Electric Fan Car Shatters Goodwood Hill Climb Record (thedrive.com) 61
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: AMcMurtry Speirling piloted by former F1 and IndyCar racing driver Max Chilton broke the Goodwood hill record Sunday, crushing the previous record set by the VW ID.R by nearly a full second. The electric fan car rocketed -- almost literally -- up the hill in a staggering 39.08 seconds, compared to the electric prototype's 39.90. The Speirling is the creation of a British-Irish startup that set out to build a ridiculously powerful and lightweight car that could be driven on the track and on the streets (a road-legal version of the Goodwood fan car is in the works). The batmobile-looking machine reportedly weighs less than 1,000 kilograms (less than 2,200 pounds), yet boasts over 1,000 horsepower courtesy of its dual electric motors. While boasting a power-to-weight ratio of 1,000 bhp per ton surely played a role at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend, it's the car's twin fans hidden within the bespoke chassis that really helped it achieve that record-setting time. Much like Gordon Murray's T.50 supercar, the Speirling's fans essentially suck the car to the ground and provide it with other-worldly downforce. Factor in the massive rear wing and other external bodywork, and the EV is essentially glued to the road while cornering at high speed. You can watch video of the impressive feat here.
Not fast enough (Score:5, Funny)
to get first post.
Re: Typical slashdot replies (Score:5, Insightful)
An EV's manufacturer and mining of the materials to make and generating the power to drive it works out to about half or less the carbon footprint of running an ICE. Significantly better, but no where near the zero carbon footprint that EV marketing pretends.
You can blame capitalism for the world trying to sell you things. We probably aren't going to halt climate change through free market enterprise. Funding green startups that are mostly smoke and mirrors over boring green technology like replacing 100 year old light bulb technology with 30 year old light bulb technology. Or basic responsibility like reading our own power meter each month and taking action to reduce it. (hard switches on your devices, adjust your thermostat, etc)
A wind farm in every place that can support it would help. Solar panels near to where the energy is to be consumed also helps. No renewable technology even if used in conjunction could satisfies all of our power needs. About 5X more nuclear power plants would immediately end a need to burn fossil fuels for energy. But an end to oil drilling and refining might make plastic quite expensive, but we should probably stop the whole single-use plastic habit sooner rather than later.
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Try one-third [tesla.com] for the US average (p. 60-62). Closer to a quarter in Europe. If you install rooftop solar, about 1/6th.
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I really hope you're not serious trusting Tesla to report on this issue.
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Significantly better, but no where near the zero carbon footprint that EV marketing pretends.
When you talk about the emissions of an ICEV you typically talk about the day to day emissions, not the lifecycle. In fact both the daily emissions and the lifecycle are relevant; daily emissions control local pollution. And yes, elevated CO2 levels are harmful to humans.
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EV will not stop global warming, however they will help.
In general people are trying to find a Hero Superman like technology, that will fix all our problems in one fellow swoop. ICE Cars are a problem, but they also are the poster child for bad for the environment, even though they are not the worst thing, it is because we see how much fuel we use, and see how many cars are on the road, we can smell the exhaust. However other factors as part of industrialization we tend not to see, smell, feel or pay out
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I believe the GP was trying to make a joke, giving an example of the stupid things posted on Slashdot.
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Everyone downvoting or disagreeing with this one â" it's intended (I believe) as an additional list item to the "typical replies" list in the GP post, not the parent's actual opinion.
Here's another one for the list:
If you get caught in a snowstorm in an EV, you're doomed because they don't have heaters and the battery will die.
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Try again [tesla.com]. (Page 60-62, graphs on the bottom)
EVs are now nearly at parity in terms of manufacturing emissions. Which are dwarfed by usage emissions (this should not surprise anyone - the average ICE vehicle burns its entire mass worth of fuel, up in smoke, every single year - while the materials used to build a car are mostly recycled).
For the sake of.. Everyone (Score:5, Interesting)
Yet another /. submission which gushes over something, but never actually explains what it is.
The "fan" is actually a built in fan which creates a vacuum under the car to assist with downforce. A concept I had never heard of till I spent 5 minutes trying to work out what the shit this story was about.
So fucking sick of editors and submitters assuming we all know what the hell they are gibbering on about. Red site is looking better by the day.
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And before I get reamed, I did completely miss the last line of the summary somehow. Commence fire.
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To be fair it's not explained well because the very term "Fan car" came about from the original Gordon Murray car which was pretty famously banned or the concept of a fan for downforce was banned so you need some context the summary does not provide.
Hell that story is more interesting than this, electric cars have been crushing hillclimb times for years now.
Re:For the sake of.. Everyone (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, this fan concept is all well and good until the car encounters a pile of dog crap in the road.
Then the shit hits the fan.
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Bravo! Well played.
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Seriously though I don't think the fan car would have lasted long in F1 even if it hadn't been banned, because even on a racetrack there is plenty of crap to suck up. Lots of rubber from tyres, bits of other cars that were separated by collisions, flecks of metal ground off by contact with the road.
I have a feeling reliability would have been poor, and once the fan is taken out the sudden loss of grip could have been extremely dangerous. Plus the way the fan was set up it was ejecting that stuff out the bac
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When I read the title of the story I imaged something more like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Not your fault, TFS is horribly written. I was expecting to see giant fans on the back like a hovercraft.
Especially when they say "rocketed -- almost literally" I expect at least some sort of fan/turbine propulsion. Now seeing it is wheel-driven, I want to punch the author in the face, Buzz-Aldrin-style. Literally.
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It's also massively over-hyped: "Shatters", "crushing", "staggering", "rocketed", all for a one-second difference.
Film at 11, if you're still awake by then.
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A one second difference in a 40 second auto race is huge.
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And before I get reamed, I did completely miss the last line of the summary somehow. Commence fire.
I missed it too, and would have continued oblivious, if you hadn't broken it out for we who skim articles. Thank you.
For others who like to read comments on comments but not the original material:
... it's the car's twin fans hidden within the bespoke chassis that really helped it achieve that record-setting time. Much like Gordon Murray's T.50 supercar, the Speirling's fans essentially suck the car to the ground and provide it with other-worldly downforce.
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I was starting from "what's a hill climb?"
Consider it a reminder about how non-technical people feel when we talk about technology.
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The paragraph explains exactly what the fans do...
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I spent about 2 minutes enjoying reading the very short article, which explains what it is, and then another minute watching the cool video of the actual run.
That's 2 minutes less and sounds like a more pleasant experience for me, based on your attitude here.
L.
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For me this car has redefined the future of Formula 1, as well as the spectacle of cars running at that incredible speed (as the spectacle of accidents).
With this car the driver will seriously
slashdot material (Score:1)
That's right Nerds, this car can not only suck itself, this car can suck itself up a hill.
Great! (Score:2)
driven on the track and on the streets (a road-legal version of the Goodwood fan car is in the works)
Can you bring one of those to my neighborhood and drive it around? The county hasn't run their sweepers through here in a few weeks and all the crud is starting to build up on the roads.
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The origin was in F1 (Score:3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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No. You are as bad at this as The Drive. The origin was the 2J Chaparral in the 1970 Can-Am series.
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And there's the McLaren F1, also a fan car.
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Would you say it is a fan favorite? ...I know, I'll see myself out...
Crushes (Score:1)
Re: Crushes (Score:2)
Disclaimer: I'm not.
Cool logo (Score:2)
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Professional racing teams would probably commit murder to get a 1% edge on the competition, let alone 3%.
numbers? (Score:2)
max lat Gs?
anything beside hp?
and as an aside, underbody panels contribute to a lot of aero/downforce. it'd be interesting to see 80s cars be given the full underbody/diffuser treatment and then see how it affects the stock numbers.
bonus nugget would be to revisit 0-60 times too, as tire tech is a lot better these days.
Re:numbers? (Score:5, Informative)
2000 kg downforce at 0 mph
2250 kg downforce at 150 mph
More than 3g cornering
0-60 mph less than 2 seconds
Source is an advertising brochure [mcmurtry.com]
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The driver says 0 to 60 is under 1.4, but probably can go below that, if you watch this video. It's pretty interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
There's also an extraordinary statement that the car is built to *increase* drag because of the fan downforce. It made me realise that this is a super-specialised world
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I think the figures I gave are for the road-going production version. The hill climb car might well be quicker (e.g. lighter, with fewer batteries and less range).
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There's also an extraordinary statement that the car is built to *increase* drag because of the fan downforce.
Literally all cars which produce downforce do it by producing more drag.
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I was going to write, "The L/D ratio means that you don't get the L without taking the D", but then I realized that sentence could be misinterpreted...
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I'm sure that's true, it's just new to me. This is not my world, I'm used to a world where the lower the drag the better
I really hope that fan cars are not rod legal (Score:2)
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Allegedly the vehicle showcased in this article is (or will be) street legal.
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Only car guys will get this story. (Score:2)
Reading through the responses here, it appears that, perhaps rightly so, only car guys will get this story.
If you do not know or care what the Goodwood Festival of Speed is, then this story is probably gibberish
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As the owner of a 69 Roadrunner, a 57 Chevy and a 59 VW 23 Window Bus.. Oh wait, yeah I'm a car guy too.
Not impressive, this was impressive. (Score:2)
Sorry, I was more impressed with Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan, and Kenny Roberts all riding together up the hill with Wayne leading [bikesportnews.com]. For those of you who don't know, Wayne was paralyzed in an on-track accident in 1993.
so... where's the fan? (Score:1)
I was expecting a big, cartoon-looking fan- like a swap air-boat. ;)
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You think you're disappointed. I was expecting something like this [wikipedia.org] aimed up a 60 degree or so incline.
Fun when you get to the top.
I am pretty sure (Score:1)
I am pretty sure that this was first used in F1 in the 60's or 70's but was banned shortly after, so nothing new about the idea, but I guess it is still available in less regulated racing.
Spoiler alert ... (Score:2)
There is a much lower-tech established method for racing cars to increase downforce and so traction, but it also increases drag. ...