OK, so I'll be driving my 2017 Volt
and since my wife doesn't want to drag race,
my friend Jacob will be driving the i3 REx.
So let's take a close look at how these two cars compare on paper.
The i3 has a 125 kilowatt electric motor
and the Volt has a 120 kilowatt motor,
the advantage here going to the i3.
You can see the i3 is also quite a bit lighter weight –
another advantage to the i3.
According to "Car and Driver", the 0 to 60 time is 7 seconds for the i3
and 7.5 seconds for the Volt,
so all the advantages go to the i3
but I can tell you right now,
these two cars are geared very differently
and after driving both cars, I can say that the Volt has a lot more power
from a standstill, so let's see what happens.
So we pulled up to the staging lines.
The i3 was assigned number 624 and the Volt, number 623.
These cars are typical of what was racing most of the evening:
Mustangs and Camaros
…and very noisy. Ours will be much more quiet going down the track.
Jacob: Alright, so me and David are about to race these cars.
It's my first ever drag race so I am a little nervous
but we'll see how it goes.
David: As expected, the Volt immediately pulls ahead. Jacob: Wow!
However, the i3 starts to catch up in the end
but it's too late; the Volt won this round.
Here's the timeslip.
You might notice that the Volt won
by a fraction of a second
but the i3 was going faster when it crossed the line.
So what does that tell us?
Well, the Volt has an advantage on takeoff
and the advantage was enough to allow it to win the race;
however, keep in mind this was a ⅛ mile drag strip we were on.
If it had been the ¼ mile the i3 would win every time.
I would also like to mention that of the four drivetrain configurations of the i3,
we have the REx 60;
however, the BEV 60 is actually the fastest of the i3s
because it weighs quite a bit less,
so if the BEV version was racing, it would've won without question.
So we race two more times.
Alright, Dave and I are about to go on round two here.
Jacob: So, the cars were pretty close last time.
See if we can beat 'm this time.
David: The one problem I had this time was
that there was too much water up around the starting line
and my tires got wet.
So even though it's hard to see,
I'm actually spinning my tires on takeoff.
This caused me to lose half a second of my time,
canceling out the low-end advantage that I had.
Jacob: [laughing]
David: So, the i3 won this round.
Unfortunately,
somebody's car fell apart on the drag-strip
so we had to wait 30 minutes
while they mopped up oil.
Jacob: OK, after a very long delay we're back in business.
David: Unfortunately, the tires were spinning again this time
so this race was also hopelessly lost to the i3.
And just for the record, here's the timeslip.