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Post by duncan on Apr 28, 2016 20:56:29 GMT 11
After the entries of a Telsa Roadster and a converted electric Radical in the last round of the 2015 series, in 2016 the NSW Hillclimb championships created an electric car class…..so Kel and I figured it would be rude not to enter and try and take out the State Championship. The series is 8 rounds across NSW and there are 50-100 cars entered each round. For those not familiar, Hillclimbing is one of the oldest forms of motorsport involving a short run up a tight and steep track, one car at a time, against a stopwatch. This is coverage of the Cooperabung round from 2 years ago (last year was cancelled due to cylone) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4150MAEb4NE&spfreload=5 , this is incar of a similar power and speed hatchback www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e8seNIWDzY at the Cooperabung track The event calendar for the year is below, with the first 3 rounds run (yes, and won, by us in electric class BLCC 5/03/16 Round 1 Bathurst, The Esses BLCC. 6/03/16 Round 2 Bathurst, Mt. Straight KSCC 24/04/16 Round 3 Kempsey, Mt Cooperabung GSCC 12/06/16 Round 4 Grafton, Mountainview TSCC 17/07/16 Round 5 Tamworth, Oakburn Park MGNew. 7/08/16 Round 6 Ringwood Park, Raymond Terrace SDMA 25/09/16 Round 7 Canberra Hillclimb WSCC 23/10/16 Round 8 Huntley Hill, Dapto, Wollongong Spectators are always welcome, and free, so if you are intrigued come along and check out a round Outright wins are absolutely no chance in an 80kw/1500kg road car up against a field led by an F1 engineer in 400kw, 300kg car, but we are holding our own and having a great time. We are probably not the lowest power car there (there are a couple of minis and reasonably standard datsuns) but we would for sure have the lowest power/weight in the field which is a problem when the job is to go fast up a hill. We do of course enjoy the great torque off the line and out of corners and reasonable/predictable handling; a mix which was particularly effective last round where a combination of horrible wet weather and one a single run (due to a nasty incident) meant I was 16th outright in a field of 50 With the average location >200klm away and the furthest 600klm to Grafton we were always going to have to trailer the car to each event. Running flat out up a hill empties the battery surprisingly quickly, with the 9x 1min runs at Bathurst’s mountain straight taking us from 80% to low battery warning… Hillclimbing in particular has a culture of technical creativity with lots of home build and highly modified cars, so most people know what a LEAF is and a very interested in technical details….they have also been generally surprised with its results. It is almost certain dedicated builds of electric Hillclimb cars will appear over the next few years because the torque is a huge benefit and the battery load to run a couple of minutes at a time is nice and light. So far we have taken out 3x 1st in class for me and 3x 2nd in class, 1x 2nd outright lady and 1x3rd outright lady which is a great start to the year….here’s hoping there is more to come
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Post by duncan on Apr 28, 2016 21:10:38 GMT 11
nice view from the Esses at Bathurst (yes, sorry about the iphone) trophy swag from bathurst lovely weather for Kel at Cooperabung poor old scruitineers were given a long list of requirements to make dangerous new electric magic safer...
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Post by duncan on Apr 28, 2016 21:23:34 GMT 11
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2016 17:10:05 GMT 11
What's lady gotta do with racing?
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Post by EVangelist on Apr 29, 2016 17:15:39 GMT 11
Running flat out up a hill empties the battery surprisingly quickly, with the 9x 1min runs at Bathurst’s mountain straight taking us from 80% to low battery warning… That kind or rapid discharge doesn't really surprise me (I mean, flat-out runs up Bathurst mountain!!), but does the battery get hot? What does the battery temperature gauge get to? And would it lead to premature bar loss?
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Post by duncan on Apr 29, 2016 20:00:28 GMT 11
hmm don't seem to be able to multi quote on here... What's lady gotta do with racing? lots of the rounds have both Ladies and Rookie trophies to encourage new entrants. EVangelist - That kind or rapid discharge doesn't really surprise me (I mean, flat-out runs up Bathurst mountain!!), but does the battery get hot? What does the battery temperature gauge get to? And would it lead to premature bar loss? No movement in the temp gauge compared to normal, I'll try and remember to check on leaf spy next time. We've lost 2 bars at about 25,000klm from memory so I'd say we are middle of the road...No particular reason to think 8 days of hard work in it's lifetime would make a noticeable difference
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Post by southernvolt on May 5, 2016 2:18:20 GMT 11
Thanks for sharing. Great rad, and good job on taking the Leaf. I've been toying with the idea myself but might wait until I've got a Tesla model 3 before entering . One day I'll get to go watch Pikes peak......
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Post by duncan on Jun 16, 2016 21:16:35 GMT 11
OK, we did round 4 at Grafton last weekend and had another awesome time. After a damn long tow up the coast through holiday traffic and hundreds of klm of road work we made it to Grafton in 1 piece, overnighted and headed to the track. It's amazing fun place with the original very steep section at the bottom up to a tight go kart track at the top. Great mix of steep, tight and fast over about 12 corners which was very complex to do well in just 4 runs. This gives a good idea of how steep the first section is, I walked it last year and it leads to deep breaths..... Overall I came in 46th and Kel 56th out of 60 cars so we weren't anywhere near as far up the list as the outrageous 16th at Kempsey....but considering what we're up against I'm still very happy with the result. I'm leading Electric class and even better Kel took the lead in Ladies class as well. We actually got the video set up this time, so turn up the sound and enjoy the run: There's still a lot of interest in the car, from both fellow competitors and the organising club (as they pointed out, a LEAF is not a common sight in Grafton....). They pointed out we were "energising" the competition , and taking a "lead" Next round in 5 weeks at Tamworth
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Post by duncan on Jun 16, 2016 21:19:08 GMT 11
Oh, and this is how one of our fellow competitors improved the video.....
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Post by rusdy on Jun 17, 2016 15:43:49 GMT 11
Oh, and this is how one of our fellow competitors improved the video..... Way too noisy!!
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Post by duncan on Aug 4, 2016 20:31:41 GMT 11
A bit slow....but we made it up to Tamworth 3 weeks ago to the flattest hillclimb I've ever seen! Since Kel is leading the Ladies champs she got all serious and dragged us up there for saturday practice as well. We did need a charge overnight since there was 6 runs each in practice, the club were very welcoming and didn't have any trouble sharing some juice. Obligatory pic at the golden (electric) guitar Here's Kel's best run of the day....do you think she was happy? this track suited the leaf better as it the lack of top end power didn't hurt so much, while the tight corners let the extra torque make a difference. The times were very consistent for me and Kel was happy with her improvement over the runs. Next round is this weekend at Raymond Terrace, the combination of a tight track and potential wet weather should see us go OK again....
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Post by duncan on Aug 4, 2016 20:52:55 GMT 11
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Post by Feng on Aug 4, 2016 23:44:53 GMT 11
Very cool Duncan! Just curious, how often do you charge on the day and does the battery get hot much?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2016 9:31:25 GMT 11
What's that sound when going round corners?
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Post by rusdy on Aug 5, 2016 11:15:51 GMT 11
Loose coins?
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Post by duncan on Aug 5, 2016 21:04:00 GMT 11
yeah horrible isn't it....pretty sure its the key in the centre cup holders, we'll be seeing if a stubby holder fixes it this weekend Fengster....we've never needed to charge during the day, although at the Bathurst/Mountain Straight hillclimb we had VLB warning as we drove onto the trailer at the end of the day. We do charge overnight at rounds like this one with practice on Sat and racing on Sun. I'm going to try and remember to check the battery temps this weekend but I've never noticed a problem
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2016 9:35:13 GMT 11
I'm doing targawest 11-14 August Hopefully all on electric with the stages Rex for liaison.
Saturday will be the challenge.
One tesla owner was approached but said that car was too new. Maybe next year.
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nogas
EV Tyre Kicker
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LEAF OWNER?: Yes
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Post by nogas on Aug 16, 2016 22:56:36 GMT 11
Any mods to the car aside from the wheels and tyres?
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Post by duncan on Aug 18, 2016 21:41:09 GMT 11
Hey g4qber I responded to your post on AEVA, great to see you giving it a go. have you done a rally before? I take it you are in the tour/limited/no roll cage section?
nogas I'd love to know how to modify it for more power (I'm sure it's just a software tweak away....) but all we've done is put some grippy tyres on it (dunlop sport maxx) and the suspension is blitz zr which also made a big different. It would be easily the least modified car entered in the series
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Post by duncan on Aug 18, 2016 22:18:39 GMT 11
So we completed round 5 last weekend at Ringwood Park near Raymond Terrace. We once again headed up the day before for practice....arriving to heavy showers. Kel was prepared with purpose specific race footwear while stickering up the car.... Due to the crap weather most of the cars there stayed parked....I reckon that's crazy when we have a car and they have an empty racetrack so Kel did 5 runs and I did 9 back to back until they had to stop timing me because the system hadn't been designed to track more than 8 runs in a day . Oh and the other reason was we were down to 2 bars and were intending to drive, not trailer, the 20klm back to our accommodation And Feng this is the answer about how hot the battery gets when you pull 80% charge out of it in about an hour....And yes, the GOM though we would only get 8klm out of 2 bars by then We had an interesting evening, stayed at a beautiful airbnb place on the top of a ridge near Seaham. Awesome self contained accommodation, great views and a dog to pat, what more could we want except a way to charge the Leaf for the next day, right? Well....these guys are off grid for power and primarily use solar to charge batteries. We had discussed and agreed beforehand but I suspect they didn't really understand just how much power a dead flat leaf battery needs to recharge. As it turns out their batteries were only at about 20% when we got there as it had been pouring all week leaving them low to start with, and the generator ended up kicking in after about an hour of charging (yep, the dirtiest battery full of power we've ever charged). But the hosts were great, interested in the car (although as old mustang fans they weren't impressed by the lack of noise while driving up the hill....) and it was an excellent experience After the fill overnight, this is what the GOM thought we could get out of our 100% charge. Glad it was a little pessimistic. Also interesting side effect of charging on top of a hill overnight is no regen (all that wasted power!) on the 2klm drive down the steep hill to the road So onto the racing, it was a great track for the Leaf, I ended up 51st and Kel 61st, and I think we would have done better still on race tyres like everyone else as it was very tight (great for the Leaf's strength in pulling out of corners). Here's my quickest run Sadly neither the local electric SR8 Radical, nor the Telsa roadster that came to their last round turned up, on the bright side that gives me 5 wins from 5 rounds and an unbeatable lead for the state championship. Now 51st doesn't sound that awesome, but I'm really happy considering the following were behind me (and we were almost certainly on the worst tyres of anyone there): Mini (sports sedan), MG-F, Lotus Elise, BMW 330, Toyota MR2, Ford Anglia (Sports Sedan), Toyota 86, Nissan Pulsar SSS, Commodore So I ended up with the class win, and Kel acheived the amazing result of actually winning $$$ through motorsport! (she scored $20 for being the 3rd most consistent driver on the day). I've been racing for 20 years and never won a bloody cent! (although I've spent plenty of cents...) Next round is at SDMA on Sutton Rd in Canberra 25-Sept, then the last round at Huntley in Wollongong in October.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2016 9:09:14 GMT 11
haven't done rally before. quite a steep learning curve. couldn't have done it without the GTi Performance Racing Team Alex also was pivotal. pics found here www.facebook.com/groups/EVSpotting/I'm thinking of leaving the stickers on till next year's targa. BMW loses power a bit after first 5 mins. eg. first lap at RAC DTEC track can do 130kmh at end of 1/4 mile straight but subsequent laps can only do 120kmh so it is not me but the car that lets me down on lap times in the WA sprints, which are currently on hold due to noise issues.
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Post by EVangelist on Aug 21, 2016 11:15:11 GMT 11
Duncan - I like the 33km GOM with 9 bars of charge! That works out as an efficiency of nearly 600 Wh/km!!
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Post by 4wardthinking on Aug 30, 2016 13:23:07 GMT 11
nogas I'd love to know how to modify it for more power (I'm sure it's just a software tweak away....) but all we've done is put some grippy tyres on it (dunlop sport maxx) and the suspension is blitz zr which also made a big different. It would be easily the least modified car entered in the series[/quote][ Seems there is little homoligation to track regulations!. First thing is lower profile tyres, I'd go max 195's, at 35% would make acceleration improvements. Keep the HV charged as high and much as you can, it's a mess in there with so many cells under deep discharge.. Every Amp you get is more power you can put down. Dump all the weight you can. The lead acid counterweight battery. Find a lower weight item. Glove box out... In fact anything not required, leave it off, even brake disk back protectors. Now I'm still waiting for my adapters etc to get into the cars control systems, I'll keep you posted on progress, but I'm almost certain there will be a tweek or two we can throw at it. Reduce power to weight burden, reduce the tyres rolling circumference/radius a little to increase acceleration, and we will get a "mod" on the car too. It might not sound a lot, but on time trials, it can get you a place over another competitor. All sneaky & easy to miss!, and bolster the "from the street to track" label. Remove anything you can. Under the hood.. Plastic surrounds and un-necessaries anywhere you see them!. If you sit in a Rally group a, it's so uncomfortable, but a kilo here and there adds up to a win. Even sneak off two wheel nuts per wheel if you can. The suspension can move and put the tres on the road faster with less reciprocating weight(hence the brake disk backing plate removal), and put the power onto the road, less small tyre spins, and better handling!!. I'm going to be at the Dapto stage for certain. Be sure to make a big reminder on here for all as it gets closer will you?.
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Post by duncan on Sept 22, 2016 20:24:36 GMT 11
haha you are taking it much more seriously than I am. or to put it differently, if we were 0.5 sec behind another electric car in the class I would do all that and more, in particular moving to avon slicks which are the shizz in hillclimb.
Next round is on Sunday at Fairburn Park in Canberra. I dragged the LEAF down here Tuesday night (I work in Canberra Wed-Fri each week) and all ready to go.
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Post by Feng on Sept 22, 2016 22:20:48 GMT 11
There are DC fast chargers in Canberra but you might need a card to use them. Have you looked into that?
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Post by 4wardthinking on Sept 22, 2016 23:01:13 GMT 11
I'm slowly progressing with the cheeky tweek, and you will be first to get in the know if it comes to fruition. I have read your posts here, and the cheers are with you. If I get chance, like many others I guess, we'll be waving the flag for you. It's a massive thing you are doing here. I have a contact I'm slowly working on at Omori, plus another in the line. How far can you alter the car is the question ....without causing too much attention?.
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Post by 4wardthinking on Sept 22, 2016 23:07:18 GMT 11
This is a seemingly odd one, but sometimes a bag of sand over the right corner can help keep more traction on corners, which sets you up for a good exit line, and despite added weight, it can help on over-all time. If you can get to a weigh-bridge, and chance to corner by corner balance, it does help..... just sometimes the owners get a little grumpy while you get it weighed!.
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Post by duncan on Sept 23, 2016 21:37:50 GMT 11
yeah feng I saw those, but figured the safest thing is to just charge it before leaving and not use it. I don't mind a bit of experimentation but the reality of an 8 round state championship is that risking missing a round because I assumed a charger would be available is just not worth it....
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Post by duncan on Nov 19, 2016 17:38:45 GMT 11
Sooo....haven't dropped by to update this for a while, so there are 2 weekends to report on by now.
Round 7 was at Sutton Road in Canberra. By now the approach to the weekend is straightforward, although for this particular round there was no practice on the Sat which means Sunday was our first time to see the track.
This track was really interesting compared to some of the others and it had it all in terms of fun. It's a relatively long loop for a hillclimb with a steep hill section, a couple of downhills and even a fairly fast blind corner for fun. Here's a lap:
While video is never really much good at showing how steep a slope is, what is obvious is how slowly the LEAF accelerates up the hill. As always it pulls out of slow corners beautifully, but as this track doesn't have many of these we weren't able to get far on our advantages which means we ended up 44th and 48th overall.
anyway, it was still an excellent fun track, and another electric car lap record
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Post by duncan on Nov 19, 2016 17:46:53 GMT 11
Which brings us to the last round (8) which was run at the Huntley Hillclimb near Dapto. Like Kempsey, Huntley is one of the old style hillclimbs which is a closed road now used as a race track, in this case it was the truck access for a mine on top of the hill. It is a very simple and short track with only a couple of turns and a very steep section....after the Canberra round we weren't too hopeful about putting down amazing times. Kel had the first run up the hill in the LEAF and came back saying "I'm not sure if I needed to break at all during that run".....interesting challenge, I thought..... So I gave it a go, and sure enough with the steepness of the hill we never got up enough speed to even need to break on the track. Top speed at the end of the 35 second run was only 130kl/h. In the 5 runs I did the times varied by 0.3s which is remarkably consistent, but also a little boring when you can't do anything to get there quicker In the end we were 39th and 41st overall Here is Kel's quickest run, 0.4 off my best which she was very happy with
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