Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 9:29 pm
EACLucifer wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 10:10 am
No. It's because races are either regulated to use vehicles that are just tuned up road vehicles, for a whole bunch of reasons (eg various motorcycle races) or it's desirable to try and develop tech that can later be used in ordinary vehicles.
If we switched to EVs, we'd probably see racing switch to EVs as well, however, battery electric vehicles are absolutely not ready to replace the existing internal combustion fleet across the board, and won't be without major advances, or a radical shift away from road transport for many applications.
If the tech simply wasn't ready, I can't see racing organisers changing the rules on vehicles without adapting the races themselves.
Perhaps the sport would split, resulting in extra categories, eg we still have horse racing after the adoption of internal combustion engines for most transportation. A lot of horse events include things that cars can't do, like jumping.
So we could end up with some car sports running on biofuels doing things that EVs can't manage, perhaps including extreme endurance, and newer events doing stuff that they're better adapted for.
I think you misread me, BOAF. My comment about BEVs not being ready to replace the IC fleet across the board refers to real world applications, not racing, hence my "or a radical shift away from road transport for many applications".
The problem with BEVs remains the weight of the powerpacks and the price, things that aren't a problem for luxury cars or urban buses, but are a problem for long range freight and passenger transport in rural areas.
Racing, however, is inherently arbitrary. I cannot think of a single race anywhere that doesn't place some limits on the vehicles. That means electric racing is viable, and it could be quite entertaining, if set up right; the factors that determine whether or not races are worth watching don't tend to be dependent on the use of one or other engine tech.
Hell, I just, while writing this post, thought of a fun format for a race that could work well for amateurs. Rather than one long race, it's a series of short ones. After a set number of laps, there's a break to change batteries, then another set number of laps. There are as many runs as there are competitors, with each competitor taking a different place in the grid each time, ie Racer A might start from pole-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Racer B 8-pole-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.