Sunday 21st May 2017

NIO EP9 sets new Nurburgring record


If you thought the Huracan Performante was fast...


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...the NIO EP9 has gone over six seconds quicker! And, yes, we know this achievement was public knowledge a few days ago but in this age of conspiracy theories about tweaked video frame rates, 'theoretical' lap times made up of best sector compilations and all the rest we wanted to wait for the video of the lap to see for ourselves.

NIO sent out the release earlier in the week confirming that the 1,360hp EP9 had set the new record. Now we have the video so you can watch it below. Suffice it to say it's quick - a whole 19 seconds quicker than the EV record, claimed last October in what NIO describes as "the inclemental weather that the Nürburgring Nordschleife is known for" and the best of two attempts it made. Back in the world of internal combustion engines Lamborghini of course made some noise at Geneva with the 6min 52sec claimed for the Huracan Performante; that this has now been beaten by the EP9 puts an interesting 'electric versus internal combustion' twist on the familiar soap opera of 'ring lap times.

NIO has also confirmed that a second batch of 10 EP9s is to be built priced at 1.48 million dollars, all being made to order. Watch the video here

 

[Thom]

Hmm that was a tastefully boring, thank you.

[Thom]

Wayoftheflower said:

I'm sure you can lookup the steam powered lap record for more excitement, or perhaps the wood gas one?

That would be a lot more fun

Seriously though, this whole "fastest NR lap" thing has become devoid of any purpose. Attempting it with electric cars makes as much sense as trying to beat a consumption record with a 2CV running a super tanker engine, and I'm sure that would be more fun. Where is all the fun gone?

[Thom]

sidesauce said:

Why doesn't it make sense? Are cars only fun because of what powers them? Personally I think this car is amazing and instant torque will never get old to me.

In another few generations, ICE powered cars will be viewed in much the same way as horses and carts are seen now. It's funny as the exact same scepticism was prevalent when Mssrs Daimler and Benz were trying to get their fledging business off the ground...

Cars are fun when they give you a run for their money, when they make you feel alive without necessarily bringing you to the edge of the fatal cliff. While this new electric thing is probably one of the fastest four-wheeled thing around, how poor do you think it will be to drive at any legal speed, in the real world?
Electric cars are being reborn for environmental issues in the context of a world-scale consumer society plagued with politics at every level, and as future disposable appliances no EV will ever reach a classic status that hundreds of ICE-powered cars have over a hundred years.

Instant torque is for folks who can't rev an engine or change gears - TDI syndrom.

[Thom]

^^ Sounds like you have not driven a properly-remapped fairly recent TDI engine?

Even if I work for a company that produces EVs and I have been able to sample that type of powertrain, they embody everything I loathe in a car. As disposable appliances used in polluted cities I support them, but there is no soul whatsoever in this kind of product.
People down the line may come to this website one day, see "Pistonheads" and ask themselves "wth is a piston"?

[Thom]

GroundEffect said:

Remapping is irrelevant. It is the physics of the fuel injecting in to the combustion chamber, it being compressed, igniting and creating a flame front through the cylinder & then accelerating the turbine, the compressor achieving full boost, the air-mass at peak boost going through the CAC & reaching the cylinders - SLOW!

For an EV - Pedal command, PCM commanding power electronics to drive motor to peak torque...and that happening, very easily within 1/10th of a blink of an eye.

Repeat after me : FAST is BORING and SLOW is FUN. At least if you call lapping the NR in the latest manual 991 GT3 SLOW.

[Thom]

GroundEffect said:

You're saying that turbo lag is a good thing, by definition?

And please tell us again how TDIs have 'soul'?

I have no issue at all saying the 991.2 GT3 will be fantastic on the ring but actually I'd rather drive the PDK....

Turbo lag forces drivers to think, anticipate and control their drive. This is called driver involvement. How could this not be a good thing to force drivers to develop some kind of responsibility and develop some mechanical affinity?
I'd say that TDIs suck but, and I hate to say it, I'd have a TDI any day over an EV if I lived in a remote countryside with limited air pollution.
PDK is one of many assistance gimmick that adds complexity, costs and traps drivers into thinking sport cars are all about going FAST.

Anyway I know where you are heading, and sorry this whole thing about always improving EFFICIENCY is where car engineering as a whole has gone completely wrong. When overly efficient cars will ultimately turn drivers into "athletes" focused only on reducing lap times, said drivers may actually become as stupid and clueless as athletes!
Again, I support the development of EVs where air pollution has become a major sanitary issue, but pretending to turn them into any kind of recreational tools of mobility is an utter joke.

[Thom]

J4CKO said:

We only know about all that stuff because IC engines are a bodge to get us 100 or so years to viable electric transport, like the crackle on the start of a record the noise from an IC engine is a downside we have turned into a feature, like Coco Pops turning the "milk choclately", future generations wont know or care about that any more than you care about the bond between a horse rider and their steed, it is totally just what you are used to.

It is a device for moving people and stuff around and it should be quiet and efficient, you shoudlnt need loads of skill to do it, we have to remember we are the weird ones here, the ones that see driving a car beyond its utility, we get too involved, some old Doris in her Jazz may enjoy it just as much for the feeling of freedom, movement, seeing the world pass by and the method of moving the vehicle becomes irrelevant.

I welcome the EV and things like this can only accelerate its adoption, I dont know why people go on about "appliances", cars are utility objects first and foremost, all the nonsense we put around them cant take that away, I love cars and engines, but I can see where it is going and it is the needs of the many rather than us oddballs that will drive it, EV's, though they currently have a few downsides are otherwise just better in every way for doing the purpose they are intended for, the completely inferior power delivery of an IC engine is not a good argument.

We will be dead and gone, our cars will be museum pieces or stuff rolled out for Sunday morning and shows, the vast majority of day to day traffic will be electric, the world will be quieter and cleaner, energy will go further, cars will have less downtime for maintenance and be safer, all very valid issues to solve based on todays roads.

You must be fun at parties.

[Thom]

J4CKO said:

Yes, I am, mainly as I tend to avoid glib, hackneyed one liners like that.

Well, if you are into making obvious statements using obsequious tirades as above I suppose I am pleased we don't attend the same kind of parties.