EVs and the spirited driver
Discussion
I own an i3 and have been very interested to read about kWH, EV charge points, ppm calculations, well to wheel calculations etc. but now i have got used to the car and the initial amusement at the way it drives etc i have become curious about the handling.
I went to shelsley walsh hill climb yesterday for one of their breakfast meetings and for once had an early morning traffic free empty twisting backroad and no passengers so had the opportunity to step away from the usual point and squirt dynamics of the vehicle and explore the handling.
The results were interesting, and broadly in line with what every car enthusiast who drives on the road is continually asking for - fun at low speeds. if driven in the usual manner, ie diving hard for the apex under braking and hard on the power the car was generally not happy, struggling to control it's masses, lurching slightly and running into early understeer followed by TC intervention upon power delivery.
time for a rethink..........
a much more cerebral approach was needed to get the most from it, cutting a long story short you need to use the regen as an integral part of the driving arsenal because if you are into the steel brakes under braking where a transition is imminent then it does weird things to the cars transient behaviour on turn in. You need to time your entry speed and 'braking zone' to coincide with the regen, if you do that, the car doesn't move around anywhere near as much and the wheels stay uniformly loaded which allows you to settle the front end, wait for it to settle and grip and then after the apex you need to apply a little power for a fraction of a second to get the weight sitting down before giving it the lot shortly after (a stamp on the throttle at the apex is too much for the outside rear tyre and the TC starts blinking which ruins your flow)
It's not a dissimilar approach to a classic 911 and once i figured it out, it was a beguiling thing to hustle - yes, it wouldn't keep up with my mk3 mx5, but going at starship speed isn't the point on the public highway.
I certainly haven't cracked it yet, but i shall enjoy working on my technique over the coming months, it is a completely new skill and when was the last time you heard that in the automotive world?
Has anyone else got stuck into their EV, i3 or otherwise?
I went to shelsley walsh hill climb yesterday for one of their breakfast meetings and for once had an early morning traffic free empty twisting backroad and no passengers so had the opportunity to step away from the usual point and squirt dynamics of the vehicle and explore the handling.
The results were interesting, and broadly in line with what every car enthusiast who drives on the road is continually asking for - fun at low speeds. if driven in the usual manner, ie diving hard for the apex under braking and hard on the power the car was generally not happy, struggling to control it's masses, lurching slightly and running into early understeer followed by TC intervention upon power delivery.
time for a rethink..........
a much more cerebral approach was needed to get the most from it, cutting a long story short you need to use the regen as an integral part of the driving arsenal because if you are into the steel brakes under braking where a transition is imminent then it does weird things to the cars transient behaviour on turn in. You need to time your entry speed and 'braking zone' to coincide with the regen, if you do that, the car doesn't move around anywhere near as much and the wheels stay uniformly loaded which allows you to settle the front end, wait for it to settle and grip and then after the apex you need to apply a little power for a fraction of a second to get the weight sitting down before giving it the lot shortly after (a stamp on the throttle at the apex is too much for the outside rear tyre and the TC starts blinking which ruins your flow)
It's not a dissimilar approach to a classic 911 and once i figured it out, it was a beguiling thing to hustle - yes, it wouldn't keep up with my mk3 mx5, but going at starship speed isn't the point on the public highway.
I certainly haven't cracked it yet, but i shall enjoy working on my technique over the coming months, it is a completely new skill and when was the last time you heard that in the automotive world?
Has anyone else got stuck into their EV, i3 or otherwise?
I hope to be competing at Shelsley Walsh (my favourite hill climb) later this year. I have already competed at Rockingham in my 2009 I-MiEV. I am in class 6A (electric cars) of the Service Hydraulics Speed Championship www.speedchampionship.org.uk Electric cars have a few key elements to aid their performance - high torque from zero speed, no need for gear changes and heavy batteries mounted low down to achieve a very low centre of gravity.
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