Formula E 2014. Round 1. Beijing. Race!

[scheides]

Watched part of this last night, pretty sweet! F1 style rules with some interesting twists and no engine noise.

HCK7i3-o_bY

[Tachyon]

This is seriously awesome!

[Halon]

sick

[polishmafia]

Cool. Its almost like watching life size RC cars race.

[cmspaz]

I could see Mitsu being interested in trying their hand at this since they've proven they can make this technology competitive in hillclimb.

[turbotalon1g]

I wanna be a race car driver.

[scheides]

Fell asleep last night watching this, finally getting back to it.

200bhp motors with a 40hp 'fan boost' pretty neat.

[scheides]

You're right pete it is almost like watching little RC racing but damn the tech here is cool!

They hit over 100mph (barely as far as I saw on this track), the cars handle awesome, and the competition seems pretty legit.

Why the hell do they have gears though?

Interesting tech here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIA_Formula_E_Championship

"For the first season, all teams have been supplied an electric racing car built by Spark Racing Technology, called the Spark-Renault SRT 01E. The chassis has been designed by Dallara, with an electric motor developed by McLaren (and is the same as that used in its P1 supercar), a battery system created by Williams F1 and a Hewland five-speed gearbox. Michelin will be the official tyre supplier. So far, 42 electric cars have been ordered by the FIA."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-Renault_SRT_01E
Power

Max power (limited): 200 kW (268 hp), approx 230 N·m (170 ft·lbf) torque (estimated)[18]
Race mode (power-saving): 150 kW (201 hp)
Push-to-Pass: Additional 30 kW (40 hp)


Performance

Acceleration: 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 3 s - Estimated
Maximum speed: 225 km/h (140 mph) (FIA limited)



No tire change is awesome but switching cars seems completely ridiculous. Hopefully battery tech gets better or they do a battery pack swap in the future instead of this.

[polishmafia]

Interesting question about the gears. The batteries must max out on power output, so a gear change must be necessary to get to higher speeds - just like normal cars.

I'm really happy that they included the push to pass feature. That has made so many races much more enjoyable.

[twack]

i just watched that whole race. I thought that it was pretty legit throughout, but that checker flag was epic!