The Festival of Speed main event is a hill climb. Although not really seeming to be uphill, it's just a segment of racetrack. Doesn't look too scary until you are driving cars with unbelievable power. An electric car laid down the second fastest time ever in qualifying today. The driver had a camera on his face during the run, and it appeared his concentration didn't allow blinking. It truly is the most terrifying drive I've ever seen in a race car. He averaged I think over 140 MPH over this course which is amazing.

Here is yesterday's run. It's over a second slower than today. The "smoke" is dust from a fan that sucks the car to the road. Truly one of the most terrifying race cars ever built.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96UjqDWGVns

It apparently weighs around 1000KG and goes 0-100 in 1.5 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8whqxgi9re0

The power is impressive for sure but problem with FAST electric bikes and cars is their power reserve. Specifically how quickly they drain it when they go fast. While they surely can deliver eyebrow raising power they cannot yet do that with any kind of descent range. Just watch Grand Prix motorcycle racing’s premier class and compare it to their electric class which Ducati is heavily vested in now. The power is there for sure but being able to do it for any length of time is still way behind internal combustion.

They will get there eventually. The company that more or less declared the V twin engine reached the end of its innovation/development cycle (Ducati) before shifting gears over to a V4 engine will surely find a way to make faster electric racing motorcycles while still making some of the fastest petrol burning motos.

I’ve always been curious to talk with a Tesla owner about how much range drops on a model S if you drive it like an idiot. My electric bicycle’s range drops by about 50% if I go hard on its throttle.

Looks like a batmobile

He beat the all time record by .8 in a demonstration run this morning. Today's event is livestreamed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC6fQ8EkASE

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The power is impressive for sure but problem with FAST electric bikes and cars is their power reserve. Specifically how quickly they drain it when they go fast. While they surely can deliver eyebrow raising power they cannot yet do that with any kind of descent range. Just watch Grand Prix motorcycle racing’s premier class and compare it to their electric class which Ducati is heavily vested in now. The power is there for sure but being able to do it for any length of time is still way behind internal combustion.

They will get there eventually. The company that more or less declared the V twin engine reached the end of its innovation/development cycle (Ducati) before shifting gears over to a V4 engine will surely find a way to make faster electric racing motorcycles while still making some of the fastest petrol burning motos.

I’ve always been curious to talk with a Tesla owner about how much range drops on a model S if you drive it like an idiot. My electric bicycle’s range drops by about 50% if I go hard on its throttle.

Really, that’s true of any vehicle - if you drive a gas car like a maniac, you’ll get 1/2 the MPG as if you drive sedately.

It’s just that, for now, an equivalent amount of energy in batteries weighs more than gas and is slower to “refuel.”

It looks like the Batmobile in two ways: Looks of course, and like the car on Batman TV show, it looks like the tape has been sped up. Just a freakishly fast car.

It does look like the bat mobile.

Mazda used to race a car that had a similar aesthetic to that beast.

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:...The "smoke" is dust from a fan that sucks the car to the road.

Truly a fantastic, terrifyingly scary fast automobile.

On a side note, lest we forget, Jim Hall campaigned a "sucker car" in Can Am in the 1970 season (the Chapparal 2J). Although it saw limited track time due to mechanical problems - not related to the dual fans - it was running faster than any other car in the series. Can Am banned them the following season.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

Formula 1 enthusiasts, didn’t F1 briefly have a car with a fan that caused aero advantages similar to how this car uses it to cling to the road? I vaguely remember F1 banning such a device on one of the cars that competed in F1.

I'd like to see someone standing next to it or maybe it parked next to a street-legal car so we could get some perspective on its size. It looks like a short wheelbase and very narrow.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Formula 1 enthusiasts, didn’t F1 briefly have a car with a fan that caused aero advantages similar to how this car uses it to cling to the road? I vaguely remember F1 banning such a device on one of the cars that competed in F1.

No idea, but the downforce they generate just with aero surfaces is insane, at top speed they apparently make 5 times the weight of the car.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Formula 1 enthusiasts, didn’t F1 briefly have a car with a fan that caused aero advantages similar to how this car uses it to cling to the road? I vaguely remember F1 banning such a device on one of the cars that competed in F1.

I believe that was a Brabham, and Bernie was part of team running it. As I recall from teh lore he/they pulled it from competition after one, maybe two, races, recognizing it was going to be banned, probably retroactively, and was generally bad for the sport.

Love the hillclimb, this electric car is nuts. As cool as that is to see, that course is in no way designed for those speeds. Someone is going to get hurt or they're going to figure out a way to reign this in. And that someone may well be in the crowd - in a wreck that car could have gone a looooooong ways. As could many others of course.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

Love the hillclimb, this electric car is nuts. As cool as that is to see, that course is in no way designed for those speeds. Someone is going to get hurt or they're going to figure out a way to reign this in. And that someone may well be in the crowd - in a wreck that car could have gone a looooooong ways. As could many others of course.

You mean you don’t have much faith in two stacked hay bails reining in a rocket like that. Haha. Imaging if one of those fans gave out halfway down a straight stretch.

I would like to see it do pikes peak though. I doubt it’s engineered for that much battery capacity but that would be awesome. No loss of power all the way up like the ICE cars have.

With battery capacity, that car would rape Pike's Peak.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The power is impressive for sure but problem with FAST electric bikes and cars is their power reserve. Specifically how quickly they drain it when they go fast. While they surely can deliver eyebrow raising power they cannot yet do that with any kind of descent range. Just watch Grand Prix motorcycle racing’s premier class and compare it to their electric class which Ducati is heavily vested in now. The power is there for sure but being able to do it for any length of time is still way behind internal combustion.

They will get there eventually. The company that more or less declared the V twin engine reached the end of its innovation/development cycle (Ducati) before shifting gears over to a V4 engine will surely find a way to make faster electric racing motorcycles while still making some of the fastest petrol burning motos.

I’ve always been curious to talk with a Tesla owner about how much range drops on a model S if you drive it like an idiot. My electric bicycle’s range drops by about 50% if I go hard on its throttle.

You’re comparing sprinters to marathon runners.
They are not meant to be the same thing.
No one expects these vehicles to be touring vehicles or even compete with combustion engines on certain things.

Here is a link to a video of the top ten hill climb drives before the electric car record. The 1998 F1 car drive that held the record, set in 1999 was possibly more terrifying than the 2022 electric car drive. You can tell its a hand full without the fan assisted down force of the electric car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD5tBgr2LLc

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The power is impressive for sure but problem with FAST electric bikes and cars is their power reserve. Specifically how quickly they drain it when they go fast. While they surely can deliver eyebrow raising power they cannot yet do that with any kind of descent range. Just watch Grand Prix motorcycle racing’s premier class and compare it to their electric class which Ducati is heavily vested in now. The power is there for sure but being able to do it for any length of time is still way behind internal combustion.

They will get there eventually. The company that more or less declared the V twin engine reached the end of its innovation/development cycle (Ducati) before shifting gears over to a V4 engine will surely find a way to make faster electric racing motorcycles while still making some of the fastest petrol burning motos.

I’ve always been curious to talk with a Tesla owner about how much range drops on a model S if you drive it like an idiot. My electric bicycle’s range drops by about 50% if I go hard on its throttle.

You’re comparing sprinters to marathon runners.
They are not meant to be the same thing.
No one expects these vehicles to be touring vehicles or even compete with combustion engines on certain things.

I’d describe a motorcycle Grand Prix race as a bit of a hybrid between a sprint and a marathon because if you just race it flat out you’ll run out of gas and not finish the race. There are tactics such as fuel conservation (multiple fuel maps based on weight and tire degradation ) so there are tactics and elements of an endurance race involved, especially towards the end of a race.

If you actually watched and compared the cutting edge premiere class Motorcycle Grand Prix bike to the electric class (which the series is serious about promoting based on its sponsors and Ducati getting involved) it has more or less said ICE engines are going away and banned non renewable fuels in a few years.

So the future will likely be electric BUT when you watch them race right now it quickly becomes apparent that electric motors and batteries that exist now are just not able to pull Formula 1 rivaling power to weight ratios and insane speed for anywhere close to the length of a top level race. Electric racing motorcycles are not capable of hitting 200-300 kph for 100-130 kilometers (basically 60-80 miles at full throttle). They are averaging around 35km and the speed is not even close yet. It’s kind of sad how far they are behind but that will probably change soon.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Formula 1 enthusiasts, didn’t F1 briefly have a car with a fan that caused aero advantages similar to how this car uses it to cling to the road? I vaguely remember F1 banning such a device on one of the cars that competed in F1.

I believe that was a Brabham, and Bernie was part of team running it. As I recall from teh lore he/they pulled it from competition after one, maybe two, races, recognizing it was going to be banned, probably retroactively, and was generally bad for the sport.

Love the hillclimb, this electric car is nuts. As cool as that is to see, that course is in no way designed for those speeds. Someone is going to get hurt or they're going to figure out a way to reign this in. And that someone may well be in the crowd - in a wreck that car could have gone a looooooong ways. As could many others of course.

Brabham BT46B
Entered in only 1 race, that I recall, the 1978 Swedish GP, which Lauda won in this car, by a large margin.
Voluntarily withdrawn & both cars returned to BT46 spec.

Designed by Gordon Murray (of McLaren F1 fame) who is developing the GMA T50 which also utilizes a fan for downforce, and has a proper manual trans & a >10K RPM V12 in the back.

I was fortunate enough to attend FOS and see this record-breaking run in person. It's an amazing vehicle to be sure. There were tons of electric cars at the show, both on the track and off. I'm still a bit skeptical of electric for a primary vehicle, but I'm warming up to the idea of having one for running around town.
Goodwood was a really spectacular event. I don't know if I'll ever get to go back, but it was a real treat!