Like me, I’m sure you’ve often thought that some sort of ‘power-boost’ button would be an excellent addition to the modern dashboard. How cool would it be for those tight overtaking manoeuvres? The good news is that what’s believed to be the world’s first one is starting trials on a prototype Jaguar XF. A simple touch by the driver would upgrade engine performance for 10 seconds. It’s part of hybrid technology developed by engineering firms Torotrak, Prodrive and Flybrid. Energy is created from regenerative braking, but instead of storing it in a battery, it’s kept in a flywheel spinning at 60,000rpm. The dashboard button is currently known as ‘Push to Pass’ and uses that flywheel to temporarily increase power by 54bhp. It’s similar to the KERS system used in F1 last season. A Jaguar engineer told me this is only a development vehicle and we shouldn’t expect to see it on road cars anytime soon. But he said the technology was creating serious interest within the company. “If it meets its objectives, and it’s showing every sign of it, we will evaluate the results and that’s when it gets picked up and taken forward or not,” he added. Exciting stuff.
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