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 electric car technology mean racing can ditch the fossil fuels. Starting in September, the new FORMULA E series will bring teams from around the world to compete 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 new ideas will emerge from the crucible of racing to zoom all electric vehicles forward.
The battery-powered rocket that could transform formula 1 racing. WILSON HENNESSY |
BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN
1. Chassis Built by the Italian firm 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 tub for better crash protection.
2. Steering Wheel This is the command center. Many of the controls are what you'd find on a typical race car: paddle shifters for flicking between 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, though, there's also a knob for adjusting the motor's power and a button that engages a temporary boost for passing. And, of course, a screen displays how much juice is left in the battery.
3. 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 performance—a 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 changed mid-race, which makes the series more sustainable and also saves the teams some cash—a single tire gun (the tool that removes a lug nut in a split second) can cost thousands of dollars.
4. Battery Pack In a normal F1 car, the engine and gas tank are right behind the driver. Here that space is occupied by a roughly 772-pound cube containing 164 lithium-ion batteries. Designed by the British firm Williams F1, the power pack has a capacity of 30 kilowatt-hours—enough for 20 to 30 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, allowing teams to experiment with different suppliers to gain an edge.
5. Battery Management System In any electric car, the BMS is a bundle of hardware and software that keeps the battery pack operating safely and reliably by balancing the charges in the cells and tracking temperature, voltage, and current. Here it's even more crucial, because racing demands more of each cell, draining them much more rapidly than in an electric passenger car and recharging them constantly through the regeneration system. Williams crammed the BMS with many more sensors than usual, allowing it to monitor conditions at a greater level of detail; each second, the unit captures some 350,000 inputs that help the software maximize the health and performance of the battery pack.
6. Electric 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 $1.5 million P1 hybrid. Although the P1 has a higher top speed (217 mph as opposed to the Spark-Renault's 140 mph), electric motors have a lot of low-end torque, so the SRT_01E and the P1 both catapult from 0 to 60 in less than three seconds. One important 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 80 decibels, compared with the 130-decibel scream of its gas-fueled Formula 1 brethren.
WILSON HENNESSY
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