Race Modified Tesla Model S P100D Cars Will Star in New Racing Series

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Track modified Tesla Model S P100D cars are set to star in the Electric Production Car Series. These cars will have 780 horsepower and are virtually silent. Former Formula 1 race driver Tiff Needell was able to take one out onto the track and experience firsthand how the car handles and accelerates. According to him the car started to lose power when the batteries overheated on the hot 86 F day, but a spokesperson for Electric GT stated that one of the sensors that diverts the A/C to the batteries for cooling purposes malfunctioned. I found it surreal watching a race car fly around a track in near total silence.

Considering the limitations on the Model S P100D race car, the Electric GT spokesperson noted that the vehicle would be able to run the race distances — but with some strings attached. Instead of taking advantage of the race car’s 778 hp all the time, the vehicles would be running at a more manageable 470 hp. The spokesperson further noted that drivers would have full control to decide when to use their P100D race car’s full power, such as when overtaking or dashing to the finish line. This, at least for the inaugural season, would be "part of the strategy and part of the show."
 
cageymaru said:
Track modified Tesla Model S P100D cars are set to star in the Electric Production Car Series. These cars will have 780 horsepower and are virtually silent. Former Formula 1 race driver Tiff Needell was able to take one out onto the track and experience firsthand how the car handles and accelerates. According to him the car started to lose power when the batteries overheated on the hot 86 F day, but a spokesperson for Electric GT stated that one of the sensors that diverts the A/C to the batteries for cooling purposes malfunctioned. I found it surreal watching a race car fly around a track in near total silence.

Considering the limitations on the Model S P100D race car, the Electric GT spokesperson noted that the vehicle would be able to run the race distances — but with some strings attached. Instead of taking advantage of the race car’s 778 hp all the time, the vehicles would be running at a more manageable 470 hp. The spokesperson further noted that drivers would have full control to decide when to use their P100D race car’s full power, such as when overtaking or dashing to the finish line. This, at least for the inaugural season, would be "part of the strategy and part of the show."
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86*f day here would be a crisp spring afternoon. They shouldve tested more. Always an excuse. Even F1 isn't what it was, admittedly.

Also, I wish Ferrari picked up Alonso. That is all.
 
So a race on a single charge? Interesting. I wonder how much lighter these will be. It also would have been cool to showcase the whole-battery-pack-swap technology that Tesla's shown before. It's faster than filling a tank at the pump, but no where near as fast as a racetrack refuel.

EDIT: I guess Tesla's figured out the whole 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday' saying.
 
CombatChrisNC said:
So a race on a single charge? Interesting. I wonder how much lighter these will be. It also would have been cool to showcase the whole-battery-pack-swap technology that Tesla's shown before. It's faster than filling a tank at the pump, but no where near as fast as a racetrack refuel.

EDIT: I guess Tesla's figured out the whole 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday' saying.
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Half ton lighter, according to some article I read on this.

Edit: really, we need an honest STOCK CAR class to sell anything. The race cars are just race cars - most share absolutely nothing with dealership-level cars. Maybe some grade 8 bolts. Maybe.
 
Joust said:
86*f day here would be a crisp spring afternoon. They shouldve tested more. Always an excuse. Even F1 isn't what it was, admittedly.

Also, I wish Ferrari picked up Alonso. That is all.
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They had alonso, maybe it's him that doesn't want to return?
 
They're going to have to add some kind of noise emitter to the cars, otherwise it will be boring as crap. ;)
 
37 mi races with fan voted drivers. And the demo car made it a lap and half. This car is only supposed to run at half power for the majority of the race.

Want electric car racing, go watch formula E, where you have real cars, real drivers and a real series.
 
Verge said:
They had alonso, maybe it's him that doesn't want to return?
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Eh. From what I hear he's kinda hard to deal with, and he's not better than Vettel. I just would've liked to see Alonso win a few, he's on the downslope of his time in F1.
 
Joust said:
86*f day here would be a crisp spring afternoon. They shouldve tested more. Always an excuse. Even F1 isn't what it was, admittedly.

Also, I wish Ferrari picked up Alonso. That is all.
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Yeah, messing up the system that cools the batteries that burst into flames if too hot seems like a system you should double check!
 
Joust said:
Half ton lighter, according to some article I read on this.

Edit: really, we need an honest STOCK CAR class to sell anything. The race cars are just race cars - most share absolutely nothing with dealership-level cars. Maybe some grade 8 bolts. Maybe.
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Closest you could get to that would be GT4 currently (see: Continental Tire Sportscar Championship and the GT4 European Series).

Cars that race are always going to be modified pretty heavily for safety reasons alone. The days of old Trans-Am and being able to walk into a showroom and buy the car that you saw win last weekend are pretty much gone. That said though it's not exactly a bad thing as back then it was pretty much an accepted fact that there would be at least one driver a month who would die while racing vs now days where if one driver dies in a year it's a huge travesty that usually invokes sweeping changes for safety.


Back OT though: You knew it would only be a matter of time before something like this came around. I'm not going to knock it because extra diversity in racing series is cool but, like Formula E, it's not my particular brand of vodka so I'll stick to the traditional ICE-powered cars.
 
U-238 said:
Closest you could get to that would be GT4 currently (see: Continental Tire Sportscar Championship and the GT4 European Series).

Cars that race are always going to be modified pretty heavily for safety reasons alone. The days of old Trans-Am and being able to walk into a showroom and buy the car that you saw win last weekend are pretty much gone. That said though it's not exactly a bad thing as back then it was pretty much an accepted fact that there would be at least one driver a month who would die while racing vs now days where if one driver dies in a year it's a huge travesty that usually invokes sweeping changes for safety.


Back OT though: You knew it would only be a matter of time before something like this came around. I'm not going to knock it because extra diversity in racing series is cool but, like Formula E, it's not my particular brand of vodka so I'll stick to the traditional ICE-powered cars.
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Well, yeah. Of course there will be many safety changes. There's a big difference between a car with a roll cage, fuel cell, etc and a car that has ABSOLUTELY nothing in common with any production vehicle. That's where the cars are, now. There's far less innovation because they are cookie-cutter cars.
 
It would be interesting to see one of these take on the Nürburgring's Nordschleife.

Thing is, while they are brutally fast in a line due to electric motors instant on torque switch, and have very good torsional rigidity due to the stiff battery, they also weigh considerably more than most cars people race, due to the weight of that battery.

Would be interesting to see what kind of lap times a professional driver could get.
 
While most ICE fans love the loud roar that has signaled the power produced by those engines, power doesn't have to be noisy. And, the future is in electricity. I welcome it. While we don't currently see the top level racers in e cars, I think that most would welcome spec racing at the top, giving the best drivers the ability to show their skills. Even in F1, the differences are in hundredths of a second right now, and much of it has become game rather than sport, relying on when and where to change tires, save fuel, save the mechanicals to avoid grid spot penalties, etc.. It's no longer about what's the absolute fastest because the costs have become astronomical. Better to make it a spec series, and let everyone compete in a series where the difference, is the driver.

Alonso? He won two WDC's early in his career. No reason to feel bad for him. At least Vettel realized that he had walked into Red Bull at the perfect time, picking up 4 WDC's in a row, and, while doing his celebratory donuts after winning a race, that he knew he would be fined by the FIA for, said right out loud, 'We have to enjoy these days, boys, because you never know when it will end'. And that was his last championship. He knew. F1 is littered with great drivers who never won a championship, because they were never in the right car at the right time. We've watched twice now, as also-ran drivers ran up quite a few wins when put into the dominant car (Marc Webber, Rubens Barachello, even Raikonnen, who won a WDC when Massa let him by in the last race so as to win by one point, and Massa, who came within one point himself the following year turned out to be routinely out driven by the better drivers. Lewis, Fernando, Sebastian are clearly better than their team drivers, but often only by a hair. Max is definitely going to be a champion someday, as he gets his act together. This past weekend, Sebastian admitted that Max drove a flawless race. That's what it takes. Seb knows because he's done it.
 
Thats nuts that they are were able to strip out 500kg of weight. Basically they dug around in the Tesla and somehow found the combined extra weight of two 1 liter superbikes and a light dirt bike.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
It would be interesting to see one of these take on the Nürburgring's Nordschleife.

Thing is, while they are brutally fast in a line due to electric motors instant on torque switch, and have very good torsional rigidity due to the stiff battery, they also weigh considerably more than most cars people race, due to the weight of that battery.

Would be interesting to see what kind of lap times a professional driver could get.
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https://insideevs.com/expected-tesla-model-s-fails-lap-nurburgring-full-power-video/

10 minutes bridge to gantry with BTCC driver Robb Holland. It went into limp mode three minutes into the lap.
 
I'm sure we'll see race batteries at some point. e.g. lower energy density with higher focus on cooling and a quick release/swap in the pit.
 
nightfly said:
While most ICE fans love the loud roar that has signaled the power produced by those engines, power doesn't have to be noisy. And, the future is in electricity. I welcome it. While we don't currently see the top level racers in e cars, I think that most would welcome spec racing at the top, giving the best drivers the ability to show their skills. Even in F1, the differences are in hundredths of a second right now, and much of it has become game rather than sport, relying on when and where to change tires, save fuel, save the mechanicals to avoid grid spot penalties, etc.. It's no longer about what's the absolute fastest because the costs have become astronomical. Better to make it a spec series, and let everyone compete in a series where the difference, is the driver.

Alonso? He won two WDC's early in his career. No reason to feel bad for him. At least Vettel realized that he had walked into Red Bull at the perfect time, picking up 4 WDC's in a row, and, while doing his celebratory donuts after winning a race, that he knew he would be fined by the FIA for, said right out loud, 'We have to enjoy these days, boys, because you never know when it will end'. And that was his last championship. He knew. F1 is littered with great drivers who never won a championship, because they were never in the right car at the right time. We've watched twice now, as also-ran drivers ran up quite a few wins when put into the dominant car (Marc Webber, Rubens Barachello, even Raikonnen, who won a WDC when Massa let him by in the last race so as to win by one point, and Massa, who came within one point himself the following year turned out to be routinely out driven by the better drivers. Lewis, Fernando, Sebastian are clearly better than their team drivers, but often only by a hair. Max is definitely going to be a champion someday, as he gets his act together. This past weekend, Sebastian admitted that Max drove a flawless race. That's what it takes. Seb knows because he's done it.
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Raikkonen is actually my driver. I less than three him.

Also. That wife, man.
 
I'd love to see this done to a performance Model 3, I think they've got amazing potential for this kind of modification, they're more nimble due to losing a ton of weight, and the cooling system seems to keep them running all day without needing special mods so far.

Some guy already got first place driving the "non-performance" model 3 in Canada with better tires/brakes, edging out the Porche Boxter at the top:
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-refuel-laguna-seca-raceway-lap-record/
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-professional-driver-time-attack-race/



If the design can do this in the base model (0-60 in 5.1s, 145mph base tires/brakes/etc) then the performance model (0-60 in 3.5s, 155mph, performance tires/brakes/etc) would make an exciting mod project.
 
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Not going to lie. Watching that video was odd and boring.

Sound and visceral reaction are part of racing. It just IS. Maybe it's time for the average fan to focus on racing something other than cars because this is going to be boring as hell.

I watch F1 racing. I also watched a couple of the Formula E races. Yikes. It's just awful to watch.
 
Advil said:
Not going to lie. Watching that video was odd and boring.

Sound and visceral reaction are part of racing. It just IS. Maybe it's time for the average fan to focus on racing something other than cars because this is going to be boring as hell.

I watch F1 racing. I also watched a couple of the Formula E races. Yikes. It's just awful to watch.
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That's just nostalgia, a generational thing.

E-Racing has a ton of its own fans, a high growth genre that has the traditional outlets scrambling to get in on the action right now.

In the past people said the same thing about cars and horses, cars are so noisy and it scares the animals, cars smell awful with all the smoke, and so on. Some places wanted cars to drive around with a person walking in front holding some sign, which defeats the purpose, crazy stuff.

But the kids get used to their own familiar/nostalgic norms, raised knowing bluerays and not VHS, cellphones and not rotary, etc. And I'm sure they will have other reasons to complain about when the next wave of technology rolls in.

Maybe the Tron-like rush of acceleration, or the Starwars "tie-fighter dogfight" sound of some EV races, or just the ability to watch without ears ringing or lungs choking on fumes etc, brings a new kind of excitement with it. Many positives for a different generation of "muscle car" fans.

Myself, as (sometimes) part of a younger generation perhaps, I can't stand noisy vehicles. When the guy in his clunker bike revs it up next door, waking up the whole neighborhood - no joke, guy would do it every other night - it doesn't say "performance" in my mind, but rather screams old, inefficient or insecure. By extension an old gasser drag racing vs an EV, regardless of result, sounds tacky to me, like a cart of donkeys racing a mountain bike lol.

To each his own of course.
 
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serpretetsky said:
Would be interesting to see how this version compares on the nurburgring (after they fix their cooling that is)
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Well professional driver was mentioned, so that is what I remembered. A normie posted an 8:50 BTG in his P85D.

Advil said:
Not going to lie. Watching that video was odd and boring.

Sound and visceral reaction are part of racing. It just IS. Maybe it's time for the average fan to focus on racing something other than cars because this is going to be boring as hell.

I watch F1 racing. I also watched a couple of the Formula E races. Yikes. It's just awful to watch.
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Been an F1 fan nearly my whole life (since 1987-1988). I was tepid toward Formula E at first, but the races are a lot better than F1 at this point. Not to say F1 can't have its moments like so far this season, but FE always has me on the edge of my seat.
 
pcgeekesq said:
They're going to have to add some kind of noise emitter to the cars, otherwise it will be boring as crap. ;)
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You have a great marketable Idea here...

Was an electric delivery vehicle somewhere that burbled along going "pizzapizzapizzapizza" so it didn't run over pedestrians.

which brings up the question, what noises would the Pornhub sponsored racer make....
 
motomonkey said:
You have a great marketable Idea here...

Was an electric delivery vehicle somewhere that burbled along going "pizzapizzapizzapizza" so it didn't run over pedestrians.

which brings up the question, what noises would the Pornhub sponsored racer make....
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I hope it's dudes moaning.
 
pcgeekesq said:
They're going to have to add some kind of noise emitter to the cars, otherwise it will be boring as crap. ;)
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I mean they do it to many modern ICE muscle cars, adding a sound chip, so why not?

I think the Jaguar I-Pace EV has one for example, a fancy pants sound chip that you can turn on and off as desired:
 
Armenius said:
Been an F1 fan nearly my whole life (since 1987-1988). I was tepid toward Formula E at first, but the races are a lot better than F1 at this point. Not to say F1 can't have its moments like so far this season, but FE always has me on the edge of my seat
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I've really enjoyed the Formula E races that I've watched, whereas F1 has been boring as shit for years now.
 
Wierdo said:
I'd love to see this done to a performance Model 3, I think they've got amazing potential for this kind of modification, they're more nimble due to losing a ton of weight, and the cooling system seems to keep them running all day without needing special mods so far.

Some guy already got first place driving the "non-performance" model 3 in Canada with better tires/brakes, edging out the Porche Boxter at the top:
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-refuel-laguna-seca-raceway-lap-record/
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-professional-driver-time-attack-race/



If the design can do this in the base model (0-60 in 5.1s, 145mph base tires/brakes/etc) then the performance model (0-60 in 3.5s, 155mph, performance tires/brakes/etc) would make an exciting mod project.
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Looks nice in a drag race straight line but turns like a damn boat. In the video you can see that a driver had a heck of a lot of work handling it. Props that it did win but video looks pretty unexciting.
 
They can just have some British commentators speaking softly like it's a golf match. That way the commercials will have more impact when they jack the volume up extra high for those, because let's be honest, that's the important bit of any televised racing.
 
zkostik said:
Looks nice in a drag race straight line but turns like a damn boat. In the video you can see that a driver had a heck of a lot of work handling it. Props that it did win but video looks pretty unexciting.
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That's not correct, it's not what drivers and reviewers say, this is not a big wide family sedan like the model S, it's a more nimble design and in a similar weight range of a regular car in its class, and really good at sticking to the road due to better center of gravity from battery skateboard design.

https://jalopnik.com/here-s-what-everyone-says-about-how-the-tesla-model-3-d-1797365969
The Model 3 is so unexpected scalpel-like, I’m sputtering for adjectives. The steering ratio is quick, the effort is light (for me), but there’s enough light tremble against your fingers to hear the cornering negotiations between Stunt Road
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https://www.bmwcca.org/roundel/professional-driver-closed-course
This car is a game-changer; it will be relatively attainable compared to its predecessors, and it was even able to satisfy the driving bias of an old-school BMW-lover like me. I really didn’t want to like it, but I found little to complain about.
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https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/model-3-vs-bmw-handling
The 3 is better than the BMW 3 series in every way.
1. The acceleration is faster and smoother. No throttle lag or gear shifting.
2. There's no body sway with the (model) 3. it feels like it's on rails.
...
As an owner of BMW 3 series for many years, and a BMW Z4 before that, I came to dislike how they handle. I drove a Model 3 for a few miles and like it much more with it's razor sharp precision in the turns. The BMW handles like a tank in comparison.
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Professional drivers tested the car and said the thing goes wherever they point it at, extremely responsive. And this was the base version not the performance one that just came out just recently.

Excitement is all relative, some think quiet is boring, others think that's elegant or efficient, to each his own really.
 
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And they will have a firetruck filled with water to put out the battery fire....lol
 
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