Jay Leno Green Race track

I will certainly be watching...

Officially, official: Jay Leno to put stars in (un)reasonably priced car — Autoblog Green

VIDEO: Ford engineers show off the new Focus BEV for the Jay Leno Show — Autoblog Green

The Focus prototype looks very good. They went with the Euro spec Focus ST to do the conversion. Hopefully we see an actual production version soon.

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Related PR video:
[youtube]FXR8lDR2tWc[/youtube]

All I know, with all that branding on the car they'd better start selling the darn thing. I question the wisdom of starting with a gas car that's not even available in the US. At any rate, this is a good marketing move for Ford, if only we could actually buy the car. Though now they're claiming a Focus BEV will go on sale in 2011.

The Ford Story: Electric Ford Focus is the Car for Stars on “The Jay Leno Show

This video is cool because it shows some of the conversion process:
The woman narrating the video claims the car will do "400 laps in one charge." Somehow I doubt those are hot laps.

For reference, here's Clarkson's review of the donor car:

"Asbo Orange" has entered the national vocabulary for that shade now, thanks to that review.

The Focus hatch has always been good to drive. When they first came out, I had a couple of normal ones as rental cars and was extremely impressed with the handling.


I was talking to Lisa from Ford at the show today (I thought she was the usual motor show "hostess" at first, but judging by her depth of knowledge on the whole subject I'm guessing is an engineer on the program - that'll teach me to assume). Anyway, apparently the car will definitely go on sale in the US in 2011. They want to get the range up to 100 miles from the current 75, though. But she said there was no guarantee that it will go on sale in Europe. Strange that they are testing them in London, then.

Snapshot from the first ep:

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2061/snapshot20090918232153.jpg

More snapshots (rather than taking up too much space here, I've posted them as thumbnails - click to enlarge):

I'm not impressed with this segment of the show. The track is lame, a cartoon, along the lines of a fairground go-kart course. For that matter, the track even includes cartoons -- cutouts of Al Gore and Ed Begley to drive around -- along with silly string and ping pong balls. Leno took the idea of the Top Gear track and "stupid-ed" it up.

Leno's comments on the segment and car:
[youtube]m08ogBYwo1s[/youtube]

This thing would actually be cool if it were a Tesla at a proper track but I have to believe it is "pay for play" and Ford is paying the Jay Leno Show nicely for the privilege.

Seriously - a fake track out back the studio in a car that is front wheel drive is not going to make for any exciting driving, although it may indeed be funny.

Here's the Drew Barrymore clip on hulu:
Hulu - The Jay Leno Show: Drew Races

Any press is good press. The track is a bit of a joke, yes. But the car is cool and the emphesis that EVs exist and work is what people will, one way or another, take away.

dpeilow said:

"Asbo Orange" has entered the national vocabulary for that shade now, thanks to that [Clarkson] review.

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For the non Brits, ASBO = Anti-Social Behaviour Order - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jay Leno Brings EVs Into America’s Living Room | Autopia | Wired.com

“We wanted to show that electric cars can be fun and something you can race,” Leno said. “In America, electric cars have the same cachet as golf carts. To see an electric car skidding around a track, I think it has the scope to change people’s perceptions of eco cars.”
...
... Leno was adamant that the feature, slated to run an average of twice weekly, support and promote American automotive engineering and ingenuity.

“I wanted an American manufacturer, and the only one with anything ready-to-go and viable was Ford,” Leno said. “GM is like a government company now. It’s a little tricky to get anything done.” ...

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The car blogs are generally negative:

VIDEO: Drew Barrymore In Jay Leno's Reasonably-Priced Electric Ford Focus "Race Car" - Jay Leno - Jalopnik



VIDEO: Drew Barrymore hits the Leno track in the Focus BEV — Autoblog Green

VIDEO: Drew Barrymore takes Jay Leno's Green Car Challenge — Autoblog

I caught part of tonight's show and Jay said they'd be adding 3 seconds to Drew's time since she didn't actually follow the course.