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Formula E heads to Mexico for the fourth round of the season with Bird and Virgin leading the championships, a new driver in the field. We preview what to look out for in Mexico.
That was embarrassing. Honestly. It's an electric motor with quite hard tyres so it should be doing donuts beyond that even of Vettel, but it was just a damning exhibit of how little power they have for how heavy they are.muelte wrote:Don't know if this was posted before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2uA7IQDD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWxPtWd62Ek
Well, that's partly the point of the championship, isn't it?Paulington wrote: but battery technology really needs to improve, and fast.
spec battery pack I thought.....hollus wrote:Well, that's partly the point of the championship, isn't it?Paulington wrote: but battery technology really needs to improve, and fast.
From the end of the second video....Paulington wrote:That was embarrassing. Honestly. It's an electric motor with quite hard tyres so it should be doing donuts beyond that even of Vettel, but it was just a damning exhibit of how little power they have for how heavy they are.muelte wrote:Don't know if this was posted before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2uA7IQDD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWxPtWd62Ek
My only thought is that this must have been running the 50bhp motor configuration, but even then, not exactly the publicity event they were hoping for I'd imagine!
I hope this goes well, but battery technology really needs to improve, and fast.
A F1 with just 200hp (1/4 standard power) would be embarrassing tooLucas di Grassi wrote:I think with four times the power we have now....
are also confirmed, final line-up: 
meanwhile.....Blanchimont wrote: The power figures from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIA_Formula_E_Championship are:
Power
Max power (limited): 200 kW, equivalent to 270 bhp
Race mode (power-saving): 133 kW, equivalent to 180 bhp
Push-to-Pass: 67 kW
what went wrong with the Formula E car? it looks extremely fragile and breakable and it sounds like a home-built RC car built by a 6 year old of some parts found in the trash.
Formula E
Performance
Acceleration: 0 – 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3 s - Estimated
Maximum speed: 225 km/h (140 mph) (FIA limited) - Estimated
Lycoming wrote:The low power is probably due to a combination of range and cost concerns with respect to the size of the batteries.
And I would argue that it looks no more fragile than any other open wheeler.
looks pretty fragile and cheap to me. and this should be arguably the breeding programme for high-tech electric racingRicerDude wrote:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc4ZuniHh30[/url][/youtube]
What part of it looks fragile and cheap? The hard plastic clattering sound? That's just because it's filmed on a GoPro. It looks -imilar to a Pro Mazda or Formula 3 car, which makes sense as they're all about the same power output. It's not like you can even see any visible flex.Manoah2u wrote:looks pretty fragile and cheap to me.
What specifically about it looks cheap? it looks very similar to what you'll find under the sidepod of any F1 car.Manoah2u wrote: the side crash structure looks weird too. it just looks.....cheap.
I would argue that it's innovative in the sense of being the first actual racing series to be established. If you expect them to be a source of innovative new technology... that's not something you should look for in any motor racing series, much less a spec series. They never have the budget to actually develop new technology.Manoah2u wrote: and this should be arguably the breeding programme for high-tech electric racing
innovation. cough. not even close.
The Drayson car costs several times as much as what the Formula-E cars are cost capped to. Batteries are expensive. Also, Drayson also never lists a range for it. The best I could find was ">15 minutes" running time in race mode, Which doesn't actually tell you very much.Manoah2u wrote:and low power? the cars mentioned above are able to run a complete race distance whilst being much heavier.
This is unlikely in any case.Manoah2u wrote: It'll bring technology from racing to street use because of development and inventions.
There are much better and cheaper ways to rack up testing mileage on electric powertrains, ways that involve much less risk of crashing.Manoah2u wrote:With such a racing feat, you'd have a whole lot more potential in research for electric battery mileage which instantly will benefit into road-use.
Because otherwise nobody would be able to afford to run it and you'd have no series at all.Manoah2u wrote:instead we have some controlled, boring, cheap and regulated grey product.
Manoah2u wrote:throw me in a couple of vector-e 's, a couple of rimac one's, and some drayson b12's, hell, get some tesla roadsters, some bmw i8's, audi e-trons, and some more in there and you have something WAYYY more exciting then this already boring formula e before it has even begun. imagine the innovation will be the result of such a racing class, when they can get a prize and prestige of winning electric grand prix' and championships. make it a prestige, make it important, make it a media spectacle. It'll bring technology from racing to street use because of development and inventions. With such a racing feat, you'd have a whole lot more potential in research for electric battery mileage which instantly will benefit into road-use.
instead we have some controlled, boring, cheap and regulated grey product.
Max power of an electric setup depend on the battery capacity too. The power of an electric setup depend on the voltage and current, and the current depend of the max discharging rate of the battery. The max discharging rate of the battery is a parameter directly proportional to the capacity, to the point it´s usually a factor of the capacity, 10C, 15C, 20C, 60C.... so if you do a test with a reduced capacity battery, also the power of the setup is reduced.Blanchimont wrote:I don't know if we can expect more action/power from these cars. The engineer Theophile Gouzin talks (0:37 to 0:50 in the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWxPtWd62Ek ) about the battery capacity being 8kWh, ~25% of the 30kWh that the final cars should have.
It's di Grassi who talks about 4 times the power, maybe he mixed power and capacity up?
The power figures from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIA_Formula_E_Championship are:
Power
Max power (limited): 200 kW, equivalent to 270 bhp
Race mode (power-saving): 133 kW, equivalent to 180 bhp
Push-to-Pass: 67 kW