Yet another rebirth of a brand: this time classic British marque Frazer-Nash. Behold the striking Namir (Arabic for Tiger), which has been unveiled today at Geneva. It’s a hybrid electric with a 814cc endothermic rotary engine (whatever that means) with four electric motors and an equivalent output of 370hp. The sleek beauty has been designed in the famous atelier of Giugiaro (Italdesign). Like the Aston Martin One-77 it has a carbon-fibre monocoque, and gives startling performance (0-100kmh in 3.5sec, 0-200kmh in 10.4 sec, plus a 300kmh [187mph] top speed). But unlike the Aston and being a hybrid, the car can travel for 39km on a litre of fuel, emitting less than 60g/km of CO2. The rotary engine runs on petrol and acts as a generator that charges the lithium polymer power cells, and a 50-litre fuel tank capacity gives a total range of almost 2,000km. Exciting times. Do we believe the hype? Are these sort of green supercars the future of passionate motoring?
