0 to 100 kph in 1.46 seconds

[Tom Galloway]

Yeah it's an electric car. German students built it but who was the crazy man that drove it.

[twright]

The youtube video is is somewhat uneventful. After all the it only takes 1.46 seconds

[MrBurgundy]

It's more of a go-cart.

Super impressive tho.

[mikey.antonakakis]

It’s an open-wheel carbon tub formula car with super aggressive aero, definitely more race car than go-kart lol.

[TobyB]

don't underestimate the power of a go-kart to give you whiplash...

t
it's all torques

[varg]

Am I the only one not seeing anything in this thread? No pictures, no videos, etc. If it's an open wheel electric race car doing this those numbers seem par for the course.

[roguetoaster]

Am I the only one not seeing anything in this thread? No pictures, no videos, etc. If it's an open wheel electric race car doing this those numbers seem par for the course.

Same. Even quoting the OP gives me no clue, which is usual.

[mikey.antonakakis]

Here's the video, don't blink at 1:15 or you'll miss the in-car shot. Plenty of comments complaining that they didn't show the whole uninterrupted acceleration run, those people just need to pay more attention lol:

[mikey.antonakakis]

For a simply-edited version without music and including external shots:

[mikey.antonakakis]

To make this a little more impressive - this car is built by students for an intercollegiate engineering/business competition. The premise of the competition is to design a car that can be marketed to the weekend autocrosser. Not sure the latest cost target, but when I was involved years ago the intent of the competition was to produce a $25k car.

Teams are not just judged on dynamic performance of the car (straight-line acceleration, skidpad, autocross, and a ~20min endurance race around an autocross-style track, scoring heavily weighted towards endurance and autox results), but also on a business case presentation, cost breakdown (using formulas to convert the car's design to anticipated production cost to manufacture a few hundred cars per year), and an engineering design presentation/judging/defense.

The competition used to be solely internal-combustion engines (4-stroke piston-based gasoline or ethanol only, 610cc max) with 20mm intake restrictor. Forced induction allowed, but all air has to be sucked through the restrictor which limits power output to <100hp in theory. In practice, even the most powerful engines were producing 90hp max. But the cars weigh between 300-400lb without driver. In the last few years the formula has been expanded/split to include hybrid and EV cars. Based on the data in the second video, this car is pushing 200hp+, so not really on par with the traditional performance of the ICE cars.

Teams like the one in this video are populated with many grad students working on degrees in motorsports engineering, with heavy corporate sponsorship, and pretty state-of-the-art car designs. Designs that certainly do not meet the intent of the competition ($25k car for weekend autocrosser). The most successful teams are often completely missing the intent of the competition, although occasionally you see teams do really well with simple, cheap cars.

Anyway, 1.46s 0-60 for an autocross car is bonkers. And it was built by students "in their free time" which manifests in vastly different ways at different schools. Stuttgart is a super impressive team though, solid performance for a decade or more.

[Panici]

Thank you for that second video Mikey. The fixed exterior shot really gives the sense of speed.
Love seeing students play with cars, used to do a bit of that myself back in school.
Can add quite a bit of knowledge to a theory-heavy engineering degree.

[Northern]

Can't click/watch the videos atm, but I'm assuming this is Stuttgart's FS E car?
I saw an instagram post about it and all the comments were braindead.

None of the "real" engineering schools care about cost. Basically do the best to accurately record everything and nail the "Real Case" scenario to get the low hanging fruit, then go slaughter the north american pleb teams in all the events by having millions of dollars per year of sponsors and dedicated Formula Student courses, both for Engineering R&D and for Business students developing the business case.

The rest of us just scramble to build literally anything that runs and get to competition lol. Typically 1-5 people on the team have absolutely no life, no sleep, and some failing grades in order to successfully orchestrate the whole thing.

[mikey.antonakakis]

Can't click/watch the videos atm, but I'm assuming this is Stuttgart's FS E car?
I saw an instagram post about it and all the comments were braindead.

None of the "real" engineering schools care about cost. Basically do the best to accurately record everything and nail the "Real Case" scenario to get the low hanging fruit, then go slaughter the north american pleb teams in all the events by having millions of dollars per year of sponsors and dedicated Formula Student courses, both for Engineering R&D and for Business students developing the business case.

The rest of us just scramble to build literally anything that runs and get to competition lol. Typically 1-5 people on the team have absolutely no life, no sleep, and some failing grades in order to successfully orchestrate the whole thing.

Yep, Stuttgart.
It’s ironic that none of the “real” engineering schools care about cost/business case, as the context/constraints of any project are the most important aspects of engineering… yeah I echo your sentiments 1000%. It’s a shame the event organizers and judges don’t do anything to rectify it.

[Northern]

I think you get what I meant, but in case I was vague: I mean that they care about the "Cost" event except for the acutal cost of the car - they know there are more points to be had in the dynamic competitions by spending the money on a carbon monocoque, adding aero, fancier components, etc. which crank the cost of the car up.
They usually take business case/presentation seriously, and have actual Business students to spearhead it. Unlike us, with 3 random engineering students in ragged suits and a $100 walmart projector trying to scramble something together.

I don't think there's too much to be done about it - make it too simple and those teams will leave. Maybe they could introduce a classing system for aero/non-aero or steel frame vs carbon, or add a small penalty for cost.

[TobyB]

Funny- that's exactly how amateur racing works: show up in a stock street car with cage, race against stock street cars with cages.
Choose well, drive well, buy lots of tires = come in close to winning. And have real fun trying.

Show up with a fully- supported Stohr and win, because no- one else wants to spend that fast.

In- between, meet all sorts of nutballs who love cars, like to drive, and obviously have problems with life priorities...

t