EcoModder goes ice racing in a Fit EV

[MetroMPG]

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

Electric Honda Fit EV Goes Ice-Racing Against Old Two-Stroke Saab

Posted by Mike Kamm on the Albany Capital District EV Drivers Facebook page, his Honda Fit EV became the first electric-powered entry at the Algonquin Lake event in the club's 60-year history.

[...]


According to Kamm, it proved "surprisingly competitive", outrunning many regular gasoline-powered cars in the street-legal classes.

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.

[blownb310]

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









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



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.

[MetroMPG]

Woohoo - excellent pics. Looks like fun.

[Daox]

Fit EV! I'm jealous.

It looks like you had a ton of fun.

[Cobb]

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

[blownb310]

Originally Posted by Cobb

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

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

[blownb310]

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

[MetroMPG]

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?

[blownb310]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I almost wish you'd left some of the original audio in there just for fun.

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.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

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

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.

[MetroMPG]

Very cool! Looking forward to the new one.

Also: I emailed you today about something.