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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-they-still-make-that-neeeeeyung-sound? dept.

The FIA's new motor racing championship, built around electric cars and city street racing, Formula E held its first race on Saturday the 13th in Beijing, and Lucas di Grassi won after a spectacular crash at the last corner.

Although I'm not a big fan of most motor sports, there is a lot of fascinating technology behind the cars. All the teams are currently in the €350,000 Spark-Renault SRT_01E model car from Spark Racing Technology which is capable of a top speed of about 140 mph (225kph) and 0-60 mph in 3s.

There's an official Youtube channel with quite a bit of background and highlights clips as well as a video from di Grassi with a drivers-eye view of the technical aspects of the power management and regeneration system

The early reception seems to be generally positive although some aspects have been criticised, particularly the "Fanboost", where an online vote awards three drivers an extra 5 second power boost during the race.

So is Formula-E racing a gimmick, is it Formula 1 greenwashing, or is there some future for this sport and will the trickle-down-technology theory of motorsport proponents mean innovations here will end up in consumer cars?

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These Electric Race Cars Look Just Like Formula 1, But Are Eerily Quiet 17 comments

Car-crazed Californians caught a glimpse of what the future of car racing might look—and sound—like at the second annual Formula E series in Long Beach on April 2, the only U.S. stop on the Formula E tour this year.

...The electric variety has additional bells and whistles, like virtual reality racing, where viewers wearing VR goggles can put themselves in the cockpit of the cars. Another feature, called Fanboost, allows spectators to vote on which driver gets an added burst of energy during the race, perhaps giving an underdog favorite the chance to make a crucial pass of a competitor.

Soylent has covered Formula E before, but it's the second paragraph that's worth chewing over. Perhaps the future of that sport lies in adding all kinds of new dimensions to it that aren't possible with today's cars.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by dublet on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:06AM

    by dublet (2994) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:06AM (#93905)

    As a bit of a general motorsport and Formula 1 fan in specific, I think this series has great promise. It's obvious that the cars are limited by current battery technology, so much so that they have to swap cars during the race. The racing wasn't terrible at all but the track was supremely boring. I hope some of the other circuits will have a bit more going for it.

    The fan boost, although much discussed didn't actually seem to affect the racing at all, Heidfeld and Prost were in the lead for most of the race and only lost out on their podium positions due to their crash. Di Grassi seemed unable to close to gap despite his 5s energy boost.

    Next season will be even more interesting given that they will be allowed to have their own chassis, I believe. There is some relevance for electric car manufacturers here. I wonder if Tesla & Toyota will field a team in the near future?

    Aside from the circuit, the other thing that was terrible was the ITV4 (in the UK) commentary. Dull and uninspired.

    • (Score: 2) by present_arms on Tuesday September 16 2014, @02:10PM

      by present_arms (4392) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @02:10PM (#94010) Homepage Journal

      And what a crash at the end, My wife couldn't believe that Heidfield could just crawl out and run to have a "word" with prost. good stuff, engines whined a bit but boy they could take off, you are right about the circuit.

      --
      http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Darth Turbogeek on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:25AM

    by Darth Turbogeek (1073) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:25AM (#93910)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCK7i3-o_bY [youtube.com] - Full Race

    I think the technology will work it's way into road cars and yes, from a guy who builds race cars for a hobby it's very interesting - the racing itself is pretty fucking bad tho.

    E-Racers and hybrid racers liek at LeMans are highly facinating. I think clearly they are pushing technolgy of electric motors, batteries and regen systems - all three will have applications in our road cars and probably quite quickly. That's much how Group A racing was in the late 80's and early 90's, many of those cars really gave to more mundane models as an example. Turbo tech really came on in leaps and bounds so for example you have thrust bearing turbos in say the early Liberty RS eventually giving way to a ball bearing twin scroll turbo in the Spec C WRX which lead to the other cars in the range picking up that technology - and it is a big leap between the two turbo models.

    Going back further, GT racing pushed chassis and brake development in the 50's that lead to things like disc brakes becoming adopted in firtly sports cars and then filtering to more mundane vehicles. So thence, say watching the technology that is being worked on, it will appear in your road car soon.

    The racing itself? Ugggggggggggggggggggggh. It's BAD. A procession is the worst snoozefest and nothing in these cars promotes anything else. It's no future frankly - it'll be it's own class that will eventually just be a footnote because there is simply nothing compelling to watch or hear. One of the big things about watching motorracing is the experience and that usually means noise and spectacle, this has just a whine for noise and really, not much wheel banging and cut throat maniacs going for broke. It's not replacing F1 anytime soon.

    So... future? Again, needs to be looked at in two ways. As a technical exercise I see the tech making it's way outwards to other classes of racing and into road cars so yes it can be the future. As for actually racing as a class..... nooooooooooooooooope. They need to think again because wow, there is no fucking way I'm watching that again and I wont be the only one. It needs to catch the imagination to grow and stay viable and clever engineering isnt what makes a racing class work. Want to know what makes a racing class work? Look at something called Group B. Probably the most popular and legendary class of racing ever, basically car makers had a open sheet of paper to work with and they came up with some of the greatest race cars of all time. The Lancia Delta S4, the 288 GTO Ferrari (That begat the F40), the 959 Porsche that STILL has technology filtering down to other cars, The Puegeot T16, the utterly fearsome Audi S1 - THAT was a class that captured the imagination and stupidly popular. It was so wild that as the movie said, the cars got too fast to race and the class ended up killing drivers and spectactors. I'm afraid for Formula E to survive, they need cars with some mongruel that are compelling to watch.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @01:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @01:49PM (#93996)

      Don't be too critical. Ask any 'Murican, it has all the necessary parts of a good race system.
      *Noise
      *Crashes
      *An excuse to get drunk
      What else do you need. Except more crashes?

      Give it time. Notice how inventive track design isn't on the list. Nascar and the Indy 500 have shown that it doesn't matter.
      The real advantage here hasn't even been seen: Explosive batteries. Once a battery pack goes boom no other racing will be able to get the fans back.

      /snark

      • (Score: 1) by richtopia on Tuesday September 16 2014, @04:04PM

        by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @04:04PM (#94087) Homepage Journal

        While I am not a fan of NASCAR, the beauty of it is that you can sit and see the whole track from one spot. And you can see the competition between drivers visually, as they are often three deep.

        Try spectating something like rally, where you watch one corner, one car at a time. Now watching on a TV so you can follow a car around the track, that is awesome, but from the sideline, I can understand the popularity of NASCAR.

        • (Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:03PM

          by Darth Turbogeek (1073) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:03PM (#94230)

          I *love* spectacting at rally because you see much more, much MUCH closer. A WRC car at full flight near your nose is something NASCAR cant compete with. Group B had the kind of crowds NASCAR dreams of - because to see a Audi S1, up close, is not an experience you forget.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by WizardFusion on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:30AM

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:30AM (#93912) Journal

    I used to watch Formula 1. A long time ago. At the moment it's just a precession of cars with very little overtaking and not much happening.
    While the first Formula E was much of the same, there was a lot more overtaking. What I didn't like was the noise, or the lack of it. They all sounded like scalextric cars.

    Personally I prefer MotoGB motocycles and the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship). Both have much more action, more over taking and overall just a better sport to watch.

    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:50AM

      by davester666 (155) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:50AM (#94386)

      are you watching this season? most races have not been just a couple laps of sorting out the field, followed by a general procession of cars . There has been passing throughout most races this season. sure, Mercedes has a faster car, and when both get going as expected, they pull away from the field, but they have not just followed each other around with team orders deciding who wins.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Webweasel on Tuesday September 16 2014, @12:28PM

    by Webweasel (567) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @12:28PM (#93952) Homepage Journal

    The racing wasn't great. Ill probably watch a few more races to see if it gets better, but ultimately disappointing.

    What really got me is the committee based thinking behind the sport. It's obviously been thought up by marketing, MBA's and other "suits" that just don't "get it".

    The integration of social media is frankly offensive. A driver gets a boost due to being popular? REALLY?

    The stupid DJ, wishing he was Deadmau5. Constant background techno music. To low to hear properly, too loud and distracts from the race. Whats the point?

    Those two elements really got to me. What a turn off.

    As for the racing and cars. Oh dear. I do understand some of this will change next season (If it survives) but....

    All the cars are identical. Yes, this shows the better "racers" but it only works on a decent track which allows overtaking:

    The track was AWFUL. All 90' bends with no space to overtake, or a tiny chicane again, no space to over take. So the race ended with the last minute dive. Good to see that bad habits run in the Prost family too. The guy should be disqualified from the rest of the season for that stunt. Blatantly turned in on him.

    Cars were far far too slow. This could be a competitor to F1 but they don't want that ofc, so 200HP. Great.

    No downforce really. Some from the undertray and rear spoiler, but no front wing to speak of. (No effective front wing that is)

    No variation in the cars. Yawn.

    No slicks. REALLY? If your not on slicks its not racing...

    I don't see this surviving past the first season but we shall see.

    --
    Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
  • (Score: 0, Troll) by lentilsoup on Tuesday September 16 2014, @12:42PM

    by lentilsoup (4717) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @12:42PM (#93959)

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by richtopia on Tuesday September 16 2014, @04:10PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @04:10PM (#94091) Homepage Journal

    As an engineer, I like races where the limits on vehicles are relatively lose. Particularly for this field which is advancing so quickly, I want the team with the most innovative vehicle to display their advantage.

    However, I do understand that this concept can create a poor race for spectators. If one car dominates the race, the race gets boring.

    • (Score: 1) by Whiteludafan on Tuesday September 16 2014, @05:04PM

      by Whiteludafan (2136) on Tuesday September 16 2014, @05:04PM (#94118)

      The other issue here is cost. A lack of restrictions in racing can lead to a huge expenditures by teams in order to win. As a fledgling series, the focus is keeping costs slow, establishing the technology and then loosening the regulations after the series gets off the ground.