Reply With QuoteThanks. I'll record it.
The world's fastest electric car
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/...t-electric-car
Thanks. I'll record it.
Just watched it. Ionity 300Kw charger at 70p per kilowatt
I’d rather a slower charger and have a meal while waiting. It’s the same amount of charge going in the vehicle, it’s just faster.
What a load of toss that was.
That was rubbish, 15 minute program stretched to 90 minutes and the title is completely misleading
Not going to order an electric car anytime soon
I like watching Guy and just a bit of fun at the end of the day.
Enjoyable
Pitch
I never knew they spread glue on the strip to aid traction!
I thought it was a good watch,thanks op for posting.
Watched it tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it, interesting how the safety on batteries has improved, just as well looking at the older types and the fires that could occur.
I hadn't realised quite how much is done to prepare the track. First, scrape off the old rubber once it's too thick. Then put back a layer using traction compound and reverse rotating rubber wheels, aiming to get a smooth somewhat sticky surface:Originally Posted by higham5
One of the available compounds is PJ1 TrackBite...see also: Scientific Secrets of PJ1 Track Bite.
Also got round to watching it tonight.
Pretty standard GM format, didn't learn anything new but an enjoyable enough watch aided by being able to skip the adverts.
I watched it, I like Guy Martin and he’s very watchable and it was an interesting programme, all told.
An accurate picture of the current state of owning and using an EV though? No.
Yes a fair representation how things stand at the moment.
EVs are already suitable as runaround, short commute and city cars provided you have parking access to overnight charging. For longer runs it seems the infrastructure is somewhat lacking.
I wonder how much further on we'd be without the Covid effect? Would EV uptake have outstripped demand and highlighted the poor non home charging issues or would the charging stations have kept up? Personally I think the lack of fast charge stations per vehicles on the road would be larger than it is already.
In fairness they usually only do it for the big meetings, otherwise its buckets of bleach.
Not any more...bleach has been banned. Only water is allowed now. See this Wiki link for:
Prerace preparations
Before each race (commonly known as a pass), each driver is allowed to perform a burnout, which heats the driving tires and lays rubber down at the beginning of the track, improving traction. The cars run through a "water box" (formerly a "bleach box", before bleach was replaced by flammable traction compound, which produced spectacular, and dangerous, flame burnouts; the hazard led NHRA to mandate use of water in the 1970s).
...and pdf link (found from Santa Pod's website) for:
ACU CAR & BIKE DRAG RACING YEARBOOK 2021
11. 2 Burnouts
All pre -race burnouts are restricted to designated areas, using water only...
The few times I went to Santa Pod there was a spectator stand behind the end of the strip and clouds of acrid smoke would drift across. The rubber smell was made worse by the smell of bleach (if I recall correctly). YouTube videos show me that the stand is now a storage area (so no more standing in the efflux of jet powered cars etc). All of which dates my visits to, I think, the early 70s. If fact it was 1973 according to this article (link) because I got to see Don Schumacher and Paula Murphy at Santa Pod.
Last edited by PickleB; 11th August 2021 at 11:26. Reason: add Twitter link
so just water now, not sure when the chicken shed went, but it was still there when I finished
As you’d expect, how useful an EV is to you depends on your own circumstances, journeys that you tend to make, where you live and what EV you have etc.
I completely accept they won’t work for everybody at the moment, but they work fine for an awful lot of people, as evidenced by the current sales numbers. Lead times on a lot of EVs is quite lengthy.
I think Guy Martin owns a Honda E, which is a lovely thing but a low range city car really, probably why he’s citing 50 miles as the radius you should travel from home.
Any 200+ mile range car, and there are a lot of them now, it’s a different proposition.
I seem to recall that Guy Martin has been competing on an electric motorcycle in the Isle of Man TT zero support races.
He did once, the year John McGuiness was out with injury.
@Tooks, it sounds like you haven’t watched the programme. If so, it will be worth your time.
He does indeed own a Honda E (which his partner hates!) but he was also leant the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 for a long distance trip. (Grimsby to JoG). It has a quoted range of 260-290 miles but once on the motorway/dual carriage, he struggled to get 170 miles out of a charge. And he had a nightmare with the charging network (including the high speed Ionity stations).
Yes, I have watched it.
I’ve been driving EVs since 2014, so have a real comparison to where we are now versus back then, and it’s hugely better. That’s not to say it’s perfect, far from it.
I’ve used those same Ionity chargers, I drove from my home in Lincs to Lossiemouth (a 485 mile trip) a few weeks ago, stopped for a total of 1hr 15mins at Leeds, Gretna and Perth. Cost was zero to me, charging comes with the ID.3, but even when that runs out I’ll be paying 29p per kWh, not 69p as per Guy’s ad-hoc charging attempt.
Any EV (or car) will use more energy at speed, you just don’t notice it as much in a petrol or diesel car, a 60kWh EV has only the equivalent of about 1.5 gallons of liquid fuel on board. Staying below 70mph definitely helps with range.
I’m not arguing blindly that EVs are better in all aspects, the extra hassle with longer journeys is countered by the simplicity and low cost of within range journeys using home charging/electricity.
If you’re a road warrior who covers hundreds of miles a day, then most EVs will be a pain for you, I get that.
I just found the premise of the programme a little pessimistic, the reality is somewhere between that and everything being easy!
Last edited by Tooks; 11th August 2021 at 15:09.
Then you can’t have been much attention at the beginning of the programme. 🤣
Anyway, my next car (a business lease) is going to be an EV. Because of what I will need it to do, it was going to be between the Ioniq 5 and a Model 3 LR. However, because of Guy’s ‘review’ and a couple of other non-fanboi reviews that I’ve seen recently, the Ioniq 5 is now probably out of the running. I’ll still take one for a test drive but I suspect that I will end up with a Tesla.
I hadn’t clocked it was his partner driving and I was doing other things right at the start! 😂
My wife went with a Tesla, she was considering that or a Kona, but the Supercharging network swung it for her. The SC network isn’t omnipresent, but with the range of the M3 LR it still works for her and of course she can still use the other charging networks as well.
We’re both delighted with the Tesla, it’s one of the later China built models with the US built battery pack, but it’s very well put together and we haven’t experienced any of the usual issues a Google search turns up.
The ID.3 we have is a bit more run of the mill, but it’s comfortable and refined and now it’s running the later software proving reliable as well.
I like the look of the Ioniq 5, check out Bjorn Nyland on YouTube who has been testing one pretty throughly for the last couple of weeks, including 1000km trips etc and measuring consumption at 56 and 75 mph etc.
Do you still get "free" charger installation if you buy a second/third hand vehicle?
Free charger install usually only comes with a new vehicle.
Currently, you can still claim an OLEV grant towards a dedicated charge point at a suitable property as long as you have an EV registered at that address, but its often as cost effective to buy your own charger and get an electrician to fit it in accordance with the regs.
You can then choose a ‘dumb’ charger that’s not required to be connected to the internet for data sharing.
Would imagine the grant will have been axed by the time I move over but I'd assume dumb chargers will have come down in price as demand from used cars owners increases.
I think once the grant is axed, like so many things with grants attached, prices in general will head south.
Watched this and found it a true reflection of the current EV position and was definitely worth a watch.
Had installed best part of 16+ EV chargers and to be honest the costs of installing them is largely inflated due to the fact that grant is paid directly to the installers and they deem this to be the icing on the cake.
Costs vary according to the make and type installed and their rating. It’s a bit of a minefield from a domestic point of view as some installers run away with their requirements or reported compliance requirements!
Some electricity suppliers supply and install them too. This is worth exploring if you want a simple pain free installation assuming you meet their standard installation specifics.
B
So would I, but not for the same reason. Fast chargers aren't good for battery longevity.Just watched it. Ionity 300Kw charger at 70p per kilowatt
I’d rather a slower charger and have a meal while waiting. It’s the same amount of charge going in the vehicle, it’s just faster.
Imagine drawing 400bhp continuously from the batteries. That's 750A from your 400V battery pack. The batteries aren't going to like it. The fast charger is doing exactly this, but the energy is going in to the battery rather than coming out.
I really wasn't sure what chemistry they set fire to. The batteries looked like lead acid cells, if they'd been lithium I'd have expected a bigger fireball.
Comparing the fire risk lead acid batteries to lithium is about as useful as comparing the flammability of diesel to a horse.
Yeah, modern lithium cells (generally) have over-pressure relief valves & internal fuses. They are tested for crush and puncture resistance, they have to survive extreme high and low temperatures. When protected with good electronics, they're quite difficult to set light to. But when they ignite, they really go. And they don't need oxygen to burn, so they're bloody difficult to put out.
I do think it's a bit daft anyone would be so worried about battery flammability in their car that they'd rather stick with a petrol instead.
I always like watching Guy Martin. Watching him on the £20k electric cycle made me chuckle.
Been water since the 1980's when i started going , still known as the bleach box though
The "chicken shed" at Santa Pod was known as the "Barn" , was a right of passage to stand in there a watch a jet car , the barn was cleared when the rocket car ran though
This program was always onto a loser as the latest Rimac runs mid 8's and the new Tesla Plaid just out of the 8's with 9.0's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJKL...nnel=DragTimes
Still wouldnt buy an electric yet personally
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