By Jeff Glucker
Our friend Jason Torchinsky is everything we love about Jalopnik. He’s a perfect bridge between the old-school website we remember and where it exists today. And if you haven’t been following along, he’s having a grand old time with his Chinese-made electric vehicle; the Changli. Jason has been documenting every aspect of his ownership experience, and now he’s cranking things up a notch. The Changli has hit the racetrack.
Jason was invited by the folks behind Motorsport 4the Masses to attend an autocross event. They set him up with slick custom door numbers and set him loose. To make the trip around the rather short course, Jason needs to keep the accelerator pegged the entire time. His Changli will hit 20 mph during the run. Is it enough to make the rest of the competition take notice?
Not really.
Jason says his pace is about a full minute off the rest of the pack. That’s a lot. Especially when everyone else is running times well under a minute. Regardless, Changli pilot Torchinksy remains undaunted and heads back out to try and improve on his early 1:43 lap time. Can he do it? Does the Changli have enough juice to make it happen?
Click play on that video to find out. And head over to Jalopnik to see more pics and read more about the event and the machine.
Ross Ballot 
Kamil Kaluski
The Changli articles and videos are the best that has happened to Jalopnik in years. Jason’s punny, low key humour is fantastic, and he always keeps focus on whatever he reviews. The car is very interesting, too – they showed some Chinese YouTubers absolutely wrecking a few cheap EVs on a test track, which was brilliant. Couldn’t find that video just now.
He was also excellent on Shift Talkers this past season. Jason is a delight.
offtopic, but is there a date for the next season?
Finally, someone with a sensible approach to automobiles.
Finally, someone with a sensible approach to performance automobiles.
I don’t see a reason for that distinction. All automobiles are performance automobiles.
In the performance art sense?
In the ‘making quite a performance’ sense.
After following the Changli story on Jalopnik and watching this video, one question does come to mind.
When is MD Harrell getting a Changli, to complement his existing vehicle fleet? ( And by it’s existence, compliment his fleet?)
After being burned by an unexpected change in my state’s legal definition of a moped right around the time I got my Lyman Electric Quad, I’m hesitant about acquiring a vehicle for which I don’t see at least a sporting chance of street-legality. I’m not convinced it or its ilk would meet Washington’s requirements for a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle. (Yes, I’ve checked.)
It just looks like a golf cart with doors and windscreen, and windscreen wipers.
Washington now has certain… expectations concerning the structure of the body for current-production NEVs. “Golf carts with turn signals” used to be okay-ish but not these days. One more reason for me to stick with older vehicles in general.
Sticking with older vehicles sounds like a safe position.
Put a gas strut and some plastic brackets on, and register it as a forklift?
Your Xebra?
The Xebra was no trouble at all, at least from a legal perspective. Not only did it benefit from the rule that “three wheels equals motorcycle” but Zap had already done the heavy lifting to satisfy the Feds. Well, at least until someone in the NHTSA noticed that the brakes didn’t quite meet the applicable standards, but that was only officially an issue for the later, steel-bodied examples.
I made my comment in response to “All automobiles are performance automobiles”.
I thought it inspired you to perform trips to the trash/recycling receptacle, but not much else.
Ah. It would be nice if Disqus supported more levels of indentation to make such things clear, as the previous system did.
Anyway, the Xebra put on quite a performance in the act of being unloaded from my trailer, testing the limits of its steering to just beyond the breaking point. After that it never had a chance to explore its full potential, for example by receiving a VW swap to put even less weight over its front wheel:
https://images.craigslist.org/00B0B_jAcK3XzoJUq_0ew0jm_600x450.jpg
https://olympic.craigslist.org/pts/d/neilton-gambler-500-project-car/7205697833.html
The steering must have misheard you discussing braking, and tried to fit in.
The other end of the spectrum ~~
https://youtu.be/oytty4HTAcY
I never tire of watching that video. I liked the ‘Stang better without the twin turbos sticking out of the hood.
Also..
I like how he’s so baffled by the controls and has to be tutored while sitting behind the wheel in park. That will be me in 10 years, wondering where the damned crank is for the window.
The speed actually surprised me, given the hp figure. I’m curious about the torque rating of the motor, but couldn’t find any specs.
I heard Jason talk about this car, and it doesn’t look like I had imagined; I was thinking of something much more conventional and more like a ‘real car’