Take a Rail in a Ridiculously Cool Formula E Electrical Racer
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Take a Rail in a Ridiculously Cool Formula E Electrified Racer
Much of high-end auto racing has always been about squeezing a bit more kinetic energy out of each drop of gasoline. But improvements in electrical car technology mean racing can ditch the fossil fuels. Embarking in September, the fresh FORMULA E series will bring teams from around the world to challenge on the streets of Beijing, Monte Carlo, Buenos Aires, Miami, and six other cities. And they’ll all be driving a version of the same car: the Spark-Renault SRT_01E. Built using systems from several storied automotive firms, the 1,764-pound electrorocket represents the thinking of the best minds in the sport. Carmakers hope that fresh ideas will emerge from the crucible of racing to zoom all electrified vehicles forward.
The battery-powered rocket that could convert formula one racing. WILSON HENNESSY | BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN
1. Chassis | Built by the Italian stiff Dallara, which also makes the chassis for Indy cars, the Formula E chassis is made of a strong, lightweight carbon-fiber composite. As in a typical F1 car, the driver sits in an aluminum bath for better crash protection.
Two. Steering Wheel | This is the instruction center. Many of the controls are what you’d find on a typical race car: spanking paddle shifters for flicking inbetween the SRT’s six gears, a speed limiter for driving in the pit lane, a radio button so the driver can talk to his team. Here, however, there’s also a knob for adjusting the motor’s power and a button that engages a makeshift boost for passing. And, of course, a screen displays how much juice is left in the battery.
Three. Tires | Formula E tires must be both efficient and versatile, since the cars will be racing not on dedicated racetracks but on city streets. Michelin designed an 18-inch tire that’s treaded for all-weather spectacle–a very first for an international race series–with low rolling resistance to extend battery life. The’re so rugged that they won’t need to be switched mid-race, which makes the series more sustainable and also saves the teams some cash–a single
tire gun (the implement that eliminates a lug nut in a split 2nd) can cost thousands of dollars.
Four. Battery Pack | In a normal F1 car, the engine and gas tank are right behind the driver. Here that space is occupied by a harshly 772-pound cube containing one hundred sixty four lithium-ion batteries. Designed by the British rock hard Williams F1, the power pack has a capacity of thirty kilowatt-hours–enough for twenty to thirty minutes of hard driving. The races will last twice that, so when the driver makes a pit stop with an almost-dead battery, he’ll hop into a different, fully charged car. Right now all the battery packs are the same, but to encourage innovation, this stricture may eventually be relaxed, permitting teams to experiment with different suppliers to build up an edge.
Five. Battery Management System | In any electrified car, the BMS is a bundle of hardware and software that keeps the battery pack operating securely and reliably by balancing the charges in the cells and tracking temperature, voltage, and current. Here it’s even more crucial, because racing requests more of each cell, draining them much more rapidly than in an electrical passenger car and recharging them permanently
through the regeneration system. Williams crammed the BMS with many more sensors than usual, permitting it to monitor conditions at a greater level of detail; each 2nd, the unit captures some 350,000 inputs that help the software maximize the health and spectacle of the battery pack.
6. Electrical Motor | The 57-pound cylindrical motor comes from McLaren, the British company famous for supercars that cost more than a nice house in a good school district. This is the same motor that McLaren uses in its $1.Five million P1 hybrid. Albeit the P1 has a higher top speed (217 mph as opposed to the Spark-Renault’s one hundred forty mph), electrified motors have a lot of low-end torque, so the SRT_01E and the P1 both catapult from zero to sixty in less than three seconds. One significant feature is the motor’s regeneration system: Whenever the driver takes his foot off the throttle, the spinning rotor charges the battery pack. The motor also helps produce the car’s unique, pod-racer-esque sound; at top speed, the car hums at eighty decibels, compared with the 130-decibel scream of its gas-fueled Formula one brethren.
1. Chassis Built by the Italian rock-hard Dallara, which also makes the chassis for Indy cars, the Formula E chassis is made of a strong, lightweight carbon-fiber composite. As in a typical F1 car, the driver sits in an aluminum bath for better crash protection.
Two. Steering Wheel This is the guideline center. Many of the controls are what you’d find on a typical race car: spanking paddle shifters for flicking inbetween the SRT’s six gears, a speed limiter for driving in the pit lane, a radio button so the driver can talk to his team. Here, however, there’s also a knob for adjusting the motor’s power and a button that engages a makeshift boost for passing. And, of course, a screen displays how much juice is left in the battery.
Trio. Tires Formula E tires must be both efficient and versatile, since the cars will be racing not on dedicated racetracks but on city streets. Michelin designed an 18-inch tire that’s treaded for all-weather spectacle–a very first for an international race series–with low rolling resistance to extend battery life. The’re so rugged that they won’t need to be switched mid-race, which makes the series more sustainable and also saves the teams some cash–a single tire gun (the contraption that eliminates a lug nut in a split 2nd) can cost thousands of dollars.
Four. Battery Pack In a normal F1 car, the engine and gas tank are right behind the driver. Here that space is occupied by a toughly 772-pound cube containing one hundred sixty four lithium-ion batteries. Designed by the British stiff Williams F1, the power pack has a capacity of thirty kilowatt-hours–enough for twenty to thirty minutes of hard driving. The races will last twice that, so when the driver makes a pit stop with an almost-dead battery, he’ll hop into a different, fully charged car. Right now all the battery packs are the same, but to encourage innovation, this stricture may eventually be relaxed, permitting teams to experiment with different suppliers to build up an edge.
Five. Battery Management System In any electrified car, the BMS is a bundle of hardware and software that keeps the battery pack operating securely and reliably by balancing the charges in the cells and tracking temperature, voltage, and current. Here it’s even more crucial, because racing requests more of each cell, draining them much more rapidly than in an electrical passenger car and recharging them permanently through the regeneration system. Williams crammed the BMS with many more sensors than usual, permitting it to monitor conditions at a greater level of detail; each 2nd, the unit captures some 350,000 inputs that help the software maximize the health and spectacle of the battery pack.
6. Electrical Motor The 57-pound cylindrical motor comes from McLaren, the British company famous for supercars that cost more than a nice house in a good school district. This is the same motor that McLaren uses in its $1.Five million P1 hybrid. Albeit the P1 has a higher top speed (217 mph as opposed to the Spark-Renault’s one hundred forty mph), electrical motors have a lot of low-end torque, so the SRT_01E and the P1 both catapult from zero to sixty in less than three seconds. One significant feature is the motor’s regeneration system: Whenever the driver takes his foot off the throttle, the spinning rotor charges the battery pack. The motor also helps produce the car’s unique, pod-racer-esque sound; at top speed, the car hums at eighty decibels, compared with the 130-decibel scream of its gas-fueled Formula one brethren.