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.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCK7i3-o_bY&hd=1

[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!

[scheides]

Holy shit the end was insane!!! Did not see that coming, freaking lucky nobody was hurt!!!

[asshanson]

Seems pretty cool, I enjoyed watching that. The ending was definitely epic, it looks like the first place driver swerved to avoid being passed, but instead caused the accident.

[Tachyon]

Speaking of the finish, looks like the apple did not fall far from the tree in the Prost family line..

[Grappler]

That was fun to watch

[cmspaz]

Originally Posted by Grappler

That was fun to watch

You watched it here at the office too?

[JET]

Electric motors get an advantage from gearboxes just like regular engines. They have a limited RPM ceiling also. Looks cool, hopefully this takes off!

[Halon]

Electric motors can have full torque throughout their entire RPM range, so unlike a standard car that needs a gear box to keep them in the ideal range, an electric car (like a Tesla Model S) doesn't necessarily need them. So I too wonder why they're using gear changes. Maybe based on whatever gear reducer they're using, the motors just aren't rated at enough RPM. I'm sure it was all figured out by someone 100x smarter than me so there's a good reason I'm sure.

[Tachyon]

Originally Posted by Halon

Electric motors can have full torque throughout their entire RPM range, so unlike a standard car that needs a gear box to keep them in the ideal range, an electric car (like a Tesla Model S) doesn't necessarily need them. So I too wonder why they're using gear changes. Maybe based on whatever gear reducer they're using, the motors just aren't rated at enough RPM. I'm sure it was all figured out by someone 100x smarter than me so there's a good reason I'm sure.

Gearing multiplies your vehicle's wheel thrust. even at 400 LBS of engine TQ, if there was no force multiplication, the vehicle would be going nowhere fast.

Take a 2014 Tesla Model S 85. Its electric motor is rated at 443lbs of TQ. They then multiply that by a 9.73:1 drive gear, so suddenly the car is off the line at a more reasonable 4200 lbs of thrust (assuming a fairly standard 25" diameter wheel). With electric motors, typically they lose efficiency the faster you spin them.

I would suspect that formula E cars, the could be running gear ratios in the neighborhood of 20:1, which will eat up 16,000 of engine RPM in just a few KPH, and be required to gear down for more speed.