Formula e

[JulianWilliams]

http://www.fiaformulae.com/en.aspx

Is the competition any good? It's basically F1-ish cars but with electric engines. I haven't had the chance to watch any races yet but it does sound interesting. I wonder how the cars compare with F1cars.

[David]

Very interesting, watched some of their videos. Lots of broken Carbon Fiber but looks like fun. Much quieter due to electric powertrains. Plenty of torque as you can see many spinning wheels at the start and through out the race. I was wondering how they kept them going and so you can do a battery swap or a complete car swap to have your full charge.

[JulianWilliams]

IIRC they just swap the cars. I suppose it'd be difficult do swap the batteries really quickly due to them being built for speed rather than practicality therefore they probably have batteries stuck into every nook and cranny. I also understand it's a very expensive competition to run due to them always renting cities to organize their races rather than using already existing racing tracks. i suppose they're also looking to promote the idea of electric car = performance to the masses.

[changecups]

I like the idea of it and I think it will be good to watch but it is lacking the noise that F1 produces. Im a sucker for a good noise and the electric powertrain just doesn't get me excited.

 

It will be interesting to see those cars develop and see the technology which is developed trickle down to road cars, something which happens less and less from F1 these days due to the technical complexity of the things.

[JulianWilliams]

I'd love to see some F1 cars go head to head against some of these electric cars for a short-ish race because the electric cars can't race for as long as the F1 ones can.

I can see what you mean about the engine noise, but I suppose that's what the future holds for us long term anyway.

[David]

I like the idea of it and I think it will be good to watch but it is lacking the noise that F1 produces. Im a sucker for a good noise and the electric powertrain just doesn't get me excited.

 

It will be interesting to see those cars develop and see the technology which is developed trickle down to road cars, something which happens less and less from F1 these days due to the technical complexity of the things.

Like you while I like a properly tuned set of performance exhaust, I have also come to appreciate the silence and in this respect the fast response that electric motors provide.

[ccap41]

It is some pretty cool racing. Very different, but good IMO. The strategy is very different from most car racing as they have to do a full car swap around halfway. With that being said, that is one of the cool stragdgy points as some will try and run full out and swap cars before halfway and take it a little easier on th second half and others will flip that strategy.

 

I like the idea of it and I think it will be good to watch but it is lacking the noise that F1 produces. Im a sucker for a good noise and the electric powertrain just doesn't get me excited.

 

It will be interesting to see those cars develop and see the technology which is developed trickle down to road cars, something which happens less and less from F1 these days due to the technical complexity of the things.

 

F1 cars sound terrible in 2015. Those 4cyl cars may be engineering marvels but they don't sound like they once did with those tiny V8s reving to 20,000rpm. Now THOSE had a special feel and sound to them.