Stupid Question..

"Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW." (aya-yu) 09/19/2014 at 18:15 • Filed to: None

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So, i was watching the re-run of those so-called Formula E (I haven't watch the full race), and i thought "Why they bother fitting the car with gearbox?"

Seriously i think those car would be faster without gearbox, and the race would be kinda cool since it's different than anything else with a gearbox. Take a Model S on track in our racing sim and you'll see my point. It'll be like looking at a full-size RC car, racing.

Here's the re-run if you're interested:

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 09/19/2014 at 18:18

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If it didn't have a transmission then it could be only really quick with a slow top speed or really slow to accelerate with a very high top speed.

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 09/19/2014 at 18:21

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Well, so far i haven't seen the car break 200km/h..

Model S can reach 210km/h.

tromoly > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 09/19/2014 at 18:26

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Common knowledge that electric motors generate higher torque at low RPMs, shifting gives a chance to lower motor RPMs to have "better" acceleration power.

That, and having a motor that spins at very, very high RPMs gets very expensive as the motors get larger. Less RPM requirement = cheaper motors.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 09/19/2014 at 18:27

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A Model S also won't do 0-60 in under 3 seconds

cnessel27 > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 09/19/2014 at 18:28

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I don't think an electric motor designed to spin up to that speed without a gear box wouldn't to be reliable. Running max accell to max rpm to drop back down and repeat, for that amount of time I could imagine that motor taking a beating.

Only got to watch the start. Did they try that tweet thing?

GhostZ > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 09/19/2014 at 18:30

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The Model S has a gearbox. It's a fixed-ratio gear, because it's far cheaper that way.

It's likely because the type of engine being used in the Formula E cars is the same as a P1, which is designed to work with multiple gears already. This means it's torque curve probably isn't flat or well-defined (at least, not as well-defined as the much heavier heavier, lower-RPM Tesla motor) because it's going for peak torque over a narrower operating range to save weight.

Instead of re-designing an entire new engine that would require a fixed-gear like the Model S (and possibly gaining that weight savings back in through a heavier engine despite the lighter fixed-gear transmission) using what's available and allowing the drivers more distinction by their choice of gear is far more interesting and weight-effective.

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > cnessel27 09/19/2014 at 18:35

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So far i've gone trough 15 lap, and unfortunately one of those tweet boost user bruno senna has crashed on early stages, so nobody use them yet..

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > tromoly 09/19/2014 at 18:36

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That's very good point.

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > GhostZ 09/19/2014 at 18:38

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I thought the tesla has similar CVT gearbox like the Prius.
Thanks for the explanation!

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 09/19/2014 at 18:38

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But that's i think because of the gearbox also because of the E-cars are very light.