KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is providing us with brain fodder. It seemed vaguely familiar and then I remembered that I had written about it, in a book, 'The Reynard Story'.

In the early 1990s, Chrysler owned Lamborghini, which was in Formula One, as a team and then as an engine supplier. The engines were useless because the crank casings flexed and nobody discovered that until it was too late. Why Chrysler bought Lamborghini is beyond me, it was in deep enough trouble trying to make an ordinary product.

Chrysler tried selling the Neon in the UK and, on paper, it looked a steal, it came loaded with everything at a keen price, There was a big TV ad campaign and I don't think that sales hit four figures. Even people with pointy heads walked away after driving the thing. I had one on test for a week and the only thing I can remember was how horrid was the colour.

Chrysler planned an assault on Le Mans. In 1928, Chrysler 72s finished third and fourth so it was a return to a circuit where they had a good record. The plan was to use a hybrid gas turbine/electric power system. with KERS. The main power would be an electric motor, the turbine would generate the electricity.

The project was called the Patriot after the defence missile system employed by Israel during Operation Desert Storm. Those with long memories may recall photographs of the car at Donington Park. You may have wondered why it was going the wrong way round the circuit, it had to go that way because that is the way of the slope. On the one occasion that a Chrysler Patriot turned a wheel, it was pushed. The problem was KERS.

Chrysler had a facility called 'Liberty' which was supposed to operate on the same lines as Lockheed's fabled Skunk Works. It was supposed to be blue sky thinking, zany ideas which might just work. Lockheed came up with the SR70 'Blackbird' and Chrysler tried to pass off the Neon as a car.

The Patriot was to use KERS, a principle familiar to anyone who has owned a friction-driven toy car. Space satellites have solar panels which produce electricity and some of that is used to drive a flywheel via an electric motor. When energy is needed, as when a satellite is in darkness, the process is put into reverse: the flywheel then drives an alternator which feeds electrical power into the system.

Chrysler believed that this principle had applications for future road cars. Some governments were beginning to speak about setting tighter emission laws. We go back more than 15 years, we speak of The Hole In The Ozone Layer. That was scary for a while, partly because few of us knew there was an ozone layer. The Hole In The Ozone Layer is yesterday's scare story, but it had us worried for a while.

Battery technology showed no sign of being able to meet the goals governments were banging on about. Al Gore Jr. had yet to re-invent himself, eco-warriors did not stake out his mansion noting how many lights were on. Chrysler ran with a concept of using a low-emission system fuelled natural gas which is on tap in many households. Incidentally, Chrysler had tried gas turbine cars in the 1950s, it supplied cars to selected customers on much the same basis as BMW is supplying hydrogen-powered 7-series cars at the present time. After the announcement, not much more was heard.

Since the flywheel and gas turbine were known technology, the problem came down to applying them in a new environment in the most efficient way. Large corporation met lean motor racing outfit and all that Adrian Reynard had to work on was a sketch on a piece of paper. The car required aerospace technology which was not available in a form which could be used in a car, but there were lots of dollars on hand and that has often been a short cut to agreement.

The idea was that the turbine engine would run at maximum revs (100,000 rpm) all the time. When the car was under braking, the turbine would switch to powering the flywheel which would rotate at 80,000 rpm and store the energy.