A heretofore unknown supercar called the CMT-380 will be on display at the LA Auto Show this week. The company behind the concept, Capstone Technologies, says that the microturbine under the hood is basically an "ultra-clean and quiet jet engine," and the announced performance specs bear this out: 0-60 is taken care of in a quick 3.9 seconds and the top speed is 150 mph. The hybrid powertrain uses li-ion batteries along with the C30 microturbine to reach a range of 500 miles per tank (the size of the tank and an estimated MPG figure were not given), with 80 or those miles available in pure-electric mode. The microturbine is a 30 kW device that can burn either diesel or biodiesel and doesn't need any aftertreatments to meet the 2010 EPA and CARB diesel engine emission regulations, as Capstone announced back in March.

While Capstone doesn't plan to manufacture and sell the CMT-380, the vehicle's body is a GTM Supercar (available for $19,900), so it might be possible to build your own if you can convince Capstone to sell you a microturbine. We're ready to learn more when the show starts Wednesday.

[Source: Capstone Turbine Corporation]  [ Source: green.autoblog.com Read The Full Article ]