Electric sprint racing in the UK
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 3:08 pm
Hi everyone, I've now completed two sprint races with my Westfield Sport E. It’s been a steep learning curve for me as a novice racer. My first outing was to the Croft circuit near Darlington. The car was fast but the chassis needed setting up and I was too slow. I've since competed at the MIRA test track in the rain and my lap times have improved somewhat and were comparable with the ICE cars – at least in the rain.
Sprint racing is ideal for battery powered vehicles because you have just 4 or 5 ‘sprints’ around the track. Usually that's 2 practice laps and 2 timed laps. In the case of Croft, it's about 90 seconds each lap. I have a 24KW/hr battery and even with a peak motor power if 140KW that’s more than enough charge for a day’s sprinting. Electrically the car worked fine. My challenges are to sort the chassis handling, remove weight from the car and learn how to drive!
But there’s a problem; the ICE Westfield sprint racing community have welcomed me with open arms, they are really friendly and I'm having fun – but as the only electric competitor it’s a bit lonely. I know one other person racing an electric car in the UK (Mitsubishi i-MiEV in a different race series to me) but we could do with a bit more competition.
Is there anyone else out there that wants to build or race electric cars? If so come out and play.
John
Sprint racing is ideal for battery powered vehicles because you have just 4 or 5 ‘sprints’ around the track. Usually that's 2 practice laps and 2 timed laps. In the case of Croft, it's about 90 seconds each lap. I have a 24KW/hr battery and even with a peak motor power if 140KW that’s more than enough charge for a day’s sprinting. Electrically the car worked fine. My challenges are to sort the chassis handling, remove weight from the car and learn how to drive!
But there’s a problem; the ICE Westfield sprint racing community have welcomed me with open arms, they are really friendly and I'm having fun – but as the only electric competitor it’s a bit lonely. I know one other person racing an electric car in the UK (Mitsubishi i-MiEV in a different race series to me) but we could do with a bit more competition.
Is there anyone else out there that wants to build or race electric cars? If so come out and play.
John