What do you guys think about electric racing?

[mrsleeve]

H2 36,000 BTU of energy potential stored per liquid gallon and IIRC about 60 BTU per gallon in gaseous form, not very stable in liquid form since it needs containment at very high pressures, and cooled to near absolute 0 to get it to liquid form. Its very energy intensive to rip it from water . In more simplistic terms its not a very energy dense fuel

Gasoline 126,000 BTU per liquid gallon (unless cut with ethanol) stable in liquid form, does not need lots of highly specialized equipment and handling for containment and distribution. Its very energy dense. Diesel is even more so....

[AndrewBird]

I'll just leave this here...

[Kevinl]

Sound is definitely a big part of it my E90 335i will smoke my e30 in acceleration, braking & handling but hearing that very mechanical sounding M20 above 5k is pure bliss

[Jims5543]

Welp, this Saturday is the Formula E race in Miami. I have a rooms booked at the Aloft in Brickell Village for the weekend.

I am looking forward to seeing this in person, having attended F1 in Montreal in 2011, and various Indy / Nascar / Rolex / Sports Car races in and around Florida, I am pretty excited to see what kind of show they put on.

Plus the races are pretty funny, close racing for 90% of the race, then for the last 2-3 laps all hell seems to break loose every single race.

Pics and video to be posted next week.

[varg]

I don't know if I'd ever pay to go watch an electric race. The noise of events like that is a big part of the experience for me. I wouldn't go to an airshow if the planes were nearly silent, I wouldn't go watch the drag races if they didn't spit flames and vibrate the stands, I probably wouldn't enjoy driving as much if I couldn't hear my engine growling on acceleration and burbling and popping on overrun.

In my city there are already two tracks having to impose noise restrictions due to community complaints (yup, it's lame when people move next to something noisy and then complain, but that's life I guess).

Oooh that bullshit burns me up! NIMBYS! People so stupid it makes me want to smash things! In downtown west palm beach a bunch of wealthy morons were complaining about the train horns after they moved into their overpriced humanstacks which were built near train tracks. They tried to get the area made into a quiet zone, I love it when I'm down in that area late at night and I hear the engineer giving those lovely 5-chimes a workout as he goes through the downtown.

[Exodus_2pt0]

Completely off topic, but since you went there... Through my work I have come to really appreciate a healthy train horn.

That said, I stand by electric racing from a purely performance standpoint.

[Rustyduktape]

I was able to see a demonstration by the EVSR group at Limerock last Memorial day ( I think it was Memorial day ). Anyways, in between the Continental Tire races they had I think 4 gas powered cars and 4 electric cars out on track, did a few laps. It was definitely interesting. They were all the same body style ( spec racer ford style ) but they said the electric ones had a lower center of gravity. By the end of the 5 or so laps the electric ones were a few seconds ahead. Other than that, it was really cool when we heard the gas cars coming through the esses, up the no name straight only to be suprised to see and hear an electric car come flying around the uphill turn. It's a really cool sound in my opinion! hearing the tires squeal a bit and the car cut through the air is pretty neat. Most of the people there (definitely around where we were camping) were watching them because, like I said, it was pretty interesting. In the end, the majority of the people who are there, are there to enjoy being at the race track for the weekend and to have a good time. Obviously the sound from ICE race cars adds to the excitement, but if for some reason on Memorial day weekend Limerock only had electric car racing scheduled, I would definitely still be going.

[Jims5543]

I have to say, I enjoyed the racing a lot, there was a lot of passing and while I am not a huge Scott Speed fan, I was pulling for the Andretti team to do well. Jean Eric Verne is the other driver for them and took pole for the weekend, he had some issues and fell way back one was a mistake Prost was pushing him hard and forced him to brake too late for a corner and fall way back as he had to take an escape road.

Speed on the other hand charged from a 10th place stating position to 2nd. So he had a great day.

Some pics form the weekend.

The cars sounded surreal, there is no engine noise you just hear the whining of the transmission, best I could tell 4 forward gears, top speed is 150 in qualifying trim and 130 in race trim. They turn down the power so the batteries last longer.






A formula E car up close.



BMW had a I car display, here is the i8, sexy beast.


Ahh... Downtown Miami (Brickell to be exact) I love visiting cities, not sure I could live in one. Although we LOVED walking everywhere and using the mass transit to get everywhere. We about killed our friends, same age but not in as good a shape and with good reason, she is a cancer survivor and he just had his knee scoped. She is still having lymph node problems, a fallout / casualty from the cancer war she fought.


Ahh.. Miami waterfront, this is Museum park looking our on Biscayne Bay, this was the view from the racetrack. This is also where the Ultra Music festival will be next weekend.


My son on the left and nephew on the right, Mrs.5543 answering my text message I sent here LOL!! We had 2 rooms on the same floor and I could see their balcony from ours.


Giant yacht backing in to watch the race.



After qualifying, we walked back into downtown Miami, Yelp led us to this Gastropub and I found a hangover cure. I normally do not take pictures of food, this burger was a medicinal miracle so it gets a pic. Not sure if the burger fixed me or if the 2 IPA's I had did the trick, but I was ready to go after this.



I decided on General admission tickets, they were $15 each (presale discount) and I was not sure where I wanted to sit in a grandstand anyway. To be honest, the grandstands were out in the open, no cover, so fans were baking in 87° Miami sun. In the shade, where we ended up standing along the track, it was like it was air conditioned, there was a nice breeze blowing and we were very comfortable. So we camped here at the last turn heading to the start / finish line. We had a jumbo tron to keep an eye on the race too.
These folks got creative and climber a RR Crossing, it did not last long they got ordered down by security. Those condo's in the background, we saw one for sale in an ad in our program, 900K and it was a 1000 s.f. 1 bed 1 bath unit with a balcony overlooking the track.



Fans packed in watching.


Last turn:


As we were walking through downtown Miami we stumbled upon a piece of the Berlin wall.


The Metro Mover is a bus on elevated train tracks that is free to the people in Miami. It loops all around downtown Miami. Unfortunately it was overwhelmed when the race crowd stormed the platforms. We ended up walking most of the 1.6 mile walk back to the hotel.


Our Hotel had a pool. Ah.... Miami...



Would I go again? Hell yeah! Really good racing very close and this was probably the first race where the racing was really clean. To watch Speed romp from 10th to 2nd was cool and it was great to see so much passing. Lets be honest, here, there was no way of knowing who was going to win and the race was a blast to watch. Unlike another Formula series where we are guarantied who is coming in 1st and second all season. I have that race DVR's and not even sure I am going to bother watching it.

Oh, and the absence of "car noise" there is noise, it is just different. The whine coming from the cars is neat, futuristic if you will. I did not miss having to wear ear protection and actually hearing the PA system.

If they are in Miami again I am there.

[decay]

Oh, and the absence of "car noise" there is noise, it is just different. The whine coming from the cars is neat, futuristic if you will.

This is what I was talking about when I said this:

They're not silent. Under load they make a sound like a turbine.

Thanks for sharing, Jim.

[Jims5543]

This is what I was talking about when I said this:



Thanks for sharing, Jim.

It seems Photobucket is down right now, the pics will eventually load.


If you have been to an F1 race (especially the V8 and V10 era) then the sound level at a Formula E race is the same as a F1 race with ear protection on.

Did that make sense? In other words, with ear protection on at a F1 race it is muffled to a point that is similar to what a FE car sounded like sans ear protection as it was not needed.

I shot some video from trackside, it was cool to hear the crowd screaming and reacting to the race and you could actually hear it. You could also hear the PA system while the race was going on.

The downtown city setting was awesome. We had a 3 hour break between qualifying and the race, we ended up in a Gastropub pounding quality beer for 2 hours chilling out and relaxing.

Compared to an F1 weekend, this was much more laid back more relaxing and a lot of fun. Will do again and again.