KillaJoule Racing going for electric motorcycle land speed record at Loring LSR event

KillaJoule Racing just announced their next event is the Loring Land Speed Record event at the former Loring Air Force Base.  The racing action is from July 13-15.

The event is formatted differently from Bonneville.  Where Bonneville is on salt, and records the average time over a mile (flying mile), the Loring event is on what used to be the runway of an Air Force Base, and your speed is measured at the end of a 1.5 mile run.  This makes it more like a loooong drag race.

See www.lta-lsr.com for event information.

Audi R8 e-tron sets fastest yet electric car lap record at Nürburgring

Audi is the latest automaker to set an electric car lap speed record at the Nürburgring.  This week the company brought a pair of Audi R8 e-tron's to the fabled 20.8-kilometer (12.92-mile) race track to have a go at the lap record for series production electric cars.  They achieved success with a 8:09.099 minutes lap time.

Following the lap record of 8:09.099 minutes, driver Markus Winkelhock took out a second R8 e-tron onto the Nordschleife, this one was limited to a 200 km/hr speed, and took two hot laps. The 8:30.873 and 8:26.096 minutes lap times were meant to "underscore the production-relevance of the R8 e-tron and the capability of its drive technology."

“The R8 e-tron has given a magnificent demonstration of its potential on the toughest race track in the world,” said Michael Dick, AUDI AG Board Member for Technical Development. Dick, who completed a fast lap himself in the R8 e-tron, added: “The record-setting drive confirmed that we are on the right track. To us, electric mobility has never been about sacrifice, but rather is about emotion, sportiness and driving pleasure.”

Those with a good memory may recall that the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P001 ran a 7 mins 47.794 secs lap at the Nürburgring.  How, then, can Audi claim a lap record when Toyota's EV P001 is faster?  It's simply a matter of how you define each car.  The EV P001 is a race car, while the R8 e-tron is a series production car.

But, the electric R8 e-tron is not in production as an electric car?  That's true, however the gasoline powered R8 is in production, and the electric R8 e-tron is slated to go on sale at the end of 2012.  Further, Audi says the drive train used for this lap record is the same as will be on the production version.  It has two electric motors, each generating an output of 280 kW and 820 Nm of torque. This gives the R8 e-tron a 0-62.14 mph (100kph) time of just 4.6 seconds. Top speed is normally limited to 200 kph (124.27 mph), and a 250 km/h (155.34 mph) limit was approved for the record-setting lap. It carries a lithium-ion battery pack with 49 kilowatt-hours of capacity, which Audi claims will give a 215 kilometers (133.59 miles) driving range, but the company does not specify the test protocol behind that range claim. The battery pack is in a T shape, allowing it to fit into the central tunnel, and behind the passenger compartment. The car body is primarily made of aluminum along with carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastics (CFRP) giving it a weight of just 1,780 kilograms (3,924.23 lb), despite the large battery pack.

A curious little detail I noticed in the pictures below.  That is the charging port uses a Yazaki charging connector of the same style used for CHADEMO electric car fast charging systems.  Audi is one of the 8 companies signing onto the SAE fast charging standard, making it odd that they would use a CHADEMO connector to charge the car.  Plausibly, Audi went with a CHADEMO off-board charger to a) save weight, b) for pragmatism because it is the only available electric car fast charging system on the market today.

Source: http://www.torquenews.com/1075/audi-sets-fastest-yet-electric-car-lap-record-nurburgring

Global warming & epic fires delays Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

The 90th annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb was due to run on July 8, and feature several electric cars racing to the top.  However global warming has caused a massive heat wave, dry conditions, and a massive fire in the mountains near Colorado Springs.  Because Pikes Peak is in the mountains near Colorado Springs, the "epic conditions and safety concerns related to the wildfires threatening Colorado Springs and nearby communities" have forced a "postponement" of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb event until "later in the summer."

Clearly the delay is a disappointment to Electric Racing Fans, because this year the PPIHC was to see 8 electric cars in competition.

I read a report on CNN a little bit ago that all the hotel rooms in Colorado Springs are booked solid with refugees from the fire, and that hundreds of homes have burned in the area.  The map of the fire shows it is located just across the highway from Pikes Peak.

These conditions clearly make it impractical to hold the Pikes Peak Hill Climb at this time. “We have been informed by the U.S. Forest Service that conditions are so extreme, along with the inability to forecast the future of the fire, and with access to Pikes Peak in jeopardy that the agency can’t permit the event to go as scheduled, “said Tom Osborne, Chairman of the Board of the PPIHC and President & CEO of the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.

Osborne goes on to vow that “The 90th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be run,” and that a new race week will be chosen to be compatible with the drivers, racers, pit crews, and multiple agencies which must coordinate so the PPIHC can be held, later this summer.

The race is the second-oldest motor sports race, behind the Indianapolis 500. “This race began in 1916 and it has earned its place among the world’s greatest motor sports events, and it is an important part of the sports heritage of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region,” said Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach. “We are committed to making sure it takes place this year and that we carry on the tradition. We are disappointed, but our first concern is our city, its residents, their homes, businesses and public safety.”

The 211 race crews and competitors were due to begin arriving in Colorado Springs this weekend.  Obviously an influx of people into an area already stressed by an emergency fire condition would not have been good.

Tickets already purchased will be honored for the new date and the events for the fans and competitors will be rescheduled. All sponsor, vendor and supplier agreements will be fulfilled, according to Osborne.

P.S. In case of negative reaction to the claim that "global warming" is causing this delay - okay, yes, it's difficult to pin a specific event on global warming, I know that.  However, on the Climate Progress blog yesterday, Joe Romm noted that "Record-setting heat waves, wildfires, and deluges" are exactly what climate scientists have predicted for decades.  There is extreme heat in the midwest, which leads to dry conditions, more likely to cause fires, and if one steps back far enough the fire near Pikes Peak is part of a larger pattern of weather this year which looks like global warming in action.   See http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/27/507119/hell-and-high-water-strikes-media-miss-the-forest-for-the-burning-trees/

Videos of MotoCzysz battery pack thermal event at TTXGP 2012 Portland International Raceway

As I reported earlier, last weekend during the TTXGP race at Portland International Raceway, one of the MotoCzysz bikes nearly had a battery pack thermal runaway in the pit area.  A couple videos have since been posted that show what happened.

The videos below agree with the story Michael Czysz gave me on Sunday morning.  Shortly after when Chris Ancien brought in the bike he was riding, the battery pack became hot and started letting out the magic smoke.  You can see in these videos a white cloud which may be steam, or may be from the battery cells.  The pack nearly went into thermal runaway (Czysz agreed with that description when asked) and if that had happened it would have meant a fire, one that would have been difficult to put out.  Instead, as you can see in these videos, the MotoCzysz crew first pushed the bike out from under their awning, then poured a bucked of water into the battery pack.

That, I think, is a similar sort of desperation move as pouring ocean water into an overheating nuclear reactor.  In both cases you're not expecting to reuse the gizmo, but are trying to avoid a worse problem, such as a fire.

As shown in the videos the gambit worked, the white cloud diminished, and there was no fire.

The first video doesn't appear to allow me to embed the video on this blog post, so you'll have to go to Google+ to view it:  https://plus.google.com/108161928669055573248/posts/aXKe4tLA3iB 

The second was shot by Travis Gintz, whom you can see standing in the previous video.  In other words, the two videos were shot at the same time, and you can see two different views of the same event.  There's apparently a third video, shot by a person who appears to be liveforphysics532 on Youtube, but he appears to not have posted the video.  (Luke, if that's you, wink wink, nudge nudge)

Brammo's Atlas wins TTXGP at PIR after MotoCzysz pulls out

After yesterdays wet weather, and the snafu with the battery pack on one of MotoCzysz' bikes, the TTXGP electric motorcycle race today, at Portland International Raceway (PIR), went off pretty well.  The weather was clear, partly cloudy, modest temperature, and an excited group of fans to watch the race.  As expected, Brammo's Steve Atlas stole the show unimpeded by competitors MotoCzysz and Lightning Motorcycles neither of whom were present.   This meant the real battle was for 2nd, 3rd, and in the eSuperStock and TTX75 award categories.

If Lightning and MotoCzysz were to have been present, this would have been a different race, with a big battle among those giants for 1st, 2nd, 3rd.  Lightning's Richard Hatfield communicated with me that parts and equipment and bikes had not made it back from the Isle of Man in time for the PIR race.  In the case of MotoCzysz, as I reported earlier (see link above), one of their bikes nearly caught fire, and they decided to not risk running the race today.  Clearly the short time between the Isle of Man race and PIR was too tight for either Lightning or MotoCzysz to adequately turn around their bikes, and reconfigure from IOM to PIR.

As has been true with TTXGP for awhile, this was two races.  The first race was the solo ride by Steve Atlas, on the Brammo Empulse RR.  His bike is so much faster than the others that he was passing everyone as if they were standing still.  The rest of the pack was more evenly matched, with the two TTX75 bikes both running faster than the Zero S bikes in the eSuperStock group.

When the Empulse RR passes by on the straight (and this is true of the Lightning & MotoCzysz) the sound is this amazing whoosh, and high pitch metallic whine, that carries power and speed without all the noise and stink of the gas bikes.  These bikes have to be witnessed to be believed.  It's too bad that there are so few of them in existence.

Atlas finished the race having covered 9 laps, having lapped the whole field and lapping two bikes twice, with a total time of 11:49.901, and a best lap time of 1:17.768.  This is a bit faster lap time than during qualifying yesterday.  Both MotoCzysz bikes had turned in even better lap times yesterday, which should have meant both will have beat him had they been able to race.

In the TTX75 award group, Matt Kent, of VA Tech, came in 1st, covering 8 laps, total time 12:27.921, best lap time 1:32.613.  Ely Schless came in 2nd, having covered 8 laps, total time of 13:03.608, best lap time of 1:36.009.

In the eSuperStock award group, the four bikes rode together as a group through the whole race, until the last lap or so.  Zero's crew had configured the four bikes with different gearing during practice rounds, so they could determine which gearing was best for PIR.  Then for the race they configured the four bikes with identical gearing, and unsurprisingly the four bikes performed almost identically.  They were also having fun with the horns, one time passing by the start/stop line they honked the horns in unison, getting a chuckle from the onlookers.  The racers in the eSuperStock group were all racing against each other, and traded places several times.

The same moment that the eSuperStock passed the start/stop line is when Atlas was crossing the start/stop to get the checkered flag.  Three of the eSuperStock Zero's were across the start/stop line when Atlas went across the line, with the fourth passing the start/stop line after Atlas.  This means three of the eSuperStock Zero's had 8 laps (being lapped by Atlas only once), and the fourth had only 7 laps, being lapped by Atlas twice.

Troy Siahaan came in 1st, total time 13:32.065, best lap time 1:38.249, Chris Page came in 2nd, total time 13:32.218, best lap time 1:38.400, Kenyon Kluge came in 3rd, total time 13:32.437, best lap time 1:37.668, and Don Headrick came in 4th, total time 11:51.599, best lap time 1:37.727, and again having been lapped twice had only 7 laps.

I want to reiterate - the eSuperStock and TTX75 were "awards" not "classes".  This means that while I'm reporting the eSuperStock and TTX75 with 1st/2nd/etc there was also an overall 1st/2nd/3rd, which you could derive from the above, but is:  1st: Steve Atlas (Brammo), 2nd: Matt Kent (VA Tech), 3rd: Ely Schless (Proto Moto).

A most unfortunate incident occurred during Steve Atlas' parade lap, one that ticked off one of the Zero riders enormously.  The story hadn't been entirely verified by the time I left the track, and the Brammo crew is denying the incident occurred.

It's claimed that, during his parade lap, Steve Atlas pulled over to the side and stopped in turn 4, and one of the Zero riders pulled in behind Atlas to stop as well.  While Atlas was in a parade lap, all the other bikes (except for that 4th Zero bike) were still racing hard to determine the rest of the ranking.  So when that Zero rider pulled in behind Atlas and stopped, that messed up his ranking in the race.

UPDATE:  Troy Siahaan posted a video/story of the race, which includes video showing what Steve did.  He was riding slowly, waving to the crowd, and was basically in the way when the Zero riders caught up with him.  You can see the video here:  http://www.electricracenews.com/2012/08/video-of-steve-atlas-celebrating-ttxgp.html

My opinion is that Atlas, as a Pro rider, should have understood the other riders were still racing and should not have done something like pull over to the side.  It's unclear why the Zero rider would have pulled off along with Atlas, unless the location where Atlas stopped was inconvenient for the Zero Riders?  This happened on the other side of the track from my vantage, and I'm repeating on second hand reports.  FWIW Atlas denies he stopped.  UPDATE: The video mentioned makes it clearer what happened.

In all it was an excellent race where the major part of the drama was not with the 1st place finisher (Atlas) but the rest of the pack.  There were many more watchers lining the pit wall for this race, than for the other gas bike races, which I see as a positive sign of a high degree of interest.

The other item to note is that Portland Mayor Sam Adams was on hand to present some of the trophies. He is apparently a strong proponent of electric vehicles.  It was also interesting seeing him in person, considering the bit part he plays in the Portlandia TV series.

TTXGP qualifying round, 2012 PIR - MotoCzysz pulls out

As I reported yesterday, the operative word for the day was "WET" with rain on-and-off all the day.  The qualifying round yesterday was supposed to be at about 3:50 PM, but a heavy rain squall piled in at 3:00 PM, with cats and dogs falling from the sky and everything.  But it was a short rain shower that lifted off pretty quick, necessitating a rain delay, with the bikes going out for qualifying round at 5:00 PM.  By that time a couple rounds of gas bike racing had gone out, and the track became dry.

As a surprise, two of the Zero S's went out during the Ninja 250 race at around 4:00 PM.  The 250's turned in lap times around 1:34-1:38, and the Zero's consistently gave lap times of 1:43-1:44, which meant the Zero's fell behind throughout the race.

Those two Zero's also went out during TTXGP qualifying, which raised a question of "well, how did they pull that off?"  Namely, to go out, race, then go out and race again just a few minutes later.  What Zero engineers explained to me is that, because the Zero charging setup allows multiple chargers to work together to charge the same bike, what they do is run several chargers per bike, effectively getting a fast charge.  Secondly, the 250 race was only 6 laps which pulled only half the charge from the bikes.  Between those two factors, fast charging by ganging together several chargers, and only using half charge, meant they could completely recharge in 1/2 hour.

For the qualifying round, all the teams went out:   Brammo (w/ Steve Atlas), the two MotoCzysz bikes (Michael Czysz, Christopher Ancien), Proto Moto (Ely Schless), VA Tech (Matt Kent), Zero (Kenyon Kluge, Troy Siahaan, Don Headrick, Chris Page)

TTX75 Award: As was true earlier in the day, the VA Tech bike looked excellent, and ran stronger than the Zero S's.  Ely Schless had slightly slower lap times, at 1:37.441 versus VA Tech's 1:34.494.

eSuperStock Award: For most of the race three of the Zero riders ran as a cluster, with the fourth trailing behind them by a couple hundred yards.  This showed both collaboration between the riders, as well as how closely matched these bikes were.  Prior to the qualifying round the teams switched rear sprockets for a different gearing ratio.  The best lap times for all for were in the 1:40-1:41 range, a little faster than they ran during the 250 race.

Top bikes: Brammo and MotoCzysz were duking it out big time to be the top dogs.  Because Lightning wasn't able to make it (their gear was still in transit from the Isle of Man), that left these two teams for the top position.  Both bikes looked excellent and turned in very fast lap times.  It was clear however that MotoCzysz was running faster than Brammo, and the lap times agree.  Brammo's best lap times was 1:18.949, with both MotoCzysz bikes giving 1:15.839 and 1:15.958 lap times.

Both the MotoCzysz riders came into the pits a couple times, and word is they may have adjusted controller settings.  Towards the end of the qualifying Ancien came into the pits for conferring, then slowly rode down the pit area watching the track as Steve Atlas passed at full speed on the track, and taking care to rejoin the track just as Atlas passed.  By the end of that lap Ancien had passed Atlas, demonstrating again that the MotoCzysz bikes are faster than Brammo's.

However..

At the end of the Qualifying, the bike ridden by Christopher Ancien had an issue that I did not directly witness.  I've talked with Michael Czysz to get clarification, and I've watched a video taken by an onlooker.

What happened is that in the pits, a cloud of smoke engulfed the bike and the pit crew pushed the bike to the side and poured water on the battery pack to cool it down.  As a result the MotoCzysz team has pulled out of this weekends'  TTXGP race.

What happened is the bike was set up with a battery pack meant for the Isle of Man.  This means building the pack from "Energy Cells" that support a lower C rate than the "Power Cells" they'd use for a TTXGP race.  The difference is that the Isle of Man, at 38 miles distance, is longer in length than the TTXGP races.  This means for a TTXGP race they can run with higher C rate cells to run at higher speeds, whereas for the Isle of Man they need a lower C rate allowing for more total kilowatt-hours to make the full length of the race.

Because the pack supports a lower C rate, and because Ancien ran more laps than did Michael, the pack was stressed more.  The pack got hotter (while Michael's pack stayed within the target temperature) and got close to the temperature that would trigger a thermal runaway.  Meaning the bike nearly caught fire.

With concern that a) the MotoCzysz team has spent several months busting butt to make it to the Isle of Man, and b) the bike had the wrong pack for todays race, the team chose to back out of the race.  While they had one bike in running order, and could have raced with that today, it would have been with the risk of the same thermal problem occurring today.

Opening of the TTXGP 2012 at Portland International Raceway

The TTXGP has finally come to Portland Oregon, one of the hotbeds of electric motorcycle and electric vehicles in general.  The series had been slated to come to PIR last year, but something happened (I never bothered to find out what) and it didn't happen.  This year the series is on the track alongside club racing with the OMRRA.  In addition to the TTXGP appearance is the EV LIVE event, a showing of electric vehicles, solar electric systems, and other green technology.

The primary word to describe the weekend so far is WET.  Earlier in the day it was raining hard, and the morning practice round was held on a wet track.  Only the VA Tech and Zero teams went out however.

VA Tech team

Present are:

• MotoCzysz: Two bikes, direct from the Isle of Man.  Their bikes arrived from the Island just yesterday.
• VA Tech (7.5kwh Award): One bike, it's their first appearance in any TTXGP
• Zero (eSuperStock Award): As in the Infineon round, Zero is sponsoring four bikes, and racing for the eSuperStock award.
• Brammo: One bike, and to those of us who wanted to know of Steve Atlas's condition after his wreck at Infineon, he is here, and planning to race.  
• Proto Moto (7.5 KWH Award): Ely Schless, he raced last year and this is his first TTXGP race this year.

This is the VA Tech bike.  This is a student run team, that is in its second year of existence, but is in its first year of actually racing.  One of the primary sponsors is Kollmorgen, an electric motor and controller manufacturer.  Their bike is in the 7.5 KWH award group, but is faster than the Zero bikes by a decent amount.

Here's the Brammo Empulse RR, ready to race.

Here's some views of the two MotoCzysz E1PC bikes, fresh from the Isle of Man.  It's even more interesting in person.

Under the seat are a pair of wings, and on the front fairing is another pair of wings, and the tail section has a bit of an opening, all signs of working with the design to make it slip through the air more smoothly.

Team members explained to me the main difference between the 2011 E1PC and 2012 is the fairing design.  The motor and frame was the same, the batteries more-or-less the same, but what made the difference with this years Isle of Man is the fairing design.

One of the little details is the "<22:38.28" on the front fender - that's the lap time they needed to beat, to break the ton at the Isle of Man.