A week ago I spent a Sunday afternoon belting around the Top Gear test track here in the UK .. in a Roadster 2.5 with 30k miles on it .. giving paying members of the public 3 laps flat out with plenty of accelerating, tyre squealing and harsh braking late into corners. On track were a dozen other cars at a time all setting off in staggered starts as we were not supposed to be racing as such. Plenty of other exotic machinery in use including Lambos, Ferraris, Porsches, track specials and even a couple of classic Jaguars and Bentleys.
The 'track' was quite short being about 1 mile in length with only one straight long enough for drivers to hit 100mph+ and overtake slower cars. I must have done about 8 or 9 sessions and found that I was able to out accelerate most cars coming out of corners and on into the next corner, with the exception of the specials that had abundant power to get past on the straight, including an amazingly potent Supercharged Arial Atom, the odd Nissan GTR with at least 8 Billion horsepower before they went 'bang' and an monster 700bhp Merc SLS. There were quite a few drivers with heavy'ish cars who's road brakes were not up to hard braking needed into a couple of the faster sections. The Highlight of the day was a 'LaFerrari' out on the track on its own, which was bid up to £1,000 per 3 laps raising about £5k in 20 minutes. One winning bidder promptly suggested that the cars driver pick a random child out the audience to have the ride of his life - that put a lump in many peoples throats and the lucky kid was positively ecstatic.
The day was all about raising money for a childrens charity and in one weekend we collectively raised £89,000 / $150,000.
I have done this track sideways in other ICE 'sportscars' and know it well, not that that matters. But to do it in an EV was something unique
I did have some ridiculously excellent carbon pads (AX6's are dramatically better than stock ones) that never faded under load .. and semi slick sticky tyres, as did some of the others, but the key thing for me was that I was quicker per lap than Ferrari 360's and the like, which were disappearing in my rear view mirror after every corner or chicane !!
I know that most EV's are not really designed for track use due to lack of cooling and other things, but for each 3 laps this did not matter and I think a lot of people there that day were somewhat surprised .. And I did let it cool down between sessions .. Its kinda sweet to have done this around the TG track in light of all the deliberately misleading antics of Clarkson and Co a few years back ... Not once did it go into power-reduced mode or need to be pushed off the track into a hangar !!!:biggrin:
I arrived in the morning with about 75% SOC. At the end of the day I had enough energy left to get to one of three rapid chargers (60amp) on the way back home, and otherwise completed the 100 mile return trip totally normally. I have since replaced the front tyres though !!
Here's a series of totally gratuitous pics from a mobile phone. I would post some excellent 1080p dash cam footage, but the trouble is there's a lot of swearing / screaming / evangelical chat from the passengers ..
The 'track' was quite short being about 1 mile in length with only one straight long enough for drivers to hit 100mph+ and overtake slower cars. I must have done about 8 or 9 sessions and found that I was able to out accelerate most cars coming out of corners and on into the next corner, with the exception of the specials that had abundant power to get past on the straight, including an amazingly potent Supercharged Arial Atom, the odd Nissan GTR with at least 8 Billion horsepower before they went 'bang' and an monster 700bhp Merc SLS. There were quite a few drivers with heavy'ish cars who's road brakes were not up to hard braking needed into a couple of the faster sections. The Highlight of the day was a 'LaFerrari' out on the track on its own, which was bid up to £1,000 per 3 laps raising about £5k in 20 minutes. One winning bidder promptly suggested that the cars driver pick a random child out the audience to have the ride of his life - that put a lump in many peoples throats and the lucky kid was positively ecstatic.
The day was all about raising money for a childrens charity and in one weekend we collectively raised £89,000 / $150,000.
I have done this track sideways in other ICE 'sportscars' and know it well, not that that matters. But to do it in an EV was something unique
I did have some ridiculously excellent carbon pads (AX6's are dramatically better than stock ones) that never faded under load .. and semi slick sticky tyres, as did some of the others, but the key thing for me was that I was quicker per lap than Ferrari 360's and the like, which were disappearing in my rear view mirror after every corner or chicane !!
I know that most EV's are not really designed for track use due to lack of cooling and other things, but for each 3 laps this did not matter and I think a lot of people there that day were somewhat surprised .. And I did let it cool down between sessions .. Its kinda sweet to have done this around the TG track in light of all the deliberately misleading antics of Clarkson and Co a few years back ... Not once did it go into power-reduced mode or need to be pushed off the track into a hangar !!!:biggrin:
I arrived in the morning with about 75% SOC. At the end of the day I had enough energy left to get to one of three rapid chargers (60amp) on the way back home, and otherwise completed the 100 mile return trip totally normally. I have since replaced the front tyres though !!
Here's a series of totally gratuitous pics from a mobile phone. I would post some excellent 1080p dash cam footage, but the trouble is there's a lot of swearing / screaming / evangelical chat from the passengers ..
Attachments
Last edited:
