The EEMS-supported Oaktec Honda Insight Hybrid Rally Car has won class A of the fiercely contested 2006 Formula 1000 Rally Championship at the first attempt. The Insight was built, developed and crewed by Oaktec partners Paul Andrews and Bill Meeson and won the class on three of the four rallies contested this year.
 
The team was in such a strong position that they stepped out of the final two rounds of the series to concentrate on technical developments for the 2007 season.
 
Despite opting out of these rallies, the Oaktec team finished ninth overall out of 25 registered crews in the F1000 championship and won Class A for production cars of under 1000cc. Oaktec ran in the Smartmole Weeton Stages in Lancashire, the Camsport Ranges Stages in Snowdonia, and the The MACCA Motorsport Centenary Stages at Twyford Woods in Lincolnshire, where the team ran with E85 bio-ethanol fuel for the first time.
 
The Oaktec Insight has three factors that make it unique in the world of special stage rallying. Firstly it uses an electrical hybrid system to capture energy that would be wasted during braking and retardation, and re-uses it to help accelerate the car by providing current to an electric assist motor. Secondly it has been developed to use renewable E85 bio-ethanol fuel in place of conventional unleaded petrol. This fuel gives strong power combined with ultra low emissions. The third factor that makes this car highly unusual in motorsport is that its hybrid power system drives through a continually variable automatic transmission, which gives the car better performance and driveability.
 
Oaktec partner and Insight co-driver Bill Meeson comments: ‘Our Insight feels very strange on initial acquaintance. When compared to the harsh environment of a manual rally car, the navigator here experiences a continual surge of smooth seamless power, which certainly helps when reading the pace notes.'  Bill continues, ‘We have been very pleased with the performance of the car which is still at a very early stage of development. We already have the straight line speed to match the highly developed lightweight class B Formula 1000 cars. We have great optimism that we can seriously ruffle some feathers when we try the new developments to the hybrid system in 2007.'
 
The team have achieved this success in 2006 without altering the low emission outputs of the standard Insight as driver and project engineer Paul Andrews explained, ‘This project would have less significance if we cheated with the emissions and vehicle efficiency. It would be very easy to get more horsepower from the lightweight 3 cylinder Insight engine by running richer mixtures at higher revs and removing the catalytic converters, but this would destroy the CO2 emissions record of the car which are currently the lowest recorded by a UK market production car at 85g/km. We believe our car to be even below this figure when using the bioethanol fuel blend and we will be doing tests to prove this soon.'
 
The winter months will see a series of tests and developments by Oaktec and technical partners IARC and Warwick University through a deal brokered by EEMS, with further very exciting and forward thinking modifications under consideration for 2007. These involve gaining further performance through more effective recycling of wasted energy and further unlocking the performance potential of renewable fuels.
 
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OAKTEC PLEASE CONTACT:
Oaktec - Team Principal Paul Andrews 
Telephone 01524 751373  Mobile 07711 631984  
Email Oaktec234@hotmail.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EEMS PROJECTS PLEASE CONTACT:
Janice Minton, EEMS Press Office
Email: janice.minton@eemsonline.co.uk
See more information on www.eemsonline.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHS (copyright free for editorial use only)
can be downloaded from the gallery
http://www.eemsonline.co.uk/pictures/insight/insight_rallying_2006

EDITOR'S NOTES
Energy Efficient Motorsport (EEMS) is one of five programmes sponsored by Motorsport Development UK to sustain and develop the UK's world-leading motorsport sector. Programme funding comes directly from the DTI and four regional development agencies.

EEMS seeks to encourage the development of alternative fuels and powertrain technologies and put energy efficiency at the heart of modern motorsport, without comprising the sporting spectacle. There is a widely held belief that energy efficiency and green technology are not compatible with exciting motorsport. This is simply not the case - in fact the UK motorsport industry stands to benefit by adopting EEMS concepts and taking a leading global role.

See more about the Oaktec Honda Insight's rally season on:
http://www.green-car-guide.com/features/hybrid-rally-car.htm