World RX: More Electric Powertrain Details Revealed

[Paul Jeffrey]

More details emerge of new electrification proposal of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Thanks to the submission of a Invitation to Tender (ITT) document from the governing body of world motorsport, further details are emerging around the often criticised move towards electric powertrains in the FIA World RX championship from the 2020 season, with confirmation that these flame breathing monsters look set to take on a pair of 250Kw motors in the top Rallycross series in the world, taking a drastic step away from the high performance traditional combustion motors used throughout the history of the sport.

According to the ITT document, the FIA states the battery supply is to cover to 2020 - 2023 seasons, and is open to battery manufacturers whom wish to develop a spec battery for the full field of cars:

“The aim of Electric Rallycross is to allow the development of electric technologies and race for the efficiency of the traction chain of the car, to showcase that electric cars are as fun and powerful as thermal ones.

"In order to maintain cost control with a high level of technology, the FIA is defining a battery pack that all car manufacturers will have to use in their cars which are then delivered to competitors.”
​

The new power unit and category rules have to be in place and functional for early 2020, with testing of the series set to begin in March of the same year.

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Do you think moving to an electric power unit is the right move for the World Rallycross Championship? Can electric power provide the same quality spectacle as the current series? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Kurupt CDN]

As an offroader, I'am very interested in how the performance will be and how it will relate back to the real world in regards to 4x4 vehicles down the road.
The RX cars are already fast, An electric motor and that instant torque is gonna make them insanely quick.
Sound wise it will suck but I think the racing will be great.

 

[el chasco]

Bye bye motorsports. The flames and sound is very important on the RX.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Because the other electric series is so great... -.-

http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2017/07...tending-a-race-is-an-out-of-focus-experience/

 

[Celestiale]

As an offroader, I'am very interested in how the performance will be and how it will relate back to the real world in regards to 4x4 vehicles down the road.
The RX cars are already fast, An electric motor and that instant torque is gonna make them insanely quick.
Sound wise it will suck but I think the racing will be great.

To run the final, including start procedure and cool-down-lap (we won't see donuts or showboasting anymore because of energy saving) the battery weight has to be at least 500kg with the current lithium technology. This will make the cars quite a bit heavier. Instant torque is one thing, but the increased inertia in the tight and twisty Rallycross circuits will cause some upset. Especially on loose surface you want to be light.
In addition i wonder how they want to load the batteries of so many cars (especially when the lower classes also go electric) in such a short timeframe, in between the sessions. I hope all the race tracks have a hell of a powergrid connection, because your odd 400V connection isn't nearly enough. Unless they want to change the batteries of the cars after every session.
Will be interesting how everything pans out.
If they will have to save energy during the race or run a high recup with lift and coast i am done with the (my favourite) racing series.

I would also worry about the safety. Those won't be Formula E cars with a tiny battery, protected within a carbon-fibre structure in the middle of a cage. The battery will probably make up a large part of the underbody and the way those cars are sometimes "flying" around i would't be amazed if we see battery fires (especially with a high-load battery). Good luck taking out the fire on the race track. That would most likely render the track unusuable for the rest of the week.

 

[Snailer]

I think it's a good thing. The electrification process is bound to happen sooner or later and Ralycross being a branch of motorsport that is probably best-suited for electric cars, should help pave the way for other branches to follow not too long after. I think the better low-speed performance of electric cars as well as new technologies such as torque vectoring should make for quite a show in low-grip situations. Perhaps it will give the motorsport fans fond of the internal combustion engine some time to get accustomed to the electric motor while the battery technology progresses to be suitable for use in other branches as well.

 

[mopro]

It's just gonna be like watching an off road electric RC race. It will still fun to watch the action packed rally. Yeah.. ok

 

[jpalesi]

I was at Barcelona in 2016, and while it was great fun, it was far from being packed. I don't think the grand stands were half full, and there was no traffic jam.
I can't imagine how going electric is going to help the championship, it won't help the attendance for sure.

Because the other electric series is so great... -.-

http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2017/07...tending-a-race-is-an-out-of-focus-experience/

Thanks for the article. It confirms what I thought : it's for the manufacturers, but not for the fans.

 

[Ken Bell]

no matter what you say, one of the reasons I go, and other people go to race meeting is because of the noises. Man noises! Loud noises. Its awesome. I honestly can't imagine going to say Silverstone in the future and watching silent cars, no matter how fast they go round the track.
Oh, I just read the nascars article referred to in the above post. People (actors) get on the bandwagon and attend these electric car meetings because they want to be seen, they have huge ego's, they may get paid for it! Businesses too sponsor because it looks good on there tax returns and publicity. Car racing is about NOISE. SIMPLE.

 

[T_rac3]

time to get accustomed to the electric motor

Nnnneeeevvvvveeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Edit copy paste from the link above:
This is racing:
"practice just had started and an F1 car approached. It sounded like a fire-breathing, human-slaying alien spacecraft was rapidly coming our way, and it was not going to be pleasant.

Suddenly, the sound was all around us in a flash of yellow, an ear-piercing scream and a loud BOOM! The Jordan F1 car of Timo Glock streaked past where I was standing. As he shifted gears, the sound and explosion hit me in the chest so hard, I could barely breathe.

It, to this day, is one of my favorite memories in life."
Beautiful

 

[Fat-Alfie]

Would you watch electrically powered car races if the cars had synthesized sounds replicating current internal combustion engines, coming out an "exhaust pipe" powered by the equivalent of a Marshall 100w stack?

I would be more than happy with that

 

[EIREXE]

Would you watch electrically powered car races if the cars had synthesized sounds replicating current internal combustion engines, coming out an "exhaust pipe" powered by the equivalent of a Marshall 100w stack?

I would be more than happy with that

I wouldn't, the thing is that because electric cars have no sound (unless you have transmission whine like in formula e) when they accelerate faster than an ICE powered car it almost feels alien, like a bigger force from another dimension is making the car move, if you make it emulate an ICE it will feel like you put a dragster enigne on it or something.

However, allowing teams to make their own sounds (like what audi did with the R8 e-tron) so that each car is unique and sounds like nothing you've heard before sounds like a nice plan.

 

[el chasco]

Would you watch electrically powered car races if the cars had synthesized sounds replicating current internal combustion engines, coming out an "exhaust pipe" powered by the equivalent of a Marshall 100w stack?

I would be more than happy with that

Is not the same.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

But what if you didn't even know? In theory.

What if the cars were as fast as IC cars, and sounded like IC cars, and you didn't know they were electric? What difference would it make if they were electric? IC noise is only the audible byproduct of the explosion - wasted energy.

 

[mysterion157]

All the Motorsports have an agreement to make F1 sound the best #conspiracy

 

[Isaac Chavira]

Why don't they just make a seperate series called WRXe. That way we can have our vroom-vroom and pop-pops.

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

Why don't they just make a seperate series called WRXe. That way we can have our vroom-vroom and pop-pops.

Because then you'd get the same situation we've had with TCR International and WTCC, where two different regulations compete with eachother for drivers and teams.

 

[3GeForce]

For me as a shade tree mechanic a big part of the enjoyment is hearing about engine modifications and specs. If racecars (and cars in general) get whittled down to a battery, motor, and some suspension tweaks, my interest in them will be gone.

What will people talk about? How many windings are on each armature? The power plants will be black boxes that nobody works on. Everybody will have the exact same powertrain and there won't be any need for mechanics. It sounds very boring to me.

 

[Elaphe]

With motorsports is more or less the same case than with making sport street cars today: a real fan will give the same importance to how the car feels, sounds, looks, behaves, how exciting it is, how fun to drive... than to the pure performance data. Of course motorsports will always priorize performance and technology can help a lot, but it usually can make cars too easy to drive or make them boring, for both the drivers and the spectators. The sound is part of the fun and the show. If it is gone, who would want to watch races? If they keep on insisting in ecology, safety, etc. why don't they make drivers use simulators of real-sized radio control cars. It would be as false as synthesized sounds for electric cars. I no longer watch F1 races because they have become boring, with stupidly small engines and with so much regulation and safety that in the end all the emotion is destroyed. Rally has always been savage, dirty, noisy, mechanical, dangerous, extreme. It's the absolute opposite to silence, to ecology, to respecting the environment and even to the excess of electronics (which is not the case of F1). The day we only have electric engines, rally driving will be a thing of the past for me.

 

[Kasti]

FIA= Failure in Action

Historic Rallyes will be Nr. 1 in near future.