NigelM
Recovering Member
Keeping my eye on Miami here also. It'll be interesting to see how ticket sales go at the first races, but it's good to see that international TV is on board.
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Formula E: Global Electric Car Series to Launch in 2014
- Thread starter markwj
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- Electric Vehicles
chickensevil
Active Member
Well thanks for that. I really appreciate it. I didn't know the i8 was a two speed. I thought they had tried two different transmissions from two different suppliers and it came down to just too much torque being pushed through such a small packaging. Clearly Tesla is staying away from transmissions since they are getting their two speed gearing through the use of two motors. They also have suppliers that would love to work for them so I asset there is good reason for them to keep away from adding a transmission.
NigelM
Recovering Member
First race will be shown live at 3.30am (Eastern) on Foxsports 1 tomorrow (Saturday). Channel 583 on Verizon here.
It was a good race. During the mid part I was getting a little frustrated that the identical cars were finding it difficult to pass each other, but as we went on it got more exciting.
Nick Heidfeld closing down on Nico Prost was tense and it is a shame that we were robbed of the right result. Amazing crash protection though.
When I went to the Donnington test day, I could hear they had gearboxes but I was surprised to hear they are 5 speeds.
Also, max power in the race is limited to 150 kW / 200 bhp. With a 30 kWh battery, it's interesting to see how they compare to a Tesla Roadster. I wonder if, without the mandatory car swap, a properly cooled Roadster could win it?
Nick Heidfeld closing down on Nico Prost was tense and it is a shame that we were robbed of the right result. Amazing crash protection though.
When I went to the Donnington test day, I could hear they had gearboxes but I was surprised to hear they are 5 speeds.
Also, max power in the race is limited to 150 kW / 200 bhp. With a 30 kWh battery, it's interesting to see how they compare to a Tesla Roadster. I wonder if, without the mandatory car swap, a properly cooled Roadster could win it?
thelastdeadmouse
Member
As for the roadster, I doubt it'd be competitive. Single seaters of any type are very fast, and while these cars are slower than other Formula cars the cornering, braking, and acceleration would easily outmatch a roadster.
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NigelM
Recovering Member
Just watched it on the DVR. I agree it was a good race; they still have some way to go on the marketing and it's nowhere near up to F1 standards yet, but it could be eventually. Car specs are fixed for the year to keep them all identical but I think we'll see even more interesting races if the teams get to design their own cars in future.
The Heidfeld crash was jaw-dropping but imagine what would have happened in an ICE race car (even with most fuel used up).
thelastdeadmouse
Member
I'm glad that (to me at least) the car swap halfway through the race didn't feel as intrusive as I had feared. I just hope that next year and future seasons when teams are designing their own cars, the rules are set up to incentivize teams to use batteries with capacity to last the whole race or to allow battery swaps. The battery weighs around 750 lbs, so if battery swapping isn't allowed its much faster taking a long pit stop to switch cars than driving one car with a 1500 lbs battery.
NigelM
Recovering Member
Prost had driven well during the race but that was horribly amateur on his part; he checks his right mirror and moves left without checking left. Gotta wonder what he was thinking.
Thanks for posting the crash. I had heard about it via Twitter. Either the guy who set the recording on the DVR* did not extend the time, or FOX Sports 1 on Cox in Tucson cut the race at 1 hour 30 min. They had just started the final lap when my recoding ended. So frustrating.
I'm looking forward to the next race on the 22nd of November.
I'd like to see a few changes in the TV coverage:
More about the cars.
Don't cut to the crew/owners/girlfriends & wives in the final laps.
Change the background on the graphics when they showed the positions with time gaps and battery percentage.
Don't play dance beat music in the background during the race.
*Yes that would be me
I'm looking forward to the next race on the 22nd of November.
I'd like to see a few changes in the TV coverage:
More about the cars.
Don't cut to the crew/owners/girlfriends & wives in the final laps.
Change the background on the graphics when they showed the positions with time gaps and battery percentage.
Don't play dance beat music in the background during the race.
*Yes that would be me
Could someone post the time point in the youtube vid of when the did the car swap?
There shouldn't be any battery swapping or, even worse, car swapping. They should instead make the race consist of two three individual short sprint races, each lasting 15-20 minutes, with a couple of minutes break between them. Winner is the guy with the overall most points from all three races. Would be a bit more exciting to watch too, instead of one long race.
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Not surprising, she was the girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio for a couple of years, and he is one of the best known supporters of green transportation in Hollywood. I think he was one of the first celebrities, if not the first, who let himself be seen in a Prius, he heavily invested in Fisker (I wonder how much that cost him ...), now he has his own EV race team ... . Bar has probably tried out more plug in cars and knows more people in the industry than the vast majority of people on this site.
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Today I learned Bar Rafaeli is an EV believer, or at least pretends to be. (4:00 mark in the video)
Not surprising, she was the girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio for a couple of years, and he is one of the best known supporters of green transportation in Hollywood. I think he was one of the first celebrities, if not the first, who let himself be seen in a Prius, he heavily invested in Fisker (I wonder how much that cost him ...), now he has his own EV race team ... . Bar has probably tried out more plug in cars and knows more people in the industry than the vast majority of people on this site.
Finally finished watching it. It's interesting, but the car swap in the middle really takes the momentum out of the race. The street circuit layout seemed weird to me, presumably it's optimized for EV? Just 4 hard left turns and a couple of kinks in the straights.
It's early days, but the whole thing feels a little 'cheap'; the graphics (confusing and tacky), the odd music bed that came and went, and the pitlane made of tents.
Dramatic last lap though, at least the safety cage is solid, Heidfeld was lucky though, the strange angle he was flying through the air could have thrown the car against something that the rollbar wouldn't have protected him from.
So it's interesting, they need to do a lot more all round to engage your typical race fan though.
It's early days, but the whole thing feels a little 'cheap'; the graphics (confusing and tacky), the odd music bed that came and went, and the pitlane made of tents.
Dramatic last lap though, at least the safety cage is solid, Heidfeld was lucky though, the strange angle he was flying through the air could have thrown the car against something that the rollbar wouldn't have protected him from.
So it's interesting, they need to do a lot more all round to engage your typical race fan though.
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