Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Interesting, I didn't know the Tesla could maintain it's power for that long.    Just a guess on my part, but to do the same thing in a sprint car might be a huge weight difference.    On a positive note though, if it ever does happen at least the neighbors who bought a house next to a race track can't complain about the noise! 

I thought it was an interesting question and you never really know what things could be like in the future. It would definately change the race experience and I don't think it would be worth watching. Could the racing and competion over come the lack of the sound. Even from a drivers stand point it would be very different with the lack of engine noise.

For me the speeds would have to be comparable for electric to even have a chance to win over fans. Even then I don't see it winning over the gear head types that probably make up most of the fan base. I know about mechanical systems and gas engines and work on my own stuff so I have some connection with the sport. I don't know jack about electric motors, batteries, and power control modules. 

Electric Midget test from a few years back. I had asked Casey about this and he said he wasn’t sure what happened with it since. If this technology was there seven years ago, an electric Sprint isn’t too far off if someone wanted to pursue it.

https://youtu.be/ho4xdJvmrnA

I feel like electric is the future of Motorsports. No noise, no pollution, which are the two biggest complaints from the general public.

I have hearing damage from when I worked on the flight deck and am on a VA disability for tinnitus.  My ears have been ringing so loud that it's sometimes hard to concentrate so I could do without the noise at the races.  I wear hearing protection and watch more PPV now which helps but tinnitus is no fun and nothing to be laughed at.

Stan Meissner

I don’t think it is anytime in the future. I think there are there things that will prevent it.

1.  The battery weight needed to output the needed power for a winged car is gonna be substantial. Everything will need to be re-thought. 

2. Facility fences aren’t ready for it. We’ve had 2-3 cars go through the fences here this year. Let’s add another 500 lbs to these things keeping them at similar speeds and see what happens.

3.  Track safety is no where near ready to deal with that.  From a fire fighting and rescue perspective electric cars are way more dangerous than a internal combustion car just due to the high voltages in play with the batteries and the toxic risk of a rupture.  

I bet in 5 years there will be oval track series somewhere in the US for electric cars.   Maybe karts, quarter midgets, maybe bandaleros or something, but it is coming.   

No green day shite for me.  Formula E is for the nerdy type person.  For the "guy" driving a Priiuss it'd be heaven.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

I would say that overall the general public doesn't care that much, only a very noisy small minority of them.   Common sense says that motorsports are contributing very little overall to the pollution problem, at least not compared to automobiles in general.     I've also gotta wonder how many racing fans like myself will quit going if racing's future is electric.    If that happens, then the future of racing isn't bright at all unless many new fans come into the sport.   Just an opinion of course, and I reserve the right to be as full of crap as anyone else...

My first response would be "hell no", but maybe it would eventually win me over. It would certainly take some SERIOUS "Getting used to".....

How about front wheel drive? Thats strikes me as REALLY sucky....

I dug my camera gear out last night to.shoot an Enduro for my son's buddy.  The sound of 120 four cylinder front wheel drive cars for two hours or 200 laps has to be experienced because I can't do it justice trying to describe it.  The redeeming factor is that they reached 200 laps by 7:30 pm so I got home just as the Jackson 410 Heats were pushing off on Speed Shift.  

Stan Meissner

Agree. I don't really know if an electric motor could be developed to the power and accelleration of a 900 HP 410 sprint motor. but if it could I would watch. The lack of sound and smell of burnt methonal would be strange. I actually prefer the sound at the tracks that use mufflers(Port Royal). They still sound like sprint car but you don't need hearing protection. I like that. Complete silence? Hmm, that might take out some of the excitement and feel of being at the racetrack. I honestly don't think e-sprints will ever go over with the teams and fans. Most people at the tracks nowadays are older and I think it would be a turn off to most old school fans. Good topic. Don't want to get political but being a realist, I sometimes wonder how and if racing will survive when the inevitable happens.

A

Whether we like it or not, the electric vehicle is coming to replace the ICE.  At GM, one of the visions that the CEO continues to tout is "Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, Zero Congestions"   The only way to get to this vision is for electric autonomous cars.   There are going to be more and more models that come as an electric vehicle until the entire fleet is all electric.   

The real question is how much does the big car companies invest in creating a package that will work in NASCAR.   To be realistic, it will be development of a NASCAR electric race car that will drive the development of an electric sprint car. 

Finally, not to be too political, but there are candidates on the left that would probably like to kill off all forms of motorsports because of the impact on the environment.   If some of the "doom and gloom" environmental models are correct, our sport may be in for hard times and we may want to embrace electric racing.

#IworkforGM.   

I'm pretty far Left, but realize that race cars are a tiny fraction of total pollution. If all the passengers cars & trucks go electric, racing is a mere drop in the bucket.

Not even sure that electric cars are the answer anyway. They have to be charged, which would require a HUGE increase in generation of electricity... that would require either coal , natural gas, nuclear, or wind/solar/geothermal... thats the big question....
Hybrids make a lot more sense than pure electric cars....

& I also dig the roar of engines & smell of burning methanol....

     I'd think they would have to make some kind of sound. I'm thinking they would sound like a big electric jigsaw- kind of a high pitched whine. Will the drivers be able to communicate with each other like basketball players discuss their mothers on the court? The sound difference might add a whole new experience when you can hear the car crash and take down a fence.

My wife and I recently spent two weeks in Norway.  Electric cars are big over there and there are charging stations everywhere.  They are something like the fourth largest oil exporter but their gas prices are among the highest in the world to discourage driving and encourage public transportation.

We had the pleasure of visiting with a transplanted Minnesotan and her husband one night.  Rally and road courses are big over there and he belongs to a car club and gave me a ride in his souped up BMW so there are motorheads over there but nothing like here in the states.  He made me promise to take him to see 410 Sprints next time he comes to the US so hoping the timing will work out for a night at Knoxville.

Stan Meissner

Another form of racing that I follow is currently going through this struggle. Rallycross is in the same boat, people love the anti-lag and turbo noises and say they won't follow eRX if they do away with regularly WRX Supercars. It seems they are going the direction of creating a series to run alongside regular RX which I think is fine. They just released a video of the first laps of the eRX car, and it looks decent, I'm not sure why the corner speed seems slower but it may have just been the rain on track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi3gZIKkSOk

One thing to note regarding eSprints would be the instant torque that electric provides. It would probably allow for faster lap times on bullrings than current sprints. 

Thanks,

Jeff. 

I'm glad you brought this up b/c I was going to mention the same article. I've been in hybrids and electric carts. The acceleration of an electric cart is amazing. 
I'll admit I don't want the sound and smell of a sprint car to go away but can see that it will eventually happen. Sprint cars will be one of the last forms to adopt it and will likely take out many of the racers who work during the week and race on the weekends. 

How much has our sport changed over the past 30 years to the cars themselves? More power, more safety, shocks technology. 

The only way I foresee this happening sooner is the price of fuel spike, and at that point we're talking about no push trucks either, shorter races, etc. 

Keep It Real

Electric cost and power are competitive, but batteries are twice as heavy and not as safe.

Even expensive McLaren Formula E battery weighs 850 lbs. And they only make 300 hp.

Unlimited CID methanol engine with smaller tires and wing angle is the way to go

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com