Most liked posts in thread: Nurburgring lap record (video)

Could be from the instant full torque of electric motors at any rpm. A high tech slip/launch control should help. Radical says the run was done on "road tyres", which I take to mean street legal, not racing tires.

The specs are interesting. Curb weight is 970 kg/2138 lbs and batteries are 350 kg/772 lbs (36% of the total weight). The conventional engine Radical SR8 RX is 680kg/1499 lbs.

 

Back in the 1960s I saw this idea studied for electric city cars but it has a fundamental practical problem:
- If you own your battery, would you swap your new one for somebody else's knackered old one just because it was fully charged?
- If alternatively you lease the battery, what's to stop you ruining the battery and then going to get it swapped for a good one?

It's possible that electronics are now good enough that the battery can protect itself from gross abuse but even then it can't find a charging station on its own if the operator decides to leave it fully discharged for three months.

Leased batteries do seem a popular option just to reduce the visible purchase price of electric cars, but I haven't seen anyone address this issue.

 

There is a company (forget who) that I saw awhile back on the Discovery channel trying to elopement this in a city. Whole bunch of infrastructure to it, so much so that it just doesn't seem feasible in the long run, not to mention that future development in energy storage systems would render it out dated immediately...

It will be this century's wheel but I believe a break through is in the near future!!

 

These type cars are being addressed by a lot of major companies right now and they are continuing to do so, even with the battery storage problem. I agree with you Mark, they will find the answer at some point.

Jim

 

Man I get a great adrenaline rush watching that clip.