Simanaitis Says
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AN ONYX FESTIVAL
WHAT A wonderful blend of old and new. Peugeot is bringing its Onyx hyper hybrid to the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. My favorite car from 2012 Paris Show (www.wp.me/p2ETap-ho) makes a running debut at one of my favorite old car get-togethers (http://goo.gl/sxIK).
Here’s info on both.
The Peugeot Onyx’s mid-mounted 3.7-liter turbocharged diesel teams with an 80-hp electric motor to send 680 hp to the rear wheels. The cool part, given that torque is what actually spins the wheels, is an available 1061 lb.-ft. of it. The Onyx’s Hybrid4 technology adds regenerative braking to feed energy back into the car’s lithium battery pack.
The Peugeot Onyx is a diesel-electric hybrid, yet I love it still.
Perhaps you’ve heard my rant about diesel-electric’s overlapping benefits being “belts and suspenders”? Each concept adds weight and cost. Both contribute low-end grunt. Their operational characteristics supplement each other, unlike the gasoline-electric concept where they complement each other.
The Onyx proves that elegant character does not need an overabundance of character lines.
But no matter. To me, the Peugeot Onyx transcends these objections by being drop-dead gorgeous. I love the fenders and doors being polished copper, the rest carbon-fiber matte black. Peugeot notes that, in time, the unprotected copper sheet will acquire a gentle patina—“the car will go green.”
The 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed is July 11 to 14. This is the 20th anniversary of the event, held as a (relatively) low-key hill climb on the Goodwood House estate of Lord Charles March.
Stirling Moss pilots one of the all-conquering W196 Grand Prix cars from 1955.
I say “relatively” because despite the fact that many of these cars are priceless, their drivers proceed more than moderately up the 1.16-mile hill. And there’s always a Formula 1 hooligan or three who’ll display doughnuts at selected places along the route.
Boys will be boys… to the delight of us all.
Among spectators, a hill climb is a very social form of motorsport. Unlike races, where general pandemonium precludes much chat, the inherent pauses in a hill climb encourage vocal interaction. “Clean upshift of that crash box, eh?”
The 1923 Voisin Laboratoire Grand Prix car will return at this year’s Festival. To learn more about this car, see www.wp.me/p2ETap-JU.
By the way, the Festival of Speed hill climb is different from another neat event, the Goodwood Revival held on the historic race circuit that’s also on the estate. The 2013 Goodwood Revival is September 13-15, a weekend recreation of motorsports 50 years ago, including folks dressed in period outfits.
The “monkey” of a sidecar combination is a brave person indeed.
By contrast, the Festival has broadened its scope—both for better and for worse—to include not just classic motorsports, but modern cars—and oddities such as drag racers and Super Trucks.
An Aviation Exhibit is part of the Festival, as are flybys. Here, Mustangs, but not Fords.
The 2013 Festival is also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Porsche 911. All seven generations of Zuffenhausen products will climb the hill twice each day in a special parade.
It’s expected that a stunning—and potent—Peugeot Onyx will make the climb several times as well. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2013
