
Tesla racing series: Electric cars get the green light – Roadshow - rbanffy
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-racing-series-electric-gt-cars/
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userbinator
As a car modder/tuner myself, having watched electric cars racing before, I
can say it's a very different experience and likely won't appeal much to the
existing large consumer base of racing fans. Electric cars are far more
"sterile", for lack of a better word, and just doesn't appeal to my senses in
quite the same way as the sights, sounds, and smells of a fuel-burning one; or
to put it another way, going fast is not the only thing people like about
racing.

~~~
grecy
> _doesn 't appeal to my senses in quite the same way as the sights, sounds,
> and smells of a fuel-burning one_

In the future our great grandchildren will look at comments like that with
disgust, much the same way we think about harvesting whales or elephants
today. Heathens

~~~
kaffeemitsahne
It's always easy to appeal to the morals of future people, since they don't
exist yet.

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PhantomGremlin
Quite an optimistic take on the situation, especially considering (from the
article): _the racing engineers are having trouble with the car 's battery
management software. Because the Model S doesn't know that it's a race car ...
it starts to shut the battery down when it detects excess heat in the pack._

Right now a Tesla on a track should be good in a 1/4 mile drag race, but is
pretty much a joke for any serious number of laps. Here's a Car and Driver
effort that found _" by the exit of Snake, about 40 seconds into the lap, the
5010-pound P85D entered a reduced power mode (roughly half of the max)"_[1].
The Tesla wound up finishing the lap with the same time as a Jeep Grand
Cherokee SRT8.

[1][https://www.caranddriver.com/features/tesla-model-
s-p85d-at-...](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/tesla-model-s-p85d-at-
lightning-lap-2016-feature)

~~~
rad_gruchalski
Here's one at the Nordschleife: [https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-a-tesla-
model-s-can-do-aroun...](https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-a-tesla-model-s-can-
do-around-the-nurburgrin-1600644908)

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gumbo
I almost thought for a second that it would be an all self-driving Tesla race.
How cool would that be! I personally would trust way more self driving cars
when they reach that level of awesomeness. Not to say that I wouldn’t happily
for self-driving car immediately.

~~~
digikata
Well there's Roborace [https://roborace.com](https://roborace.com)

Its funny that they're doing this with full-scale vehicles. I think a smaller
scale would be more accessible to smaller and therefore more teams. It would
also mean that a team could take more risks - imagine an 'unlimited' class
that just specifies max dimensions and weight (and maybe allowed power
source). That would be fun to watch I think.

~~~
mulmen
After the steroid controversy I want to see an unlimited robot baseball league
where anything goes but keep the equipment (bat, ball, bases) the same.

~~~
rbanffy
Now I imagined that, since the first human-like robots are expected to be
"self-driving" sex toys, there will be endless awkward situations emerging
from in-field software failures.

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NiklasMort
a neutral question (honest question): Isen't the best part of a race show the
sounds? I honestly don't know how a race sounds with electric cars but I
imagine it to be quite different.

~~~
billfruit
But on the other hand electric vehicles can have phenomenal acceleration and
braking capabilities, and that would perhaps make races more frenetic.

~~~
dogma1138
Phenomenal breaking? On a Tesla? Have you driven one on a track? The breaks
that come with it are utter garbage compared to its weight class.

~~~
billfruit
While I haven't driven a Tesla, does not the regenerative braking in Electric
cars offer more accurate torque control during braking?

~~~
mantas
Feel free to correct me since I'm not that familiar with Tesla, regenerative
braking is more like engine braking rather than "pedal" braking. As in, while
you coast, there's negative torque against driving axle which charges battery.

It's rather useless in racing situation. You want 4-wheel braking then, this
may throw off your balance. I believe regenerative braking is not very
effective when compared to full-blown racing brakes as well. It's great when
you're stopping at traffic light from far away, but not when you brake hard.

On top of that, this is not limited to electric cars. Some regular cars have
it too. For example non-e Golfs got it.

~~~
marcosdumay
Theoretically, regenerative breaking has a torque that increases linearly with
the car speed. So it should be a great fit for racing cars.

That said, there are many practical limitations that may apply.

~~~
mantas
Do you want linear braking torque though? Progressive (more speed-more torque)
braking may help to brake to exact spot and avoid lockup.

As you brake, car dives in, taking force off rear wheels. With linear braking,
it may be too easy to lock them up. Which is especially dangerous if you're
still braking when entering the corner.

~~~
marcosdumay
"Torque increases linearly with speed" means "more speed more torque".

The "linear braking torque" you are talking about seems to be a completely
unrelated concept referring to how the brakes react to inputs from the pedal.
A braking system can have both of those, none, or any single one.

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andmarios
Imho the main race will be against the car's DRM.

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westurner
Tesla Racing Circuit ideas for increasing power discharge rate, reducing heat,
and reducing build weight:

Hemp supercapacitors (similar power density as graphene supercapacitors and
li-ion, lower cost than graphene)

Active cooling. Modified passive cooling.

Biocomposite frame and panels (stronger and lighter than steel and aluminum
(George Washington Carver))

~~~
westurner
> Biocomposite frame and panels (stronger and lighter than steel and aluminum
> (George Washington Carver))

"Soybean Car" (1941)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car)

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twothamendment
Hopefully teams can get enough spare parts to keep cars on the track. It will
be a good step for Tesla.

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mixmastamyk
I saw a Tesla at a NHRA drag last November against a souped-up Mustang and it
was decisively beaten. Was a bit disappointed, didn’t even do better off the
line.

Not a great comparison as it looked completely stock, but still expected more
somehow.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I wonder what's possible in the way of souping up a Tesla Roadster.

I imagine it would be possible to chop out the computer and roll your own,
change some suspension components and tyres.

I suppose you could remove the electric motor and put in a different one. Add
or remove battery capacity.

Internal combustion engines must be orders of magnitude more customisable.

~~~
nikanj
Remove weight, ditch seat cushions etc

~~~
mixmastamyk
Probably doesn’t need the full battery pack for the quarter mile either.

~~~
greglindahl
Yes, you do, because the discharge rate is proportional to the size of the
battery. Halve the battery, slow the car.

~~~
anovikov
If we are speaking only seconds on max power, ultracapacitors will do a whole
lot better job than batteries.

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Palomides
so... if they have no official support or solution to the commonly maligned
issue with driving tesla cars on a track (overheating), how will they be
racing them? racing such a computer-controlled car without a good way to
interface with them seems untenable.

~~~
LeonM
Race cars are always heavily modified (compared to the road going versions).
They must have upgraded the cooling system to allow for sustained high loads.

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ortusdux
I was surprised to learn about the 2018 Dodge Demon's SRT power chiller. It
uses the car's refrigerant to cool down the supercharger. On race day you
actually have to turn off your AC. The whole car is insane, especially
considering that it is street legal and may of its owners will be using it as
a daily driver.

~~~
rootusrootus
That's an idea that dates back quite a ways. Ford had a prototype F150
Lightning that used A/C to temporarily cool down the intercooler and gain
something like 30-50 horsepower for around 30 seconds at a time. Unfortunately
Ford elected instead to just kill the Lightning altogether at that point.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Great idea, surprised I haven't seen this as a street legal mod.

You would only need to sandwich the intercooler between the hot and cold heat
exchangers with a (fairly powerful) automotive refrigerant pump connect to
them. The cold heat exchanger would go in front of the intercooler.

I'm going to start talking about this to some enthusiasts I know and see if I
can convince one of them to do it.

~~~
icelancer
>> Great idea, surprised I haven't seen this as a street legal mod.

It was a homebrew hack by people in the Honda Civic / del Sol community
decades ago, I recall it fondly.

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sundvor
Awesome! I'm hoping to see Teslas in iRacing soon, would be highly
interesting. :)

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ishtanbul
nice autoplay video that plays over the embedded youtube video creating 2 live
audio tracks which actually didn't sound wrong together...

