Volkswagen's All Electric ID.R Lap Record at the Nordschleife

[Cyteless]

https://youtu.be/9iZY5IMn0wg

Exciting stuff for racing fans and technology enthusiasts. Battery life is really the limiting factor with these sorts of cars, but with this and Mission H24's hydrogen car being developed, there looks to be a good future for emissions free racing and car technology in general. I really hope Mazda can develop their hydrogen rotary engine in the future as well.

[Paul-Simon]

I feel like a 2-speed setup would improve the lap time considerably

[Cyteless]

My understanding was that because electric motors don't have a power band that they have to operate within as with a combustion engine that a single gear was enough for them. How would a second gear help? I don't know how torque/power relationships work with electric motors.

[OvB]

I've always thought electric motors tore up gears. At least that's the trouble Tesla ran into in the early days when the Roadster was supposed to have a 2-speed gearbox. They opted instead for a single speed gearbox. But that was 10 years ago so technology is probably better. And in a race car you can get away with using super expensive materials.

[Paul-Simon]

If you watch the video, you'll see it tops out between 250 and 270, which it reaches almost immediately - it's just coasting at this speed at the straights.
It clearly has the track headroom and the aerodynamic stability to deal with higher speeds.

Electric motor torque dies off at high RPMs which is why it gets stuck at that speed. A taller gear engaging at over 240 km/h could, for instance, bring it to something like 350 km/h or whatever they believe is safe for the straight sections.

[Cyteless]

Hmm, I had thought the limiting factor for the ID.R was massive amounts of drag since it was originally made for Pikes Peak.