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Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

arstechnica.com

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Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#41

Post by semerda »

jeremyrwelch wrote: post #27

Excellent interview with Formula E founder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrTbdKe0XTo Best quote, when asked if he thought we could end our dependence on oil: "The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones." Really important to understand that this is just the first iteration of their plan. Goal is to get to single car for a full hour race within a few years. Agag says they now have many major cities approa…

It's all relative. 80 decibels in the day isn't that loud. It's the sound of a vacuum cleaner. At night on the other hand 80db is loud. Considering that the F1 are 140DB the sound differences are massive.

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#42

Post by semerda »

If you ever been to a F1 it is the sound and smell of burning fossil fuels that adds to the energy and excitement of watching the race.

I would not pay to just watch electrics race. 3 years ago at MotoGP they had electrics race and it drew little crowd. For consumer use yes I am totally for electrics but for the race track it will destroy the spirit of a Formula race.

KERS is a great addition to the petrol motors but not a full electric replacement.

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#43

Post by aetherspawn »

I just thought I'd chime in for Team Swinburne from Australia, which is a university team who R&D a brand new electric formula car each year. Amongst other challenges down here, the electric engines (which can only operate up to 100C) overheating in the 35C Australian ambient is a pretty big one.

Not much of what we need actually exists, so we also engineer our own charging trolley, battery box and computer systems.

Here's our 2014 car specs: http://www.teamswinburne.com/the-car-2014/

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#44

Post by proveanegative »

f055 wrote: post #7
mapt wrote: post #6

What I want to see is not heroic drivers like NASCAR, nor heroic billionaires investing in very similar tweaks, like Formula 1, but a diversity of creative conceptual engineering, competing in the same challenges, for lots of money. Things like DARPA sponsors: The Grand Challenge in self-driving cars, and the Robotics Challenge. The Ansari X-prize also applies. BattleBots was a decent attempt at a sport along these l…

You are spot-on! At the moment, F1 has little diversity and lots of restricting regulations. Formula-E is even worse, with everyone driving the same cars. NASCAR, or Indy, is not better either. All the revolution and innovation is in WEC (World Endurance Championship), it's the one with the Le Mans round. This year, 4 strong competitors arrive in the top class and this is the series to watch http://www.carmagazine.co…

>At the moment, F1 has little diversity and lots of restricting regulations.

What would Formula 1 look like today with no restrictions beyond basic driver safety?

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#46

Post by MarkyC4 »

semerda wrote: post #41
jeremyrwelch wrote: post #27

Excellent interview with Formula E founder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrTbdKe0XTo Best quote, when asked if he thought we could end our dependence on oil: "The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones." Really important to understand that this is just the first iteration of their plan. Goal is to get to single car for a full hour race within a few years. Agag says they now have many major cities approa…

It's all relative. 80 decibels in the day isn't that loud. It's the sound of a vacuum cleaner. At night on the other hand 80db is loud. Considering that the F1 are 140DB the sound differences are massive.

Just to add to this, 140dB isn't about twice as loud as 80dB as the units might lead you to believe, since the scale is logarithmic: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel

These FE cars are MUCH quieter than their F1 cousins.

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#47

Post by makeitsuckless »

mapt wrote: post #6

What I want to see is not heroic drivers like NASCAR, nor heroic billionaires investing in very similar tweaks, like Formula 1, but a diversity of creative conceptual engineering, competing in the same challenges, for lots of money. Things like DARPA sponsors: The Grand Challenge in self-driving cars, and the Robotics Challenge. The Ansari X-prize also applies. BattleBots was a decent attempt at a sport along these l…

Because outside the US, car racing is a very serious sport in which manufacturers pour millions.

Opening up the regulations would make it prohibitively expensive. As it is, there are very few teams able to compete in the few remaining manufacturer series like WEC and F1.

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#48

Post by makeitsuckless »

proveanegative wrote: post #44
f055 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are spot-on! At the moment, F1 has little diversity and lots of restricting regulations. Formula-E is even worse, with everyone driving the same cars. NASCAR, or Indy, is not better either. All the revolution and innovation is in WEC (World Endurance Championship), it's the one with the Le Mans round. This year, 4 strong competitors arrive in the top class and this is the series to watch http://www.carmagazine.co…

>At the moment, F1 has little diversity and lots of restricting regulations. What would Formula 1 look like today with no restrictions beyond basic driver safety?

It would consist of just two or three remaining teams being able to raise the funds to compete...

Or in other words, it would no longer exists, because the public would lose interest in the lack of competition.

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#49

Post by TheLoneWolfling »

jkot wrote: post #31
bitL wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no longer awe associated with breaking records/introducing diverse tech into motorsports anymore. I guess previous generations had it better as they could watch how somebody breaks 190, 200, 210, ... mph barrier, run engines with 900, 1000, 1100hp for the first time, run two sets of rear or front wheels etc. None of that applies now, motorsports are now regulated and consolidated. New revival attempts introd…

> engines can't be pushed to higher hp unless we want to allow multiple casualties per race, We need robots than.

It would be interesting to do remote control. I.e. nobody in the car. Two classes: one with restrictions (i.e. driver must be in control - no assists / etc. May be tricky to define.), one without (want to go fully computer-controlled? Sure!).

Re: Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

#50

Post by aetherspawn »

daphreak wrote: post #20
ufmace wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that in the article. I'd also like to read why a five-speed transmisison is beneficial on these cars - I suppose the motors still have a RPM-based powerband, even if it isn't as drastic as gas engines?

Electric motors do have a constant power region and its ideal to operate there. I would expect teams to modify their transmissions to better fit their motor as more parts of the car are opened up for modification.

The engines do have a fairly flat torque curve however, so you can get away with a constant speed reduction, which gives a decrease in weight (like the Tesla). One reason they might run a transmission is so that they constantly run the engine in the most energy efficient zone, giving them a longer battery life.
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