EcoModder goes ice racing in a Fit EV
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1391790720

Way to go Mike... aka blownb310! Just saw this on GCR:

See the full article: Electric Honda Fit EV Goes Ice-Racing Against Old Two-Stroke Saab

I don't know if Mike even posted about his Fit yet on EcoModder... if he did, I missed it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psbe95ad16.jpg

Thanks Darin. :) February 2, 2014 marked the date of the first EV to race in A.M.E.C.'s 60 year existence.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps657f2e45.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps18fc3097.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psb1c51e5a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps1c022fec.jpg

The Fit EV mixing it up with a Lancer Evo in front and a WRX STi behind.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps1f66ed07.jpg

What irony this image holds! The oldest car on the lake against the newest. Eric Nelson's smokey 2-stroke 1971 Saab 96 couldn't be more different than the zero emission 2013 Fit EV. The club's past and the club's future going door to door in the same race.

Woohoo - excellent pics. Looks like fun.

Fit EV! I'm jealous. :)

It looks like you had a ton of fun.

Why not race the fit ev against another ev like the tesla, Fiat, Leaf, etc vs an old saab? :confused:

I'm not specifically racing the old Saab, but it does run in my run group [There are several classes based on 2WD or 4WD, and whether you have studs or not]. I was out there racing all of the street legal class cars. Green Car Report's Antony Ingram simply used that picture with the Saab and I, and turned it into an interesting story line.

I would love to race other EV's but there simply aren't any other ones out there to race. Maybe some day....... :)

Mike

Here is a link to the results. http://www.icerace.com/results-2014/...-0202-sl-4.pdf

I also uploaded a short video from in car. Honda Fit EV on Ice - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhCe9ifXjZw

Too cool, Mike!

I embedded it for you.

I almost wish you'd left some of the original audio in there just for fun. I'm sure all you'd hear is snow/ice hitting the wheel wells & underbody... or the sound of the cars you're passing. But still.

Did you learn anything EV-specific in the race? Any strategic revelations?

Thanks Darin. I'll remove the music and upload it again without. You can hear the engines of the other cars but not much else. I need to edit the caption at the end anyway. There were only 28 cars in the race, not 31. The reason you don't see 28 cars at the start of the race is because the AWD cars are in their own group, which starts about 1/8 mile ahead of us drivers in the 2WD group. They call it split starts, where there are two separate green flags as each group passes start/finish. The funny thing is that I finished ahead of 4 of the AWD cars [their class is called SL4] even though they had an 1/8 mile head start. :p I found that the torque in Sport mode was too much at first. I actually ran the fist half of the race in Normal mode which has a nice linear power curve and is limited to 101 h.p. When I got comfortable with the handling of the car I switched it to Sport mode which delivers the full 123 h.p. It was then that I started passing some of the slower cars more easily but I had to feather the throttle a lot more in the corners then. Between the 10 minute warm up session and the 20 minute race, I used 2/3 of the charge.

Very cool! Looking forward to the new one.

Also: I emailed you today about something. :)

Sport for straight sections and Normal for corners? :)

If the mode switch wasn't behind the steering wheel and hard to find without looking, that would be a good idea.

Here's the same video with the music removed. Honda Fit EV on Ice without music - YouTube

Mike

I love racing on ice.

Here's my own video from an Ice rally-x this winter. I was running new Hakkapallita 7 studded tires. I was pretty much the fastest car on the ice in a Ford Focus, front wheel drive, open differential. There was only 1 subaru on studded tires that was on par with me.

[youtube]bbMZbFGwSjI[/youtube]

In related news...

GCR just awarded Mike a nice prize for submitting his ice-racing Fit to a photo contest: "the strangest place you've charged your EV" ...

Of course, that place was on a frozen lake, and the charging was via 5500 watt portable generator!

Photo Contest: Most Unusual Place To Charge An Electric Car? (WINNER)

Congrats, Mike! :D

OOOooooo....so much for zero emission.:p