Endurance Races With Electric Cars

jpressley101

jpressley101

205
United States
United States
jpressley101
I recently ran an endurance race on Grand Valley with my GT by Citroen concept car. I ran the battery out because there was nothing in the Pit Menu to charge the battery. Are there ANY electric cars that are charge-able in endurance races?
 
Blank_Redge
O_O !!

Didn't know the Citroen concept was an electric; I've yet to take it for a spin. Good to know.
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Me neither. The Tesla car from the NCD (New Car Dealer) is also electric -- still no way to charge it, unless you restart or exit a race.
 
These cars I am guessing are useless for endurance because they never get any lighter. Petrol cars will get a lot quicker with fresh tyres and a quarter tank.
How many laps of the full Grand valley speedway did you manage?
What was the power/weight also of this car?
 
blaaah
These cars I am guessing are useless for endurance because they never get any lighter. Petrol cars will get a lot quicker with fresh tyres and a quarter tank.
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They would stay consistent in handling and lap times though.
 
A racer does not want that, they want a faster lighter car. To win.
There is no reward in GT5 for lasting longer on a tank/battery as medium and hard tyres don't last any longer than softs. So until that bug is sorted, it's always best to pit early and often.
But anyway I don't think a battery car would last anywhere near as long as a 100 litre petrol tank.
Electric race cars could be credible one day when the power supply is embedded underneath the track, then the car can just keep going only needing tyre changes.
First this would need to happen in real life before GT copies it.
 
Last edited:
Blaaah/frieght48, you guys are way off topic. Maybe make a new thread?
 
ViLLaiN
Blaaah/frieght48, you guys are way off topic. Maybe make a new thread?
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Nah, can't be bothered to argue.

OT: I think the problem is that there isn't the technology to charge the batteries in 30 seconds and there are too many batteries to change out during a pit stop.
 
Didn't I see where there was some addressing of this in the most recent (1.07) patch? I swore there was something in there about the electric cars dying mid-race issue...
 
freight48
No. The GT by Citroen Concept '08 is electric. The other two are petrol powered.
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Crikey, I was fooled! That GT by Citroen "Race Car" should fall foul of the Trade Descriptions Act..... it couldn't race the fly off a rice pudding.... (eh??)
 
Kwicko
Didn't I see where there was some addressing of this in the most recent (1.07) patch? I swore there was something in there about the electric cars dying mid-race issue...
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As I recall, the issue was that originally, electric cars had to be broken in just like gas-powered cars, and would lose power over time too. They fixed that, apparently.
 
freight48
No. I have yet to see any in real life either.
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Yup. There are fundamental reasons for this too.

Let's take the Tesla as an example. To recharge the battery pack from empty takes 3.5 hours with 240 volts at 70 amps. That's 3.5 hours with a 16.8 kW draw for a total capacity of 58.8 kW hours (assuming a 100% efficient charging process, which isn't realistic, the rated capacity for the Tesla is 53 kWh).

Even if we use the 53 kWh rating and assume a 100% efficient charging cycle, to recharge the car in, say, 5 minutes, would require 636 kW (53 kWh / (1/12) hours = 636 kW). At 240 volts that would be 2,650 amps, far too current for any cable that would be reasonably portable. If we kept the amperage draw down to 100 amps or so to keep the cable diameter manageable, we'd need 6,360 volts. Watch out for arcing...

And all of this is for recharging in 5 minutes, which is still far too long for a racing pit stop.

There's just no real-world ability to make it happen short of physically replacing the battery pack and the cars today don't have a provision for that.
 
I think replacing the battery set is the best option and it will be as quick as changing one tyre.
Even quicker would be with no batteries like this:
mban529l.jpg
 
pampsu
I think replacing the battery set is the best option and it will be as quick as changing one tyre.
Click to expand...

Yup, that's the way it will need to go. Instead of charging the battery pack, they'll just drop it out the bottom of the car, or slide it out the side or the back, and slot in a fresh one.

In the meantime, I'd expect more things like the KERS system to show up in "regular" racing cars - systems where you don't run the whole race on electric power, or even any appreciable distance, but where the power is built up and you use it in "bursts" to augment the gas-powered engine, such as a "push to pass" button.

I might be nuts, but I thought the KERS system made for some interesting racing when they had it in F1.
 

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