Pininfarina Ethos Green Sports Car

There was very little crossover between eco-friendly attributes and sports cars back in the early 1990s. Even so, there were major players exploring how performance and fun-to-drive characteristics could be incorporated into "greener" performance cars. Italy's Pininfarina, a major design firm and coachbuilder long associated with the likes of Ferrari and Maserati, was one such company. Pininfarina joined with others including GE Plastics, Orbital Engine, and Hydro Aluminum to show the way with the Ethos, a wonderfully stylish sports car equipped with materials and technologies that pointed the way to the future. This article, reprinted just as it ran in Green Car's September 1992 issue, discusses our experience with this car on the Mireval test track in France.

PININFARINA ETHOS SHOWS GREEN CAN BE SPORTY
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1992 The Pininfarina Ethos, an environmentally designed sports car introduced at this year's Turin Motor Show, was recently driven by Green Car at Goodyear's Mireval proving ground. Time spent behind the wheel at this Mediterranean test track proved the Ethos a concept both interesting and timely for the auto industry.

A combined project of Orbital Engine Co., Hydro Aluminum, General Electric Plastics, Pininfarina, and others, the Ethos is intended to be both technology demonstrator and sales tool. These companies hope that a fully functional Ethos will help cure the myopia that plagues auto executives by packaging far-sighted vision in an attractive package that can be built today. This is no mere exercise. Rather, it's an opportunity for an automaker to put its marque on the Ethos' easily recycled bodyflanks. Then, either Pininfarina or the automaker can begin producing copies in the short term.

Technologies that allow the Ethos to stake claim to the environmentally friendly title include an efficient three-cylinder Orbital two-stroke engine, a lightweight extruded aluminum frame, a recyclable thermoset plastic body, and water-based PPG paint. These, and other, features allow the car to use comparatively few resources in construction or operation and also make it easy to recycle.

Orbital claims its engine would meet the California ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) standard while still offering an impressive acceleration figure of 0-60 mph in 7.5 seconds. The company also cites it would achieve a 35 percent improvement in fuel economy over a current vehicle equaling the Ethos' projected 1,450-pound weight. Bottom line is faster acceleration than a BMW 325i and better gas mileage than a Honda Civic VX. A marked decrease of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions would correspond to the increase in fuel economy since much less gas would be burned to travel the same distance.

But, there's more. An interesting aside is that with further refinement of the Orbital two-stroke engine, it's also suggested that the Ethos might even be able to attain near-zero emission vehicle (ZEV) levels similar to those specified in California legislation for electric vehicles.

Unlike most of the concept and show cars that debut at international auto shows, the Ethos is a fully operational vehicle. To prove it, our test driver pushed the mid-engined Ethos around Mireval as hard as if it were the latest European production exotic. Though only one example exists, each shift was made at the redline, the straights were run at full throttle, braking was at the last instance for every turn, and the tires' entire cornering power was exploited.

Our impression? This first Ethos felt somewhat like a low-powered Mazda Miata. Since it featured a steel monocoque chassis rather than the planned aluminum spaceframe, it was more than 200 pounds overweight. But, the Orbital engine also did not offer as much power as company officials say production versions might. The cumulative result is good, but not exhilarating, performance with 0-60 mph acceleration times in the range of 10-plus seconds.

Handling was entertaining when fitted with sticky Goodyear GS-Ds rather than low-traction, high-mileage tires. But some glitches expected from a one-off driven at its limits showed through, including at one point an overheated engine. The most notable shortcoming was presented by the stretched fabric-over-tube frame seats, the same innovation found in GM's Ultralite concept car. While it's possible this type of seat may be comfortable enough for a typical commute, they were bruising during hard driving.

Pininfarina's Ethos is an important milestone in environmental auto design. It's stylish, forward-thinking, and with a few areas of refinement, will set standards others should consider emulating. Perhaps most importantly, the Ethos dispels the myth that a sports car cannot be both exotic and in tune with the new automotive environment unfolding before us. In a future where myriad alternative fuel and gasoline autos will fill a wide array of niche and regional markets, Green Car editors note that the Ethos, or a similar vehicle, is likely to be one of the many players.