Electric Formula 1

[thebigfelly]

Sitting here on my backshift and reading todays metro coming accross a story on page 56 about a new motorsport .FORMULA E.

This is all news to me.never heard or saw any of it before .but apparently its formula 1 but using electric cars. the selling point being formula one without the noise,smell,polution of the internal combustion engine.. WTF isnt that part the reason we enjoy the racing. the sound of the engines going full pelt. Revs climbing and the sound of it as they go through the gears. the smell of high octane being.burnt ?

i think itd be prety dull. it would be missing the X factor so to speak...watching a bunh of quiet cars hammering it round a track.

says apparently alot of citys are signing up .london.rome.rio de janerio. to 14 race series. and cars are being provided by mclaren.

yeah im all for advancing technology . but not with electric cars even if they do maintain high speeds.

isnt judging how much fuel to put in the motor part of the strategy of formula one. how they gonna decide that with electric cars.. hmmmm how many batterys should we put on for weight..

Think i might watch my next formula one race with the tv on mute just to see if its just as enjoyable withot the sound of those cars hammering past or down the straights. doubt id manahe to see them.make the first corner of hokenhiem lol

whats your thoughts people.. i know theres a few formula one lovers going by facebook posts i see

[The Don]

Info here...............

http://www.formulaeholdings.com/

[corsa]

Paul, just clocked your post, Formula E is not new, its being running for years its only in the last couple its beeen brought to the forefront.

In fact one of my mates is in charge of this project who is ex F1,Renault,Honda.

Lord Paul Drayson is the the man behind this project and when i got a tour of their Oxford base i asked him if he was the Bernie of FE, he did snigger a bit.

The car is based on a Le Mans style racecar with the engine removed and the battery pack installed(dimensions are approc 300mm x 75mm x 450mm.

Paul Drayson also has 2 x number Aston Martin DBRS race cars in the unit as well.

They are currently working on remote charging because at present the car can race for 25 minute stints before having to return to the pits for a re charge,when you think about it the car is a project, its the technology behind it that is absolutely gobsmacking when they tell you all about bluetooth remote charging.

I have loads of pictures of my wee visit but was asked not to post any of them up, i think i did post up one of the Astons on my FB page..

If you follow Lord drayson on twitter or www.draysonracingtechnologies they give more info on progress.

Davie

[thebigfelly]

Cheers davie . will dust off the old twitter account and see.

it doea sound good technology wise and advancing is always good . bit its the sound of the engines screaming etc that id miss from.it.

[HairyDJ]

I've marshalled a few meetings with electric bikes running amongst "real" ones. They have phenomenal torque out of the corners and get away from the normal bikes, but then seemed to be lower on top speed. If you want scary, then just be dealing with something on track (or close to) when an electric blasts past with utterly no noise to warn you of it's approach!

If you watch motorsport for the bad bits, then dig out some piccies from 18 months ago when a battery fault sent £250k of bike up in smoke - lithium battery fires don't co-operate ......

Take a look for Greenpower events in 2013 - a schools / uni competition for small cars - last year's winner used SMS to provide telemetry and control comms.