Aaron Long: Goodwood Festival of Speed gets first showing of Chevrolet Mi-ray outside Asia

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Goodwood Festival of Speed gets first showing of Chevrolet Mi-ray outside Asia

Mid-electric concept and new Bugatti Veyron two highlights
Goodwood Festival of Speed - Chevrolet Mi-ray

Pocket-lint visited the Goodwood Festival of Speed motor show in Chichester, West Sussex, UK, yesterday and was treated to the first public showing of the Chevrolet Mi-Ray mid-electric hybrid concept sports car outside of Asia.

In addition, the Lint got to lovingly and longingly stroke the new 2011 edition of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, and, for around ?1.5 million apiece, put in an order for two of them. Just to nip to the shops and stuff, you understand...

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see either of them on the track, with the Mi-ray only situated in the FOS-Tech future of motoring tents (and behind a barrier), but General Motors' spec for the concept car is pretty impressive none-the-less:

Previously unveiled at the Seoul Motor Show back in March, the Mi-ray was built in Korea and uses many of the technologies also seen in the Chevrolet Volt. However, it looks an altogether different beast.

It features a 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine (with rear-wheel drive)?and twin 15-kilowatt electric?motors, which offer super quick acceleration and zero-emissions. They are powered by a?1.6-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that is recharged through regenerative braking energy - nice.

GM is yet to reveal top speed or other performance statistics, but if you're heading down to Goodwood this weekend (it's on until Sunday 3 July) then make sure you get a look at the awesome body work and styling.

Other major highlights of the show included a demonstration by the Red Arrows air display team, some awesome high flying stunts by motocross experts, and the supercar paddock with some of the most amazing sports vehicles in the world. And, as the latter is sponsored by Microsoft and Windows 7, you can even get a demo of the software running on a superspeed laptop.

We were also keen to see the Peugeot EX1, which was housed in one of the FOS-Tech tents too. It has recently smashed the lap record at the?Nurburgring for electric cars, coming in at?9:01.338 seconds with an average speed of 86mph. And it looks like the Batmobile. Nice.

Tags: Car And GPS Goodwood Festival of Speed Bugatti Veyron Electric cars Chevrolet Mi-Ray