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eddiejpoplar · 6 years

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Formula E for 2018: Here’s What’s New

The look of Formula E’s race car for season five—the full second-generation version of this racer—has been revealed. Seeing it colors in more hints and details at how this all-electric racing series will evolve into the new season, which starts late this year, although the series hasn’t yet revealed many of the technical details for the car, which will make its official debut at the Geneva auto show in March.

Formula E started out as a geeky counter to Formula 1—the sort of motor racing that might appeal only to electrical engineers, Tesla owners, or slot-car racers. The series remains as geeky as ever; but with strong attendance, healthy competition, and mammoth investment (if not profitability quite yet), it has come a long way in just 36 races to date, with 43 scheduled by the end of the current (fourth) season. Yet with the entrance of legendary names—Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche will all soon be involved, with the latter leaving behind its winning streak in Le Mans racing in favor of Formula E this year—it’s here to stay.

Each season has brought about some significant evolution in the technical realm. Season one started with an eMotor supplied by McLaren Applied Technologies, plus a Hewland five-speed gearbox attached to the motor housing and a pneumatic paddle-shift system. Drivers only got one dedicated powertrain, and it had to last the full season. It got a lot more interesting in season two, when it was left up to each team to set up its own motor, gearbox, and differential. That led to a wide range of approaches, with some teams going transverse with their motor/gearbox layout while others went longitudinal; likewise, some teams used two or three gears, while others used just one. That continued into seasons three and four, with more power and some about-face approaches for several teams that made the cars quite different from year to year.

Given what has been announced and detailed so far in this car, built by the French company Spark Racing Technology, here are some key differences that should make season five of this work in progress a little more fun to watch:

Wilder Look

Formula E cars for season five finally look less like a Formula 1 car that has been reworked in a mad scientist’s garage and instead like something that breaks further free of F1 constraints. To our eyes, it’s closer to what a comic-book superhero would drive. There’s a lot of Ferrari’s 2015 Formula 1 concept car here, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Better Driver Protection

In the side profile of the new car, the use of a Formula 1–style Halo is unmistakable. The aim is to protect the driver in a crash—with some energy-absorbing deformation—yet be set up in a way that doesn’t introduce too much aerodynamic drag or weight.

Light, but Loaded with Batteries

The chassis will remain carbon-fiber intensive, and fundamentally, its specs remain very close to those of Formula 1, with an overall maximum length of 196.9 inches and an overall max width of 70.9 inches. Formula E cars weigh a few hundred pounds more, though, due to their battery packs—and they’re due to get even heavier. While the Gen 1 cars weighed about 1760 pounds, the Gen 2 (season five) car will add up to roughly 1950 pounds.

No More Car Swaps (or Battery Swaps)

Today’s Formula E races require two identical, fully prepped vehicles—both with fully charged 28-kWh battery packs—to finish the race. And that means that it’s a race to be won not by driving all out through the race, but through careful power management and some very aggressive strategies for recovering every potential watt-hour along the way. With the move to a larger 54-kWh pack, there will be more room for strategizing and micromanaging the energy flow from lap to lap.

More Battery

Formula E will get an all-new battery with season five, supplied by McLaren Applied Technologies rather than Williams. Technically, it’s a three-way partnership that includes Sony and Lucid. The 54-kW pack has to be capable of being fully charged in 45 minutes or less, so Lucid will be using it to prove its technology for cell monitoring and pack cooling during 350-kW ultrafast charging and racing-speed energy recovery under braking. This pack will be used for at least two seasons, and then, for season seven, Formula E might turn individual teams loose to develop their own.

More Power

The battery and power electronics will be capable of supporting 250 kW, versus a maximum of 180 kW in race mode and 200 kW in qualifying rounds in the current cars. Even given the weight gain, the cars are expected to accelerate quicker and top out at higher speeds. Regen power has also edged up each year.

The All-Electric Formula E Race Series Is Poised to Be the Industry’s Next Hot Test Bed

Everything You Need to Know about the Formula E Electric-Only Race Series

Lucid Will Be the Sole Battery-Pack Supplier for Formula E

Not all of us are converts to Formula E around here; some simply can’t get over the lousy soundtrack. To a lot of motorsports fans, it’s not just the engine roar and the smokescreen that will be left behind, but many of the intangibles that have made racing what it is.

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thecarexpertuk · 7 years

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What is it? The Honda Civic Type R is the latest, most potent version of a performance icon. Key features: New body and chassis, more power, more versatility. Our View: The new Honda Civic Type R is a much more complete performance hatch than its predecessor, more potent, but also significantly more practical as a daily driver. Type of Review: First drive.

Honda Civic Type R – did we not review that quite recently? In fact, it was exactly two years ago. In June 2015, partly on a race track in Slovakia, we attended the launch of the last Civic Type R.

Just 24 months on and we are at staring at another race track, this time the awesome Lausitzring in what was once East Germany, as part of our first experience of an all-new Type R, which arrives in UK showrooms in July.

The reason is, of course, the fact that the mainstream Civic recently underwent its latest regeneration, going on sale in March. And it is a significant change for the model, adopting far more mainstream styling in a bid to increase its share of the market – especially as Honda’s UK plant at Swindon is now the global hub of Civic production.

So it is no surprise that a new Type R is in the mix. But appearing just four months after the mainstream car is almost indecently soon, and perhaps there is another reason. The 2015 Type R was extremely potent, but as an everyday car it could soon become hard work – race definitely ruled over road. With this one, Honda appears to have taken the opportunity to rectify matters, making it more user-friendly a major priority.

Do not think for a minute, however, that the new Type R is watered down. As I will discover in a test that encompasses a challenging race circuit and a legal 150mph on basically a dual carriageway, it’s the most powerful, best-handling version of the car yet.

Next page: Exterior and interior design

Exterior and Interior

According to Honda, the new Type R was developed alongside the standard Civic, demonstrating how important the model has become to the brand – those that make jokes about Hondas appealing to the ‘older’ set forget that company founder Soichiro Honda was first and foremost a racer.

The car is longer and lower than its predecessor, while its styling makes the car look wider even though it’s not. A lower centre of gravity helps too, and a driving position closer to the road. It sits on a new platform, which saves 16kg of weight while improving torsional stiffness by 37% – better for safety, much better for handling…

Aerodynamics have assumed their greatest importance yet on the new model. The underbody is smoother, while the specification includes phrases such as ‘air curtain’ and ‘vortex generators’ – the kind of thing you hear more often when talking about new race cars. We are promised such measures make the new car the most stable Type R at high speed yet, while other measures include the front splitter, sculpted air intakes, wheels enlarged to 20 inches, even a bonnet in aluminium because that saves 5.3kg over the steel version on the stock Civic.

Inside is pure Type R, a riot of suede-effect fabric in the signature red and black. The seats might be the lightest ever fitted but they still hold you firmly yet comfortably, and make you feel like you are in a performance car.

The dash is a big improvement – the display is still digital, but no longer something akin to a science-fiction spaceship. It is also no longer in two pieces, the pod sitting atop the fascia has gone which is an excellent move. In the old car, one had to choose either to partially block the view of this pod or the main display with the steering wheel.

And of course this is still a Civic, so benefits from the increased interior room provided by the new design, both in front and rear. All of which helps justify the car as a purchase for daily driving – as a passenger, you no longer feel like the car really doesn’t want you there, as you did in the 2015 Type R.

Next page: Powertrain and chassis

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Powertrain and chassis

Not a great deal is carried over from the previous Type R, but the engine, transmission and brakes are. Honda could not simply drop the old engine into the new car, however, so the 2.0-litre VTEC turbo unit has been ‘optimised and refined’. This means an extra 19 horses, now putting out 320hp with peak torque of 400Nm.

The six-speed manual transmission has been improved too – a switchable ‘rev’ match’ system added. As its name suggests this precisely aligns engine speed to transmission to ensure the most efficient shifts and no ‘shock’ through the gearbox. And the Brembo braking package boasts bigger discs.

Possibly the most visual aspect of the powertrain changes are the triple tailpipes of the exhaust, looking for all the world like some weapon pointing at following vehicles. Exhaust flow is improved by 10% while the smaller central pipe performs multiple functions, both improving efficiency and that essential element, the sound the car makes!

All of which contributes to a 5.7-second 0-62mph time and a 169mph top speed. The Civic Type R claims the title of fastest-accelerating car in its class. It also – currently – holds the title more manufacturers these days appear to be chasing, as the fastest front-wheel drive car ever around the daunting 14-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife track in Germany.

Honda also dubs the Type R’s chassis as the most sophisticated in the model’s history. Allied to the platform and rigidity improvements is the significantly revamped suspension. The front MacPherson struts use a lot of aluminium and a bespoke ‘dual-axis’ setup which cuts torque steer – the tendency of a powerful front-wheel-drive car to want to go sideways when the power is put down.

The rear suspension is completely new too, a multi-link system designed to improve stability under braking. But just as important are the revisions to the adaptive dampers, both improving performance at pace but adding ride comfort in normal use.

Next page: Driving experience

On the road

It all sounds great, on paper, but how does it work in practice? It’s not often one comes to a new performance car with such recent memories of its predecessor, which in the case of the Type R was one heck of a hot hatch but in daily driver terms only for the slightly masochistic.

Honda’s launch event in Germany gave us the opportunity to test all aspects of the car, from driving through the traffic-choked streets of the city of Dresden, to letting it loose on an unrestricted autobahn, and then the highlight – laps of the challenging Lausitzring road course.

The answer to the vital question is yes – one really can use the new Type R as a daily driver. General comfort has been markedly improved over its predecessor, and there is now even a ‘Comfort’ setting alongside the now default ‘Sport’ and track-special ‘+R’ driving modes, setting dampers, steering, gear shift and throttle response accordingly.

As a result, uneven roads are no longer akin to a session from a sadistic masseur, the chassis smothering the bumps. Cruise along in the car and it’s a quiet, refined environment not far removed from any other Civic.

And then one gets out on the motorway – and in parts of Germany, they are rather different to in the UK. With no speed limit to worry about one can fully experience the Type R’s pace, and boy does it have some…

Said pace comes in much earlier – above 2,500rpm you feel the car dialling up, but in a much more smooth and refined manner compared to its predecessor thanks to improved throttle delivery and slick gear shifts.

I admit I wimped out at an indicated 242km/h, which equates to 150mph, on what was basically a dual carriageway. At such speeds the Type R felt very fast indeed, yet still refined and fully in control. Obviously, such an experience will be irrelevant to anyone who buys a Type R in the UK, but I would suggest membership of a track day club will be an essential option, so as to experience and enjoy the car’s full dynamic abilities.

Because on the track the Type R really comes to life. The German instructors at the Lausitzring had an interesting technique, simply telling us to follow them in their Type R, and then indulging in laps that had us pushing on hard merely to keep up.

And the car soaks it all up – accelerating crisply, braking with confidence, turning in with confidence and maintaining superb grip through the bends. It very quickly becomes a whole lot of fun…

Next page: Costs, summary and specifications

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The cost

Entry cost to Type R ownership starts at £30,995. Spend an extra £2,000 and one can have the GT model, which gains a raft of mostly technology.

The GT specification includes a cross-traffic monitor, dual zone climate control, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, Honda’s Connect assistant incorporated into the navigation, wireless phone charging, an 11-speaker high-power version of the audio system, and LED front fog lights.

Summary

Type R has come to mean something special to performance car fans. With the red badge, they know they will get the most potency available in the Civic, a truly hot hatch.

This is not a lot of good, however, if the car gets left in the garage because driving it on a regular basis is just too full-on. And in the last Civic Type R, the balance was shifted just a little too much in the direction of the track.

The new Civic Type R rectifies that but, remarkably, does this while also offering increased performance – more potency, and more ability on the most demanding of race circuits.

This is a complete package that one can live with happily all week on the slow commute to and from work. Just make sure you take it to the track of a weekend and let it off the leash…

Honda Civic Type R – key specifications

On Sale: July 2017 Range price: £30,995-£32,995. Insurance groups: TBA Engine: 2.0-litre VTEC turbo petrol Power (hp): 320hp @ 6500rpm Torque (Nm): 400Nm @ 2500-4500rpm 0-62mph (sec): 5.7 Top speed (mph): 169 Fuel economy (combined, mpg): 36.7 CO2 emissions (g/km): 176 Key rivals: Ford Focus RS, Volkswagen Golf R, Renault Megane RS Test Date: June 2017

Honda Civic Type R review What is it? The Honda Civic Type R is the latest, most potent version of a performance icon.

#Honda #Honda Civic #Honda Civic Type R

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