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you.
Ready?
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Today on "Shakedown," a Formula E debrief.
Formula E, the electric racing series coming in 2014, and now
with IndyCar racing's Andretti Autosport as one of the 10
teams that will compete.
And now let me tell you how I got to this topic for today.
You know, I'm not just a "Drive" host.
I'm a fan of "Drive," in that, I watch every show.
And the show's inspire me to think of other cars and topics
related to what Mike Musto, JF Musial, Larry Kosilla, Chris
Harris, and Michael Spinelli present.
Like Monday's Musto and his mid-engine Corvair made me
think of the Yenko Stinger Corvair race car of years ago.
Here it is competing against a Ford GT over at Daytona.
And how about this Corvette concept, with it's V8 placed
truly rear-engine like a real Corvair, not mid, like the
Corvair muscle Mike showed us.
And then Mike tried to compare the mid Corvair to a
mid-engine Porsche Cayman.
Well, Caymans raced in Grand-Am's GX class, World
Challenge, and even the Conti Tire Challenge, I think.
But Porsche doesn't officially approve that because 911 is
the official Porsche GT racing program.
But take that idea of Porsche, rear-engine and mid-engine,
and again, inspired by big muscles Corvair, I get to show
you this bad car engineering in the GT 911
from the mid '90s.
Also not Porsche approved, because maybe it's the only
mid-engine 911 race car ever built they never raced.
So Yenko Stinger, rear-engine Corvette concept, this fab car
mid-engine 911.
You now have your Google search
assignments for the weekend.
And how about from "Driven"?
The Aston Martin visit that JF made made me think of Carroll
Shelby, Aston Martin Le Mans' winner from many years ago.
"Drive Clean" used a contemporary Ford GT to
discuss finish surfacing, and that made me
again think of Shelby.
This time the original Ford GTs air
flow over their surface.
And this 1965 seven liter car that went to Le Mans and
sprouted all sorts of aero bandaids all over its surface
to keep the car on the ground.
Then Chris Harris covered two German sports sedans.
And that made me think of, A, DTM German touring Cars coming
or not to the US.
They're now talking 2017, or not.
Or still on plan for 2015 and '16, or not, depending on
which press release you read.
And of course, Germany forces me to think of Bernie
Ecclestone's German bribery indictment.
And will he drift from F1 or slide away from the charges?
And that was a bad joke.
And finally, Mike Spinelli's hypercar talk on "After Drive"
made me think of Formula E, today's topic.
The ultimate efficiency technical exercise, packaged
not as a hypercar, but as a racing series.
And coming to the world, and the US, next year.
So today on "Shakedown," a Formula E debrief.
And if this doesn't spark the discussion on what makes
racing interesting, what's required of
racing to be racing,--
like noise--
why should racing even be efficient.
And what will we call a Formula E pit stop when they
don't change tires or swap batteries?
They jump into a whole other car, they switch cars.
If none of that electrifies your urge to discuss, then
your passion battery may be dead.
And that was the final bad joke of the intro.
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Formula E racers will swap race cars in the pits?
Someone call Zipcar or Hertz, because this feels like a
perfect sponsorship connection.
OK, wait a minute.
Let's start this Formula E debrief not with the drama
details like the pit stops, but with the basic facts.
10 races for open-wheel electric race cars sanctioned
by the FIA.
Season 1, September, 2014 to June, 2015.
Races in cities around the world, and there are 10
candidate cities.
Berlin, Bangkok, Beijing, Buenos Aires, London, Los
Angeles, and Miami in the US, somewhere in Malaysia--
because I can't pronounce that name--
Rio, and Rome.
10 teams, two drivers, four cars--
because the pit stops changing cars, remember--
races are one hour or so in length, a minimum of two pit
stops required per race.
There are standing starts, the car is going to be built with
low drag, low down force.
$500,000 purse at every race to encourage pro-drivers to
participate.
The engines will be restricted to power saving mode, which is
133 kilowatts, 180 brake horse power, but can be temporarily
increased to the max power, 200 kilowatt, 270 brake horse
power, by using it's push-to-pass boost system.
So from a standpoint of performance, think F2000
and/or, the formula Mazdas as the pace that I think these
cars will race.
Now, Formula E is an open championship, meaning the
series gives car manufacturers and constructors the
opportunity to showcase their electric energy innovations in
a racing environment in designing their own race cars
and technology, but of course, to the specifications set out
by the FIA.
But there's room for innovation, I guess, so that
makes it cool.
And the partners are signing on.
We've got Williams F1 for the batteries, lithium batteries
to start; McLaren for electronics and power train
management; Renault, to push their e-technology development
and their image; Michelin, the tires; and Dallara, the first
chassis builder.
And already, an electric road car start-up called Bluebird
says they're going to build their own Formula E chassis,
versus that Dallara, in addition to their DC50 road
car sports car, all of that electric.
So far, three teams have committed.
Drayson Racing, maybe you know them from their Lola E
electric LMP car that they've been developing to prove out
e-technology.
Now they say they'll race here in Formula E, and maybe design
their own race car too.
By the way, the Drayson team just set an electric race car
speed record at 204 miles per hour with that Lola E.
Next team up, China Racing.
And no, the plane crash pilots reported by that San Francisco
TV station are not the drivers for the team.
I'm not going to do anymore names.
Please don't on the comments.
Be very careful.
And now the third team that's reported, Andretti Autosport,
entering Formula E. So unlike F1, we have a US presence in a
global open world series with a pretty good race team.
Go to the Formula E site and scout around on all the info
that is there.
But, here come the questions for you.
Do you like the idea of all electric car racing?
Why yes?
Or why no?
Do you see and think that racing is pushing technology
forward and that's a good thing, like this Formula E
Series is doing?
But also, 2014 F1, look at those designs.
They're going to have the smallest engines ever,
turbocharging curves and a whole bunch of energy
recapture technology.
And how about Toyota and Audi hybrids over in World
Endurance Championship and at Le Mans?
They're dominating the story.
And at Le Mans also next year, Nissan with their ZEOD, I
think they pronounce it, that electric race car
running in Garage 56.
And how about Porsche?
The 918 is a test bed for all sorts of hybrid technology,
efficiency technology for the road, and race car.
And I'm pretty sure a lot of it's going to transcend its
way into the LMP1 race car that will also be at Le Mans
with Porsche, 2014.
And by the way, are you OK with a different sound for
performancing race cars?
Go to YouTube and hear the Formula E cars, and even that
Drayson Lola E. And tell us what you
think about that sound.
That electric sound as being representative of performance
and speed, versus a screaming V12, or the absence of it, as
Derek Bell lamented in one of those "Driven." So now I'm
just picking on a legend.
So I'm all wrong.
And would you even watch Formula E?
In my opinion, all of this is fine.
It's not a travesty to the tradition
and essence of racing.
Formula E is racing.
And racing is, or should be, always built to push forward
innovation, reliability, speed, performance, and
technology.
And efficiency has always been part of racing.
So BFD if now the efficiency is being defined and developed
via hybrid, battery tech, and ultimately for Formula E, full
electric power.
And not that I know personally--
but, yes, some rich people actually care about fuel
efficiency, because I've read that in your comments.
Just because some investment trader or tech buyout
bazillionaire can afford a $1 million hypercar, and probably
buy out British Petroleum, doesn't mean that he or she
wants or needs to drain all of BP's gas and oil reserves
through his super car fuel tank, does it?
Bottom line, Formula E is a good addition to the motor
sport arena, do you think so, or not?
Or in a future 2023 drive show, we'll be flashing back
and saying, hey, remember when that Formula E thing started,
what a stupid idea that was?
So give me your comments about Formula E coming to the world
and America next year.
Thanks for watching.
We're off to Mosport, and bunch of other news.
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