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At the Track With Formula E, the First e-Racing Series
An anonymous reader writes Ars is running a story about the new all-electric racing car series and its first visit to the U.S.. "The pit lane we're standing in is unusual, and not only because it's a temporary setup placed in the shadow of American Airlines Arena (home of the NBA's Miami Heat). Garages are set up on both sides rather than being limited to one. A few things also appear to be missing. To start, a familiar smell from the usual mix of burning hydrocarbons is absent. And it's remarkably quiet. The occasional impact wrench bursts out in a mechanical staccato, generators drone here and there, but there are no V8s burbling, no V6s screaming....Welcome to Formula E, the world's first fully electric racing series. Miami is playing host to the first of two US rounds—the next being held in Long Beach, CA, on April 4—and it's the fifth race in this ePrix's inaugural season. Given we've got a bit of a thing about racing at Cars Technica, as well as an obvious interest in electric vehicles, we had to be on the ground in Miami to experience this for ourselves."
I hope it will in future be only way to race with cars. It would save so much nature.
Formula 1 is the high point of automotive racing technology. Electric cars? No way. What does the NBA have to do with the story? Odd.
The last couple of stories have obviously been submitted by Ars itself.
And all use the same model of battery pack? Jesus Fucking Christ, they made Formula E the as little appealing to nerds as the possibly could. And let's be honest, nerds/tech-heads would have been their PRIMARY audience!
Methinks a product/marketing manager got paid for a shitty job.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
You know your product is crap when you have to create a market for it.
These "race cars" can't go the distance so they have to create special tracks to use them on instead of running them on known tracks. These street tracks suit the limited abilities of these cars.
These toys may hurt the sport more then it helps as the technology is not ready for this. Swapping cars during a race because the batteries are flat and they can't change them quick enough - what a fucking joke.
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
Have they come up with an alternate method of doing pit stops without getting out of the car completely and changing cars mid-race? If not, I'm not interested.
Buck Feta. You know what to do.
I do think the future of cars/racing is electric, but for me there is something spine tinglingly impressive about this (V8 F1 cars running up eau rouge):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
But since the FIA is currently doing its best to ruin F1, these electric cars will probably compare pretty good in a few more years. Oh well, at least we have the memories.
to put 8 kW/kg into perspective, all commercial brushless dc motors are at 4 kW/kg and it is a limitation of the materials used.
Commercial internal combustion engines range from 1 kW/kg to *maybe* 3 kW/kg if it is turbocharged to the point of sacrificing engine longevity and formula 1 engines are at around 5 kW/kg
although i suspect they saved weight by using the vehicle frame as (part of?) the stator, a perk of making a motor for a very specific purpose.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
As others have said, its so hamstrung by endless idiotic technical rules than any innovation packed its bags and walked a decade ago.
The whole point of electric motors is max torque from zero rpm so what the hell does it need a 5 speed for? Ok, its rpm isn't unlimited so eventually you'll have to changed the ratio to get a good top speed , but 2 ratios should be enough for this. Whats going on?
I'm hoping large corporations get interested. Right now, I understand all cars are basically made by Renault. It would be nice if other companies jump onto this train too, with a serious interest to showcase their knowledge about batteries and electric cars. (Or just an interest to burn some marketing dollars).
It's a great idea to start off with the same car, but am happy that the teams can design their own cars in the next seasons. In all fairness, the cars still need a lot of improvement: the speed of the cars is too low.
this proves it. i'm playing the race card, here.
All the Formula E cars are charged using a single generator that uses glycerol as fuel.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
For me this kind of racing reminds me of the toy electric race cars I had as a kid. Throw some batteries in them and go. No real engineering feet in designing and assembling a fossil fuel burner or adjusting those carbs or tweaking the timing. Not to mention the loss of the roar of engines, the smell of horsepower and the connection you get from that experience. I guess the "green" people will love the electric race car experience. Is their enough of them to keep alive a electric racing series? That's the question.
Formula E's largely a joke in the motorsport fraternity. The technology choice isn't a (short or long-term) response to a specific question (regulatory wise) in a competitive environment.
It's a contrived enterprise, with immature - albeit improving, as a result of the exercise - technology.
A lot motorsport's traditional appeal is competition on both sporting and engineering terms.
Formula E is unfortunately, like most other modern classes, a vastly spec undertaking (regulations dictate either use of component/s of specific make/model, or restrict design such that part difference (between competitors) is negligible (see: diminishing returns), forbidden, or for-the-sake-of).
Claiming the class is at the forefront of electrical-automotive progress (even in a motorsport-specific setting) is pretty disingenuous when it's an 'all-electric' spec series by design, with COTS components largely developed elsewhere, regulated to a sufficiency level that removes all of the (im)practicalities which make motorsport worthwhile as an engineering pursuit.
Granted, the present regulatory settings are a stability mechanism, and they've committed to relenting a little on engine regulation in the future.
It's still largely stale in regulatory terms. No marque has more than a proxy toe in the water for that reason.
While the navel-gazing and politicking occurs elsewhere, the WEC's bearing space-race-esque prototype efforts from Audi, Porsche, Toyota, and Nissan - all with wildly varying designs, hybrid drive trains, in just about every capacity - that match (or beat by orders of magnitude) their predecessor designs in pace and efficiency terms.
ACO regs racing (see: Le Mans, WEC, Le Mans Series) is the last bastion of automotive competition engineering (at least on four wheels), and that now only applies to the WEC prototype classes in any legitimate sense.
The FIA (and certain other national bodies) have bastardised everything else to the point of political/personality sporting.
There's certainly a golden age of competition development occurring. Although it isn't in Formula E.
Cheers, JB
How deadly are these cars in a crash? The explosive power of batteries is not to be underestimated. Could a crash create a circuit that could electrocute someone?
For me, the lack of any "raw" engine noise is actually the only minus.
Why? Seriously, why? What does that have to do with the outcome of the race? More noise != faster car. More noise != better engineering. More noise != better driving. Loud engines are a second order effect from trying to get horsepower from internal combustion engines but it isn't important to making a faster car. The noise serves no useful purpose at all and I simply do not comprehend the entertainment value in going deaf from needlessly loud engines.
The high-pitches wheezing just doesn't sound enjoyable at all; it's bland and unrecognizable at this point.
So basically you are telling me that you don't give a rip about the actual auto racing or the engineering involved. You just want a bunch of guys revving their engines loudly with no actual purpose which they could do in a parking lot. [sarcasm] Boy that sounds really exciting... [/sarcasm]
most fans of racing will not be interested in watching this.
Formula 1 jumped the shark when they disallowed ground effects.
Formula One has been boring for a loooong time, at least to me. It's basically an engineering arms race between 2-4 teams with little visibility into the actual engineering going on. Cost to field a team with a prayer of winning is between $1/5-1/2 Billion per year. If you aren't driving for one of the few blessed teams with outrageously large budgets, you have almost zero chance to win no matter how good the driver happens to be. Drivers at the back of the field are basically competing to move to one of the few teams with a hope of actually winning a race.
Formula One cars are absolutely amazing pieces of engineering but there is so much secrecy surrounding the engineering that it's hard to enjoy any of it if you are a geek. And the engineering is the actually interesting part of F1. The races are something close to a parade with the order mostly shuffled by mechanical breakdowns. Passes are so damned rare that people get super excited when one actually occurs for a reason other than car performance. The actual Formula One racing is unbelievably boring to watch. Don't get me wrong, I think it is more interesting than NASCAR's demolition derby but I'm damning with faint praise here.
Personally the most interesting driving to watch from my perspective is Rally car racing, specifically stage rallies. The engineering arms race issue is still alive and well but at least the driving is interesting to watch and the cars have some vague resemblance to something I might drive.
Have you ever been to an auto race? I would not describe the typical crowd as "rich people".
Then you have clearly not been to a Formula One race. With NASCAR you are quite correct.
But that is just the spectators. If you want to actually race at anything more than your local junker car level, auto racing is hugely expensive. There is an old joke that the best way to make a small fortune in auto racing is to start with a large one.
Formula 1 is the high point of automotive racing technology.
Drive a Formula One car on anything other than an exquisitely paved road and let me know how that works out for you. Fancy a wager on how a F1 car would do against a Rally car on an unpaved road? Let's see a F1 car race a 24 hour race. How about a drag race? Peak of technology? Only for a subset of auto racing conditions.
I would like to see a "no holds barred" race, where you could enter anything from a teenager on a skateboard with a jet pack, to the Mammoth Car.
No you really wouldn't. Trust me. Then it becomes a contest based on the size of the wallet. F1 is boring for precisely this reason. There are a small handful of teams at the top with huge budgets that have a prayer of winning and the rest are basically competing to try to get on one of those teams. Furthermore you run into some very serious safety problems. The goal is to race and win and maybe do some good engineering along the way, not to design the most elaborate way to earn a Darwin Award.
What does the outcome of the race have to do with the enjoyment?
Ask any fan of their local NFL team what the outcome of the game has to do with the enjoyment of said game. The answer will be the same. If the outcome is a foregone conclusion and nobody cares who actually wins then what is the point of a contest?
You're not racing. What do you care who wins?
If no one cares who wins then nobody will bother coming to watch and there will be no race and certainly no business surrounding the race. Racing is a competitive sport and whether you comprehend it or not, people cheering for their favorite team/player(s) matters for the economics of the whole thing to work.
Same for sports. That's not your team. You just bought some of their marketing crap.
So you truly have no comprehension of what makes sports popular do you? It's PRECISELY the fact that people think of these teams as "their team". It's why they say "we" when referring to their team even if they do not actually work for the team. People WANT to be a part of a team, even if they are just fans. Professional sports ignore this at their peril.
It has to do with enjoying the sport. The noise servers no purpose other than that it's enjoyable to hear.
Again, WHY? I get that people like it, I just cannot comprehend why. I've been to plenty of auto races and have to bring earplugs when I do. The sound does NOT enhance the experience for me and engine noises are not beautiful, not matter what Jeremy Clarkston claims. For the same reason I fail to understand the appeal of Harley Davidson motorcycles that are pointlessly loud and obnoxious. If there is no actual useful primary purpose to the noise (like music), then it is nothing but pollution.
There is no purpose to racing, or any sporting event, at all. Attacking this single part of inane.
There are numerous purposes to racing and sporting events. Entertainment and money not the least among them. Sports (auto and otherwise) are hugely popular and are big business. They are substantial parts of our economy and of people's lives. The purpose is to be entertained and for some to make a living doing it.
Attacking pointless noise is "inane"? We're going to disagree on that. I'm well aware that many people like it but lots of people like all sorts of things that probably should go away. People like big hits in football but the side effect is concussions and permanent brain damage. People (inexplicably) like noisy cars but it's needlessly obnoxious and polluting.
Are you really going to argue that your average driver with electronic assist is quicker than a racing driver without?
Which "average" are you comparing against? If you are comparing me (an average non-racing driver) to an F-1 driver then no, the electronic assist won't matter. If you are comparing and average F1 driver to the best F1 drivers then chances are it will very much make a difference because the differences in their skill levels are quite small. Even an average F1 driver is astonishingly talented and the gap between middle of the pack and the front in driving skill is easily overwhelmed by technology.
It's just another technological advancement banished from racing for nothing more than "reasons".
I suspect they've put a tad more thought into it than that. The reasons may or may not be good ones but they didn't just do it for grins and giggles.
might seem outta place but had a question about watching the races. Im gonna be on the road for a while and don't wanna miss the upcoming races. found http://www.slideshare.net/OfficialPureVPN/channel-list when i was looking for streaming options. anybody know of vpns and how they work? worth the money?
If the racing guys can't figure out how to give electric cars a reasonable range with their budgets and top-end engineering skills, then no, electric cars are NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME.
Besides, WTF is this:
"...Although power is limited to 150 kW during the race, three drivers are actually able to use 180 kW for up to five seconds. This is called the FanBoost, as fans vote online for their favorite drivers in the hours before the race. This extra slug of energy can come in handy to overtake or defend against a rival, although obviously it will drain the battery even faster than normal...."
This is absolutely idiotic. It would be like fans voting which batter can take an extra strike, or if a team gets an extra down in (American) football. Who comes up with this crap?
-Styopa
I get HOW (like IROC) and I get WHAT (spectator interest + industry money) but the BLASTED THINGS SOUND LIKE MY OLD SLOT CARS!
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
All the Formula E cars are charged using a single generator that uses glycerol as fuel.
It's nothing to get too charged up over. I think that I read somewhere that it was infused with solar energy.
Am I the only one who thinks this is the right thing done the wrong way? All cars the same? Swap cars at pit-stop time? There is an opportunity here for competition through racing to push the envelope on what is possible in electric cars; why is it effectively being wasted? It was racing that helped perfect the gasoline car; heck Lois Chevrolet was a racer and Henry Ford did his fair share of racing.
Looking at the SRT_01E stats I think a stock Tesla P85D *family sedan* would actually have a chance against it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-Renault_SRT_01E
If recharge time were part of the race a P85D would likely murder a SRT_01E with a battery swap.
This is the type of innovation that should be encouraged in races; not discouraged by using only one make and model of vehicle and creating silly rules to make up for its inadequacy!
Rich douchebags have a hobby. News at 11.
We can barely hear the engines over the yawns. This year's small turbo engines sound completely lackluster; the exhaust note is low, flat and the engines are relatively low rpm. *Yawn* Burbling V8's? The OP has no idea what he is talking about. I can understand if he is excited about the E class but the facts are facts and there is nothing like the sound of the shrieking, old high rpm v-10's and 12's. And KER's? It's nothing but a green ploy and has nothing to do with lapping a race in the least amount of time. The number don't lie; energy recovery for electric boost cannot make up for the weight that it adds. The rest of the car is compromised to make it work. Make no mistake about it there is nothing superior about E over F1. Nothing. When E class overtakes F1 as the premier class in the world, that's when I stop going to gran prix races.
Manure?
If they are serious about this sport why are they dependent on antiquated technology like Cable and Satellite providers. I thought the whole reason behind this sport was to push technology forward. I suspect the people who would appreciate the bleeding edge technology of the sport are also the people who appreciate bleeding edge technology in other fields such as media. And frankly the era of cable TV is dead. I won't be watching Formula E until I can stream it for a reasonable price.