While the Tesla Model 3 makes plenty of waves in the news, it’s a different kind of electric vehicle I’m interested in this weekend. Formula E has arrived once again into the port city of Long Beach, California. It’s just up the road from where I live, so I’ll be heading on up to hang out and learn more about this sport.
ABT and Volkswagen will serve as my guides, and I’ll be sitting down to chat with proud pilots of these electron-sucking vehicles. Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi are set to run these quiet machines through the road course that a week later will play host to much louder, smoke-making drift machines.
So before I head out to the track and chat with the team, what would you like to know about this sport? About the cars? About the drivers and the team? Ask away in the comments below and I’ll try to have an answer for you next week.
By Jeff Glucker
Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff
Make sure you have ear protection. The whine from the electric motors is more painful to me than the raw sound of petrol engines.
See if you can get anyone to speak candidly (probably anonymously) about FanBoost.
I think the E-cars are kinda cool. Concept especially. And it has to be part of the future for autosports.
But I really hate the clacking noise of the energy recovery system/ It sounds like somethings broken every time they slow down, and it isn’t a nice sound at all. Being pretty quiet under acceleration doesn’t bother me much.
But I would outlaw any type of fake motor or exhaust sounds.
On a scale of 1 to Nikola, how good is FE to watch in person? I like the concept (even though batteries are old technology), but watching on TV sometimes doesn’t translate the speed very well.