Yes, it is electric. No, it does not have pistons. It does not burn gasoline, alcohol, or diesel fuel. This is the VW ID.R, an electric racer built to do exactly what it does here, which is to haul ass around race tracks and test the limits of electric technology in a high performance environment. We’re not electric car champions around here. We love combustion, we love pistons, and we love the sound and fury that those engines provide. All this being said, this car is impressive and denying what’s afoot with electric cars is pretty dumb. They’re here now, they are full of weird flaws but they are getting better. That’s the facts. You don’t have to love them.
In this scenario, the driver was Romain Dumas and he hustled the car around the 12.9 mile Nurburgring in 6:05 minutes. As you will see, this thing is no slouch, and while it’s batteries may have had their tongues hanging out by the time he was done, the car performs very well, seems fast as hell, and sounds like George Jetson’s car.
Yeah, the sound. While we may not be totally crazy about the screamy, high-pitch nature of road racing cars, we’re definitely not in on the whole electric shaver vibe. The thing sounds like a Traxxas car, which actually makes sense, right?
It’s a brave new world out there…whether we like it or not.
Zero interest in battery powered cars…won’t watch
I quit watching at 23 seconds in and went out to the garage and fired up my Camaro. Hopefully my ears will recover with some BBC therapy!
I try to give these things a chance, But what a snorefest. I guess on the plus side, I can fall asleep at one of these races and not get woken up when the cars go by….
Side question – what happens when these things short out in an accident? Explosions? Electrocute the driver and safety staff? I watch the hybrid cars run at le mans and the drivers have to jump off the cars with both feet to avoid electrocution in case the chassis became electrified.
Don’t care if it breaks the speed of sound not interested
Would be more interesting with Sabine Schmitz. Maybe driving an electric van? Or even a normal van?
https://youtu.be/5KiC03_wVjc
Hey you knuckle-draggers calling this boring: you can always cue up a NASCAR race in another tab and mute the audio on this and get your day’s RDA of noise.
very impressive.
the battery pack that can have that kind of capacity, and regenerative braking in that small of a frontal area.
It does need to make the Jetson’s bleedle sound though.
Nah, just have zero interest in this. No shifting, can only do one lap, traction control, brake control, not fascinated by it as entertainment. Not too far off in the future I am sure electric cars will be autonomous and be able to break every track record, maybe even a series for them to race each other. Not interested in it from a hobby or entertainment view one bit.
Besides , that think it’s funny that the perception of electricity is that it is free, most comes from gas fired plants. Site par is a huge way off from providing an adequate source, it may never meet our needs. Nuke is out, so we are back to gas burning plants. The electrical companies have to be licking their chops, here in SoCal they already stick it to us and rolling brown outs in the summer are the norm.
But hey , believe whatever truth you want to
Solar, not site par
@ Patrick:
Our energy future is electrically powered. Solar is less than half the cost of coal per kilowatt and falling. Even factoring in electrical generation fueled by fossil fuel, the amount of pollutants is lower from a power plant than from the average tailpipe. The internal combustion engine only captures the kinetic energy of the power stroke – but the vast majority of the energy goes out the tailpipe or is radiated as heat. This energy is utilized at power plants far more efficiently.
Go test drive a Tesla if you don’t think electric cars aren’t exciting …
Here’s a gun-toting American making a very patriotic point about Teslas:
https://youtu.be/MiDWgh7jhTE
Find your implied generalizations and profiling of the readers of this site interesting, gun toting, knuckle draggers, etc. I have driven a Tesla, fast yep. Handles yep. Boring yep. Ever see what a lithium mine looks like? Not really arguing about the future, the die is cast. I believe most here have made statements that as entertainment as r a hobby it’s not for me or others who have commented.