Formula E car on track - looks good, sounds bloody awful
Formula E car on track - looks good, sounds bloody awful
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Discussion

deadslow

Original Poster:

8,751 posts

247 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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interloper

2,747 posts

279 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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If this is the future, I will happily stay in the past. Sounds daft but I find sound is incredibly important when it comes to motor sport, without it it just ends up a bit like normal sport and I cant be bothered with that!

Jerry Can

5,080 posts

247 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
quotequote all
interloper said:
If this is the future, I will happily stay in the past. Sounds daft but I find sound is incredibly important when it comes to motor sport, without it it just ends up a bit like normal sport and I cant be bothered with that!
just put some large speakers where the exhaust would be, and the sound track from any engine you want. maybe a BDA? that might work...

Mannginger

10,126 posts

281 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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Ugh yup not good. I also don;t think it looks that great as the wheels are too large IMO.

Agreed with the previous poster. Sounds are so important to racing - this series has only got a limited future as a support race IMO

Altrezia

8,731 posts

235 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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Crikey that was dull to watch. Didn't help it was a boring marketing video rather than an actual test.

It's like that Drayson Racing green car - I loved it and supported it when it was a petrol car and in the ALMS.. much less interested now. Great tech, just leave it on the road, not on the track.

Let's all get electric cars and save what's left of the petrol for race cars. Everyone's a winner?

interloper

2,747 posts

279 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
quotequote all
Jerry Can said:
just put some large speakers where the exhaust would be, and the sound track from any engine you want. maybe a BDA? that might work...
And hear somebody else's sound? That would be just as wrong IMO.

deadslow

Original Poster:

8,751 posts

247 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
quotequote all
interloper said:
Jerry Can said:
just put some large speakers where the exhaust would be, and the sound track from any engine you want. maybe a BDA? that might work...
And hear somebody else's sound? That would be just as wrong IMO.
Don't BMW play piped engine music to the drivers of its latestperformance machinery? Wow, the future is basically an XBox!

anonymous-user

78 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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They need to jack up the inverter output frequency and overmodulate the motor PWM with some audio tones, make it sound like a Tron car or something!

designndrive62

799 posts

181 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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As part of my final uni project I did a lot of research into alternative fuels for race cars. I can't find a link to the vid of this car ATM but this from BMW is where I think we should be looking.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/3247/

It's a v12 running on hydrogen. If someone can find a way to store a reasonable amount of hydrogen in a vehicle (which is being done and there is light at the end of th tunnel for that challenge) and for the efficiency of a combustion engine running on hydrogen to be improved, it's a real option, and it sounds mega.

Slyjoe

1,578 posts

235 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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All it was missing was the sound of 12 crates of milk bottles clanking away.
Sad, but is probably the future we'll be forced towards.

RumpleFugly

2,379 posts

234 months

Friday 22nd November 2013
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Cool, I like that a lot. When the rules open the following year to allow different cars I hope we'll get done interesting designs.

I don't care if they're racing Unicycles providing it's closely fought. F1 isn't going anywhere, this will be a fascinating supplement.

Allyc85

7,225 posts

210 months

Friday 22nd November 2013
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I give Formula E 2, maybe 2 and a bit seasons before if folds like Superleague Formula..

PhillipM

6,542 posts

213 months

Friday 22nd November 2013
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Max_Torque said:
They need to jack up the inverter output frequency and overmodulate the motor PWM with some audio tones, make it sound like a Tron car or something!
And on a more serious note, take all that backlash and shunt out of the drive system...

anonymous-user

78 months

Friday 22nd November 2013
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PhillipM said:
Max_Torque said:
They need to jack up the inverter output frequency and overmodulate the motor PWM with some audio tones, make it sound like a Tron car or something!
And on a more serious note, take all that backlash and shunt out of the drive system...
Eh? It's a lightweight formula car with a dog gearbox! If they took out the "backlash" it would be very difficult to change gear! ;-)

joewilliams

2,004 posts

225 months

Friday 22nd November 2013
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I'd go to see those racing through city centre streets.

Sounds like an oversized R/C car, or the Starship Enterprise.

CrutyRammers

13,735 posts

222 months

Friday 22nd November 2013
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So today I've watched this, and Chris Harris in the Jag at Goodwood. All I can say is, it's no wonder historic stuff is getting more and more appealing.

PhillipM

6,542 posts

213 months

Saturday 23rd November 2013
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Max_Torque said:
Eh? It's a lightweight formula car with a dog gearbox! If they took out the "backlash" it would be very difficult to change gear! ;-)
There's a massive amount of shunt when it changes down though, way more than just the dogs biggrin
The damned car skips from the oscillation!

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 23 November 01:02

peterperkins

3,322 posts

266 months

Saturday 23rd November 2013
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That gearbox does sound fairly iffy, I'm quite surprised it has one.

In the EV conversions I have done I either had no gearbox or two ratios at the most.

I suspect they won't have one for long as the motors improve.

rdjohn

7,007 posts

219 months

Saturday 23rd November 2013
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I have no real problem in trying to use the sizzle of racing to promote electric cars. However to me the key issue of electric cars is the sausage of limited range and so demonstrating that you need two vehicles to complete the race distance seems completely daft. Having 3 sprint races would have made much more sense and would have prolonged the "day out" for spectators.

I can't see it lasting more than 3 seasons, once the novelty has passed. There currently seems to be a huge credibility gap between Renault's Twizy and this.

anonymous-user

78 months

Saturday 23rd November 2013
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PhillipM said:
Max_Torque said:
Eh? It's a lightweight formula car with a dog gearbox! If they took out the "backlash" it would be very difficult to change gear! ;-)
There's a massive amount of shunt when it changes down though, way more than just the dogs biggrin
The damned car skips from the oscillation!
The suggestion is that the car was running in a reduced power mode as it was the first time its run. That might mean there is insufficient power available for the Emachine to negate its own inertia during shifting. Also, there is a very good chance the motor speed control loop isn't very well calibrated yet!