The record-breaking feat took place at UK’s Santa Pod drag strip, with the 364HP luxury sedan, driven by CAR magazine journalist Tim Pollard, setting an average 0-400 m (quarter-mile) time of 13.9031 seconds and a passing speed of over 160 km/h (100 mph).
“The Infiniti M35h proves that hybrids can be fast as well as frugal,” said Pollard. “At Santa Pod you could feel the instant torque of the electric motor away from the standstill – the car just leapt of the line. I tried changing gears manually, but it was fastest in automatic.”
Infiniti claims that its new hybrid sedan, which just went on sale in Europe, can challenge not only supercars of the past like the Lamborghini Countach, but even contemporary sports cars like Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins.
The M35h was a standard production model combining a 305HP 3.5-liter gasoline V6 to a 50kW (68HP) electric motor. Despite its 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration time of 5.5 seconds the M35h has an average fuel consumption of 7.0 lt/100 km (33.6 US mpg) and emits 162 g/km of CO2.
Quarter Mile Times from Zerotosixtytimes:
· 1982 Lamborghini Countach S: 13.9 seconds
· 1998 BMW M3: 13.8 seconds
· 2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante: 13.6 seconds
· 2007 Porsche 911 Carrera: 13.6 seconds
· 1966 Shelby Cobra: 13.5 seconds
· 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO: 13.5 seconds
