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The ultra-compact Mission R is ahead of its time. Brimming with inspirational solutions for a world of motorsport that will pose entirely new challenges. Sustainable lightweight construction thanks to the use of natural fibre materials and increased fan involvement are the main trends embraced by the Mission R to inject new ideas into the present landscape. The mainly transparent roof in the outer shell with integrated roll-over protection is an invitation to delve deeper into a modern version of customer motorsport.

 

While the exterior is visually reminiscent of the legendary Porsche 550 Spyder, the Esports-inspired interior is highly futuristic. Everything the driver needs is fully integrated in a full bucket, monocoque racing seat as in a simulator. The 6-inch multifunction OLED race display on the steering wheel shows the driver important information, such as calculated lap times and predicted tyre usage. A second, larger screen is located behind the steering column, which displays images from both the side-mounted cameras and the central rear-view mirror camera. In addition to the driver, the futuristic cockpit also has room for an optional passenger. In future, on-board cameras will also provide fans with spectacular views of the racing action. A streaming service will allow spectators to select different camera angles and switch freely between the competing vehicles. Additional information will be available, such as the driver's vital signs. Moreover, by pressing the streaming button, Mission R drivers will be able to take the racing community's motorsport experience to the next level.

 

So it almost seems a shame that there are no plans for a real-life application for the Mission R. But many of its new developments will make future sprint races more attractive in customer motorsport. Esports will definitely enrich the concept study. In 2022, the performance of the Mission R will become reality in a virtual racing game championship.

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​With the performance level of the current Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, the all-wheel drive Mission R demonstrates its outstanding performance. The battery is quite literally at the centre of this. To afford the driver the lowest possible seating position, a block battery has been chosen instead of an underbody battery. As in the mid-engined concept, this is centrally aligned in the vehicle, supplying the power for 30 minutes of racing action and enabling rapid charging times using Porsche Turbo Charging, thanks to its 900V technology. For sprint formats, in particular, on small, winding stretches with a low full throttle ratio, the Mission R can make optimum use of its recovery potential. At 800kW, this is the same as the maximum available power of the two electric motors, 'Made in Zuffenhausen'. The perfect drive for advancing the future of customer motorsport at a rapid pace.

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Source: motorsports.porsche.com

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ŠKODA Motorsport, ŠKODA Austria, battery technology solutions specialist Kreisel Electric and operational partner Baumschlager Rallye & Racing have teamed up to develop a fully electric rally car – the ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel

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When Kreisel Electric, supplier of the mandatory hybrid technology of the generation 2022 World Rally Cars for the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), looked for partners to develop a fully electric rally car, ŠKODA Motorsport saw an interesting opportunity. Building on its experience and competence with the worldwide most successful car of the Rally2 category, the Mladá Boleslav based manufacturer’s motorsport department updated a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo chassis to be fitted with Kreisel’s electric powertrain. The resulting concept car ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel combines the best know-how from a builder of high-end rally cars with the innovative battery technology of Kreisel.

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With more than 400 units sold and numerous rally victories and title wins worldwide under its belt, the rally version of the ŠKODA FABIA is the commercially and sportingly most successful car of its category. “The concept car ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel is an exciting combination of traditional and future-orientated technology. We provided our best experience, based on developing already three generations of the rally-going ŠKODA FABIA,” comments Michal Hrabánek, Head of ŠKODA Motorsport. “The concept car offers all the setup possibilities of the latest generation ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, but with a fully electric powertrain and I really believe rally fans will find such a combination truly interesting.”

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The Kreisel Electric engineered e-motor delivers a peak power of 260 kW and a maximum torque of 600 Nm compared to 214 kW and 425 Nm of the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo’s standard 1.6 liters turbo petrol engine. Except the mentioned drivetrain, the rest of the car is based on the well known ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo rally car with some modifications. To be more specific, suspension needed to be modified and to implement the battery into the car also a major modification of the bodyshell floor was necessary. The Kreisel high performance lithium-ion battery has a capacity of 52,5 kWh and provides an electrical tension of 860 Volts. For optimum performance, the battery block is mounted as low as possible in the chassis and liquid-cooled by Shell E-Fluids. “We are very excited about the cooperation with ŠKODA Motorsport,” says Philipp Kreisel, the company’s Managing Director. “Together we not only share the vision for the sustainable future of motorsports. We as well follow the same strategy of transferring technologies and engineering solutions from racing to road cars.” Kreisel Electric from Rainbach/Austria has also developed a bespoke charging station called CHIMERO working with 200 kW to be used during rallies.

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The first chassis built by ŠKODA Motorsport is in asphalt spec. But Baumschlager Rallye & Racing, the project’s partner for the testing program and future competition activities, already started to put the ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel through its paces on gravel as well. The first outing during a round of the Austrian Rally Championship is scheduled for July this year. “As a long-time partner of ŠKODA Motorsport in Austrian rallying, we are excited to be part of the innovative project,” comments Max Egger, CEO of ŠKODA Austria. “For us, it’s a matter of heart to help rallying enter a new era. After the very successful launch of the fully electric road car ŠKODA ENYAQ iV this is the perfect next step on our way to e-mobility.”

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To be ready for future entries into FIA sanctioned rallies, ŠKODA Motorsport supported Kreisel Electric during the homologation process for the ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel’s bodyshell. ŠKODA Motorsport will also provide further know-how and technical consultation during the ongoing development process run by its long-time customer Baumschlager Rallye & Racing. Additionally, the cooperation with ŠKODA Austria is part of the brand’s extensive support for national markets. 

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Source: skoda-storyboard.com

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Aerodynamic panels that can change shape on driver command, or automatically through performance sensor inputs, would provide minimal drag on straights and maximum downforce on curves.

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This would lead to the E-R9, which has an airplane-style flip top over the cockpit, to be “partly driven like a machine and partly exploited as a fighter jet,” according to Lotus.

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“What we have tried to do is push the boundaries of where we are technically today by thinking ahead – said Lotus head aerodynamicist Richard Hill, who followed the design of the E-R9 along with creator Louis Kerr – Lotus E-R9 incorporates technologies that we want to develop and make active “.

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“Lotus has an incredible history of developing unique solutions and we have proven this many times in motorsport and with our road cars.”

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Kerr added: “The energy density and power of batteries are developing significantly from year to year. Before 2030, we will have mixed cell batteries that will give the best in performance, as well as the ability to ‘hot-swap’ during pit stop “.

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The E-R9 was designed around the structure of the Evija electric hypercar, introduced in 2019 and expected to go into production this year.

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This would take advantage of a development of the Evija’s 2000hp powertrain that boasts an engine for each wheel, ensuring greater torque.

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The car’s name and livery in the first images unveiled today pay homage to Lotus’s rich racing heritage. ER stands for “endurance racer” and the # 9 is a tribute to the MkIX, the car with which Lotus made its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955.

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The black and gold color scheme echoes the John Player Special colourway with which Lotus won the Formula 1 world titles in 1972 and 1978, respectively with Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti.

The presentation of the design of the E-R9 follows the announcement of the signing of a collaboration in different areas between the Lotus Group and Alpine-Renault.

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Source: ruetir.com

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After 20 years at the top of the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb leaderboard, the record, set by Nick Heidfeld behind the wheel of the V10 McLaren Mercedes MP4/13 in 1999 has officially been smashed to pieces....by an electric car. 

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Topping the former record of 41.6 seconds, the all-electric VW ID.R initially crossed the line at the top of the famed Goodwood driveway in 41.18 seconds before setting the record again with 39.90 seconds. Behind the wheel was Le Mans and Pikes Peak hill climb winner Romain Dumas, fresh from setting the electric car lap record at the infamous Nurburgring.  

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The 671bhp ID.R becomes the first electric car to top the timesheets overall in the history of the festival, laying down the gauntlet for other EVs.

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Source: fiaformulae.com

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Volkswagen has obliterated the Nurburgring Nordschliefe EV record time, with the I.D. R lapping the 12.9-mile circuit in a credibility-stretching 6:05.336. While that's some way short of the 5:19.546 set by the unrestricted Porsche 919 Evo last year - which may come as a disappointment to some in the forums - it is still a remarkable achievement when you realise it constitutes the second-fastest time ever recorded at the track.

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It's been gloriously hot in the Eifel Mountains and the I.D. R ran flawlessly throughout the day. Driver Romain Dumas, the same man who piloted it to the record time at Pikes Peak last year, reckoned that there might have been a couple of seconds more to find, but the record is still a seriously impressive one.

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While the NIO EP9 could only run three times on the day previous record holder Peter Dumbreck set the previous 6:45, Volkswagen's fast chargers - and having two separate cars - meant Dumas was able to complete a total of four laps. The morning installation lap was a record in its own right, 6:25, and the times fell steadily from there. Even the number two chassis turned in a 6:09 while being used to test settings for the number one car.

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While the I.D. R has less power than the EP9 - Volkswagen claims a peak of 680hp versus the NIO's 1341hp, although the EP9's record was set in a longer-lasting 872hp state of tune - it also weights around 630kg less. That's likely to be the critical difference.

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The final run took place just before 3pm with bets being taken on the pit wall as to whether or not Dumas would be able to drop below the six minute barrier. Not quite, but it hardly matters. Being Germany, the record had to be officially certified with a team of scrutineers on hand to make sure that the number on the clock tallied with the two stopwatches being carried by notary Jens Böhle - who admits he is being kept busy by the demand for officially recognised Nordschleife records.

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Sven Smeets, Volkswagen's director of motorsport, admitted that the final time was slightly outside the one that Volkswagen's simulators had predicted for optimal conditions, but said that the air temperature was slightly too hot for the twin battery packs to be completely happy. Lap time improvements throughout the day mostly came at the start of the lap, with Dumas's confidence growing and tweaks to the battery software allowing the car to go faster throughout more of the lap. Sheets confirmed that, at the end of the flying lap, the car had only a "couple of hundred metres" of range remaining.

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As for what the I.D. R does next, Sheets admits that other challenges are under consideration, with the next date in the diary being a return to Goodwood and an attempt to beat the 43.86 seconds set last year. The all-time hill record of 41.6 seconds, set by Nick Heidfeld in a McLaren MP4/13 20 years ago, must be under serious threat...

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Source: PistonHeads.com

During the GREENTECH FESTIVAL that took place in Berlin during the Formula E race at Tempelhof airport, one of the exhibited cars was a Pininfarina with the name of "Battista".

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Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm with headquarters in Cambiano, (Metropolitan City of Turin), Italy. It was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, Mahindra Group acquired Pininfarina S.p.A. for about €168 million.

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Pininfarina is employed by a wide variety of automobile manufacturers to design vehicles. These firms have included long-established customers such as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Fiat, GM, Lancia, and Maserati, to emerging companies in the Asian market with Chinese manufactures like AviChina, Chery, Changfeng, Brilliance, and JAC and Korean manufacturers Daewoo and Hyundai.

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This car, named after the founder of this Italian firm, was tested and developed by Nick Heidfeld, former Mahindra Formula E driver. Design director on the project was Luca Borgogno, who along with the Chief Technical Officer, Dr Christian Jung, and Senior Technical Advisor, Dr Peter Tutzer worked to put this car on the road.

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This car uses four internal permanent magnet motors driving each wheel with torque vectoring function. The center tunnel behind the seats hosts Rimac lithium/manganese/nickel liquid cooled 120 kWh battery in a T shape. Chassis is a ful-carbon fibre monocoque with carbon fibre body panels. Front and rear crash structure are made of aluminium.

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Front and rear brakes are six piston monoblock calipers with 390mm carbon ceramic discs with regenertative braking. Wheels are of exclusive new design and 21-inch rims with mounted bespoke P Zero Pirelli tires. The driver can adjust dampers with 5 distinct drive modes as suspension consists of independent double wishbones.

 

As a result of all this, the performance of this car is as follows:

Max Power: 1900 bhp (1400 kW)

Max Torque: 2300 Nm

0-100km/h: <2.0 seconds

0-300km/h: <12.0 seconds

Top Speed: >350 km/h

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Employees at Audi’s pre-production center developed and produced this one-of-a-kind car within the space of just eleven months based on the example of the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo from the “Gran Turismo” PlayStation game. The million-selling “Gran Turismo” game has long acquired cult status with gamers around the globe.

 

Audi has been working together with Sony and Polyphony Digital – the creators of “Gran Turismo” – for nearly 20 years. Audi designers created the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo for the “Vision Gran Turismo” competition that was launched on the market on the occasion of the popular game’s 15th anniversary. 

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Many of these concept cars were subsequently built as full-scale models as well and presented at trade shows. The Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo, however, is the first concept car of this range to be deployed to real-world race tracks as a fully functional vehicle. “This is what we are particularly proud of,” says Audi’s chief designer Marc Lichte. “Although the design of a virtual vehicle allows much greater freedom and the creation of concepts which are only hard to implement in reality, we did not want to put a purely fictitious concept on wheels. Our aim was a fully functional car. The Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo shows that electric mobility at Audi is very emotive. This car incorporates numerous elements of our new design language such as the inverted single frame in the vehicle’s color that will be typical for our new e-tron models.”

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The Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo has permanent all-wheel drive as well, the fully electric e-tron quattro all-wheel drive with variable power distribution. Three electric motors, each with output of 200 kW, propel the concept car. Two electric motors drive the rear axle and the third one the front axle, using individual components from the future Audi e-tron. System output is 600 kW (815 hp). With a curb weight of 1,450 kilograms the electric race car has a power to weight ratio of 1.78 kilograms per horsepower with ideal 50:50 percent weight distribution between the front and the rear axle. The Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 2.5 seconds.

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The futuristic race taxi was deployed at all of the European Formula E races and numerous other events in 2018. At the wheel were former DTM driver Rahel Frey from Switzerland and Le Mans winner Dindo Capello from Italy.

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Source: audi.com

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It’s often claimed that racing generates technology that eventually finds its way into everyday road cars. As the old racing maxim goes: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” That’s rarer these days, but automotive supplier Schaeffler Group decided to prove the relevance of racing by stuffing electric motors from Formula E race cars into an Audi RS3 sedan.

 

Schaeffler is the main sponsor of the Audi Sport ABT Formula E team, so the company has access to the appropriate hardware. It took four electric motors from the FE01 race car and stuffed them into the RS3. The motors produce a combined 1,180 horsepower. That makes the 400 hp produced by the RS3’s stock 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five seem positively timid.

 

Dubbed 4ePerformance, the electric RS3 can reach 124 mph from a standstill in 7 seconds, according to Schaeffler. The company didn’t mention a 0 to 60 mph time, but we reckon the 4ePerformance can do the job a bit quicker than Audi’s claim of 3.9 seconds for the stock RS3.

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Formula E turned out to be an ideal field for the development of modern powertrain technologies. This was where Schaeffler engineers gathered valuable data and experiences that are transferred from the racetrack into the development of powertrains for production vehicles.

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At Schaeffler, the experiences gained in racing are fed into production development. The product range - of diverse voltage levels - extends from components for belt-driven starter-generator systems and hybrid modules to e-axles and electric wheel hub drives.

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Two motors share the same transmission housing respectively, thereby forming an electric "twin axle". This architecture makes wheel-selective torque control (torque vectoring) possible. The required energy is supplied by two batteries with a total capacity of 64 kWh.

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Source: digitaltrends.com

The second-oldest motor race in the United States, Pikes Peak International Hill Climb - only the Indy 500 predates it, took place last weekend. World witnessed French racing driver Romain Dumas and car maker Volkswagen stamp their authority on all 12.4-miles (19.99km) of the course, destroying its existing record and setting the first sub-eight minute time in race history. What makes the feat even more interesting is that the car in the record books is all-electric, marking perhaps the first time in major motorsport that a battery electric vehicle has beaten the internal combustion engine fair and square.

 

In retrospect, if any car has an advantage at Pikes Peak it's the EV. The start line is already at 9,390 feet (2,862m) above sea level; the finish line is an even higher 14,110 feet (4,300m), and much of the course is above the tree line, where there's 40 percent less oxygen to breathe. Consequently, internal combustion engines will lose power—significantly—as they climb the route, even with the aid of forced induction or crafty fuel mixtures.

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But electric motors don't care about partial pressures of oxygen, and these will output the same power and torque whether they're at the top of the mountain or the bottom. And with only one run per car allowed on race day, there's little reason to be anxious about range. Carry just enough battery to get you to the top, keep it in its optimum temperature window, et voila. It could result in history.

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In the lead-up to the 2018 race, VW's stated goal was clear—beat Rhys Millen's 2016 EV record. The EV accolade would be nice, but there's only one Pikes Peak record that has meant anything since the transition to all-tarmac: it's the one formerly set by Peugeot and Sebastien Loeb. With 875hp (kW) inside a car that weighed just 1,929lbs (875kg) - plus one of the world's very best drivers behind the wheel - a new record seemed certain as long as the weather cooperated, and it did. Loeb reached the top in 8:13.878, a time that many openly thought might never be bettered.

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The lithium-ion battery pack - approximately 43kWh in capacity - is bespoke to the I.D. R, and the cell chemistry has been optimized for power density and performance rather than energy density and range. The car has not been designed with tech transfer as the aim; the point was to set a new Pikes Peak record.

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In a hill climb, the competitors race one at a time against the clock. Here at Pikes Peak, that run order is determined during qualifying, with the bikes running from slowest to fastest, then the cars running from fastest to slowest. Dumas, therefore, would be the first four-wheel run on race day—his qualifying time was seven seconds faster over the same stretch of road as Loeb had been in 2013.

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Just under eight minutes later - 7:57:148 - the job was done. Dumas hadn't just beaten the EV record, he obliterated it. His new record bested the old electric-one by almost exactly a minute. Loeb's overall record had fallen, too, by almost 16 seconds. Job done, history made.

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Source: arstechnica.com