That title is misleading in one way, this is Toyota setting the record (7min 47.794sec) for an electric vehicle. The weird thing is the sound. I get it, it's electric, but this isn't a Leaf or a Volt or even a Tesla. On-board video from an open cockpit electric car going that fast is really hard to get used to, fascinating though IMO. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwHO6sC7Lhs]Video of the Nürburgring lap record for a Toyota electric vehicle - YouTube[/ame]
Seems to my uneducated eye that there is a lot that can be done to improve handling in that car. Maybe they got all sorts of electric techs involved and now they need some chassis guys to tweak it a bit.
those tires were getting torture3d through the corners... WOW...that was pretty cool though (especially the noise...very intoxicating)
The lines were just fine. Any speculations on how well it did are useless without knowing more details about the car. Weight, torque, aero used, etc.
Pretty cool vid. I had to turn the sound off about a minute in. Yikes that sounds like carp. Maybe if they put some baseball cards in the spokes of the wheels it would have sounded more macho & less leaf blower.
Darn fast 8 Minutes 23 seconds is a very god excellent time around that track. I guess the driver wanted to get this lap over fast because of the disgusting awful noise he had to listen to.
That was the video length, the lap time was 7min 47.8sec. Not bad given a claimed top speed of 230kph (143mph). I'm not in love with the sound of the electric motors (it uses 2 of them), esp. the noise they make at high speed thanks to having only one gear. I wonder what the rpm is at top speed... Do I want to hear this sort of thing all the time or while watching races? No, to my liking there's no replacement for the sound and feel of internal combustion engines. I just think it's fascinating as an exercise to be able to listen to everything left over when you delete the normal engine sounds. If they could delete the electric motor noise, even better. Love to be able to hear most of what's going on where the rubber meets the road. A few pics of the rest of the car:
It sort of reminds me of driving a car with straight cuts gears. Whiny loud, but it is missing the engine sounds... I could not listen to a full field of those electric razors flying by. :crazy:
Telemetry on that would be cool... Interested to see how fast he was going at various parts of the track. Sounded like radials on the silly thing. Cards in the spokes... THAT is funny.
I happen to like the sound, but I guess you REALLY don't like it (had to post twice about it). Toyota is planning to sell the drivetrain for upcoming electric car racecar series (several are planned): http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/toyota-sets-electric-lap-record-at-the-nurburgring/ http://www.greenpacks.org/2011/08/29/toyota-plans-to-sell-electric-racer-in-limited-numbers/
I'm with you. The sound was different, for sure, but did not really bother me. At the speeds he was going, I doubt he even noticed. As Steve said, you could hear other things. On a couple of turns he really slowed down and the acceleration response was great, for having only one gear. Jim
A full scales RC car!!!! LOL Love this thing, when someone finally develops a high capacity, fast charging, truly light weight battery/system for storing energy, the whole game will change!! ....and that someone is going to get rich beyond imagination..
Another approach being worked on is swappable batteries, where you can pull into a refill station (like today's gas stations) and swap in a fully charged battery. The concept is good but there are major hurdles. Everybody would have to agree on a standardized battery (we're nowhere near ready for that while technology is still evolving), and the need to establish the infrastructure of stations.
...or bought out by the oil companies and disgarded altogether. Man, that car has no low speed mechanical grip. I gather it's a Radical SR5 or one of those models.
Yeah, I was surprised at how small the inputs were with the steering that resulted in tire slippage. Must have had a pretty heavy battery pack on board.
It's a Radical chassis, don't know whether it's one of their regular models or something purpose-built. Some specs (weight, etc) here.
I found it funny that they called the motor an engine, but that might have been "Lost In Translation".... Heh Heh Heh. Lost in Translation