That's super cool! I'm all about the electrification of these vehicles, both for the "green" aspects but also for the performance! I saw somewhere else that M-Sport also unveiled their "Beta"...
That's super cool! I'm all about the electrification of these vehicles, both for the "green" aspects but also for the performance! I saw somewhere else that M-Sport also unveiled their "Beta" version of a Hybrid Rally car called Puma recently. (Though I don't think they'll be in the same class in the 2022 season)
This was one of the more interesting parts of the article for me:
And get this: there are two electric motors under the Fabia, one on each axle, and four-wheel drive, but no direct connection between front and rear. Kreisel's Daniel Foissner said getting the axles to work like a rally car was "the biggest development challenge" of the project - you don't say - with the new software working without drama in Austria. The RE-X1 even skids like a petrol rally car... [Emphasis mine]
I get that it's good for the driver's muscle memory to drive like what they're accustomed to, but with two separate motors I feel like there is the potential to change the "optimum way" to drive. I would expect improvements in tech lead to improvements in technique as well!
I've been thinking about the electrification of motorsport and the rules that would be involved to keep it driver focused instead of relying on electronics too much. With the correct sensor suite...
I've been thinking about the electrification of motorsport and the rules that would be involved to keep it driver focused instead of relying on electronics too much. With the correct sensor suite you could individually control the motors (even per wheel with four motor setups) without driver input and really take a lot of the driver out of the equation, much like some high end cars today that measure individual wheel slip angle to perform in ways the average driver never could. So I'm expecting strict regulations on what can be controlled by the computer.
One thing I could see happening, in rally especially, is a split accelerator pedal that has a left and right side, each controlling one of the axles. So a driver could roll their foot one way or another to have more power from one end of the car. Say during a flick that resulted in over-rotation the driver could roll their foot to the front motor and off the rear to pull out of it.
That's super cool! I'm all about the electrification of these vehicles, both for the "green" aspects but also for the performance! I saw somewhere else that M-Sport also unveiled their "Beta" version of a Hybrid Rally car called Puma recently. (Though I don't think they'll be in the same class in the 2022 season)
This was one of the more interesting parts of the article for me:
I get that it's good for the driver's muscle memory to drive like what they're accustomed to, but with two separate motors I feel like there is the potential to change the "optimum way" to drive. I would expect improvements in tech lead to improvements in technique as well!
I've been thinking about the electrification of motorsport and the rules that would be involved to keep it driver focused instead of relying on electronics too much. With the correct sensor suite you could individually control the motors (even per wheel with four motor setups) without driver input and really take a lot of the driver out of the equation, much like some high end cars today that measure individual wheel slip angle to perform in ways the average driver never could. So I'm expecting strict regulations on what can be controlled by the computer.
One thing I could see happening, in rally especially, is a split accelerator pedal that has a left and right side, each controlling one of the axles. So a driver could roll their foot one way or another to have more power from one end of the car. Say during a flick that resulted in over-rotation the driver could roll their foot to the front motor and off the rear to pull out of it.