Management consultancy Porsche Consulting has already optimized more than 50 hospitals

Shorter hospital stays through better coordination

Stuttgart. If hospitals would organize their processes better, hospital doctors and nursing staff could spend much more time treating their patients. This is the result of analyses over many years by management consultancy Porsche Consulting GmbH, Bietigheim-Bissingen, of more than 50 hospitals. The subsidiary of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, specializes in implementing so-called lean processes which – taking automobile production as an example – avoid waste and thus increase efficiency.

Hospital doctors are only able to spend about a quarter of their time on their core task – patient care – according to the consultants’ analyses. Of 7 hours 44 minutes per day, a ward doctor is only available for examinations for 32 minutes and for pa-tient consultations for 1 hour 39 minutes. This is just 28 percent of the available time. “The doctor loses the rest, mainly through unnecessary waiting, searching, needless paths, meetings being too long, and documentation,” says Eberhard Weiblen, CEO Porsche Consulting. Poor coordination, a lack of agreement and unnecessary hectic led, according to Weiblen, to doctors and nursing staff barely being able to carry out a task without being interrupted. Assistant doctors, who are frequently burdened by a particularly high workload, are often forced to change their workplace every twenty minutes. This increases the risk of errors significantly.

Faulty planning also leads to existing hospital capacities being wasted and for many patients extends waiting times and hospital stays unnecessarily, the studies by Porsche Consulting showed. The results are supported by experienced practitioners with typical examples: “An operating theater is used by many doctors on the basis of personal considerations rather than in the sense of the greatest possible use,” urologist Dr. Michael Nathan, head of the Luxembourg Hospital Center Hospitalier Emile Mayrisch, told “Caracho”, Porsche Consulting’s customer magazine. Nathan fears: “Soon, we won’t be able to forgive this type of waste anymore. As long as we doctors are unable to prove that we are working highly efficiently, politicians will rightly cut us down.”

Together with the Porsche advisors, the Luxembourg hospital was able to improve the use of the operating area by 31 percent. At the same time, the total duration of preparatory examinations before an operation was reduced by an amazing 98 percent as a result of consistent admittance planning. Since the reorganization, the hospital director observes significant higher levels of patient satisfaction. Nathan summarizes: “There are processes that can be improved by the production line principle in industry, without the patient getting the impression being treated on a production line.”

The experts from Porsche Consulting support companies in the implementation and application of Lean Management. Founded in 1994 as an internal management consultancy for Porsche AG, the subsidiary currently employs 230 people. Apart from automotive suppliers, the consultants’ clients include the consumer goods industry, construction companies, aviation and shipbuilding. The basis of the consultancy is formed by solutions, which are proven and tested in the production of premium sports vehicles in the Porsche factories and which are transferable to many areas of the economy outside the automobile industry. These include the launch of precise cycles and the so-called pull principles, and the greatest possible waste-free processes according to “just in time” and “just in sequence” principles.

Extensive Tire Test Program for Older Model Series

Stuttgart. Porsche has extended its demanding approval process for winter tires to include tires for young and old classics. Offering customers this unusual service, the German manufacturer of sports cars enables drivers of older models to use the best available products on their car. Porsche is therefore providing valuable help and orientation in the process of choosing new winter tires with safe driving characteristics on snow and ice. This makes Porsche one of the few manufacturers to offer such an elaborate tire approval process.

Test Subjects At Porsche's Winter Tire Test Program

Well over 70 per cent of all Porsche sports cars ever built still exist today and are still driven actively in most cases – in both summer and winter. Indeed, even classic Porsche models more than 20 years old still offer the kind of performance today one would expect of a modern sports car. But the tires fitted when such old and new classics were still in production have not been available for years. Treads and rubber compounds have changed dramatically in the ongoing process of development, thus changing and influencing the driving behavior of the older Porsche models.

Conducting elaborate tests, Porsche’s engineers determine which of the tires available today harmonise best with the features of a classic Porsche. The highlight in this testing and approving process is an extensive test program up north in the Polar Circle.

Numerous Porsche models built in former years, such as the 911, 928, 964, 993, 996, and the first generation Boxsters, have been tested for this purpose on countless laps at the Arctic Driving Center in the Finnish town of Rovaniemi.

The criteria to be fulfilled by the tires tested in order to receive approval by Porsche are so strict that not all tires pass. The characteristics and features typical of an older air-cooled 911, for example, form a challenge not easy to overcome. (sound familiar?)

Porsche 3.2 Carrera Undergoing Winter Tire Testing

Further tests for dry and wet handling on test routes free of snow round off the test program as such. Information on which recommended tires is presented at www.Porsche.com and is also available at all Porsche Centers.

So…What do you think?