Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid Steering Wheel is packed with buttons
Hybrid cars are all fine and good with increased efficiency and fuel economy. I am a auto enthusiast though and I really want performance more than I want efficiency. It was really cool to me to see sports cars start to turn up over the last year or so with hybrid systems in place that act sort of like the boost from video games to give the cars a burst of speed when needed. Porsche uses this sort of system on its awesome 911 GT3 R Hybrid racecar.
The picture you see here is a shot of that Porsche racecar steering wheel. It appears to be covered in alcantra, which is a great material for grip and comfort during long races or driving. This is one of the strangest looking steering wheels ever though with all the buttons and knobs on the thing. I'm not going to pretend to know what all of those buttons and knobs are for, but I can see a few labels I recognize.
The coolest of all the buttons though is the boost one you see near the thumb. Press that and the hybrid system kicks in to shoot the 911 racer around a competitor when needed. The thing that scares me about this wheel and the thought of me actually using it is all the buttons. I would totally hit one of those and blow the car up. I am constantly hitting the buttons on my Logitech racing wheel accidentally when playing Gran Turismo 5.
[via Wired]