Frankfurt Motor Show: Volkswagen packs a Powerful Punch

Andrew English, the Telegraph Motoring Correspondent, tries out VW's L1, an 180 mile-per-gallon, two-seater hybrid car, at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

In many ways this 840lb, tandem-seat machine is the most important car at the show and just as much a supercar as the Lamborghini Reventón or Bugatti Sang Bleu.

It teaches people that 'super’ powers don’t have to equate with a gargantuan size, weight and fuel consumption. Super is as super does and the L1 has super in spades.

Very much Dr Ferdinand Piëch’s baby (he ordered former R&D boss Ulrich Eichhorn to build a one litre per 100km or 283mpg car in 1998), the L1’s the result of VW’s heavyweight research into using lightweight exotic body materials such as carbon fibre in less expensive ways.

"It's a real Head Turner", said one hardnosed critic

It uses one half of a 1.6-litre TDI engine in a hybrid installation to give amazing fuel economy. It also looks the business. The 800cc, twin-cylinder, common-rail, turbodiesel is joined by a 14bhp electric motor.

The engine operates in two modes with the eco mode giving 7bhp and sport mode 29bhp, the electric motor provides extra acceleration and can power the L1 on its own for short distances.

"See More of the Frankfurt Motor Show Highlights Here"

....and finally here's another 3 things that could thrill and excite you beyond belief. One of them is Volkswagen's new Lamborghini's Reventon Roadster, and wherever it goes, I think the others will follow. Vroom! Vroom!