Tech

The First On-Board Video Of The Most Powerful Electric Race Cars

Charles Thompson Contributor
Font Size:

According to The Verge, now you can see the first on-board footage of the fastest, entirely electric race cars in the world: Federation Internationle de l’Automobile Formula E.

Formula E is an electrically powered offshoot of the famous Formula 1 world racing championship. The first championship series for the electric racers will start in September 2014 with races in Miami, Monaco and Argentina.

As part of testing for the inaugural racing season, Audi Sports’ Lucas di Grassi strapped a GoPro camera to his helmet to show viewers what it’s like to ride in a Formula E race car.

During the regular season, the cars will be restricted to 180 horsepower, but since the testing was not a part of the racing season, di Grassi was able to get his car up to 270 horsepower. The light frame of the car allowed him to reach 143 mph and go from 0 to 60 mph in only 2.8 seconds.

Here is di Grassi’s footage:

However, it will be a long, rough road if the electric race cars from Formula E want to become the future of Formula 1 and the premier type of race car in the world.

There has been significant controversy at the increasingly quiet noise that FIA race cars have been producing. Each year, the car’s engines have been getting quieter.

Bernie Ecclestone, the president and CEO of Formula 1, has famously criticized the lack of noise in Formula 1 cars this year. According to The Telegraph, Ecclestone said about this year’s Formula 1 season that “I was not horrified by the noise, I was horrified by the lack of it. And I was sorry to be proved right with what I said all along; these cars don’t sound like racing cars.”

Thus, with the most powerful man in motor sport and with most auto racing enthusiasts complaining about the quiet nature of the latest Formula 1 race cars, it is doubtful that the electric race cars from Formula E will ever be used as cars in Formula 1.

Instead, Ecclestone would like the cars to sound more like this:

Follow Charles On Twitter.

Charles Thompson