High-level international motorsports are already battery-included. How long before this technology comes to our racing circuits? The national administrator is already prepping.

TRICKLE out the pitlane to point when it arches right and downward, then smash the throttle, two sizzling laps with the speedo reading well north of road legal pace, another to cool down the brakes … next load of passengers please.

Demonstrating new product in extreme driving situations for Giltrap Group is all in a day’s work for Tim Martin and his team of experts at Downforce Auto Events and Training.

 Last year’s Porsche World Road Show was an eye-opener. Weissach on the road, but with a circuit-centric programme showing off the full performance potential of its fast, focussed fare, looked beyond fossil fuels.

Hampton Downs was an ohm ground for the make’s fully electric model, Taycan. A Green drive designed to see red. Having the four-seater running as the primary hot lap car might have seemed a big call. At end of each day, participant cars are carefully checked. Tyres changes are daily. But often, so too are brake pads. On occasion, discs too.

For the Taycan? Nothing. It laid down 10 days’ hard and hot yakka, but stayed cool.  Porsche engineering is second to none, but this was something else again, Martin says.

This durability has also shown with Taycan’s Audi equivalent, the e-tron RS GT – which, as you read this, Downforce is demonstrating on ice at the Show Farm, aka the Southern Hemishphere Testing Ground, above the Cadrona Valley - and Jaguar’s i-Pace which, Martin reminds, has already been involved in a bespoke international category, supporting Formula E single seater electrics.

Are all performance EVs as good? He can’t say very one will necessarily be, but of those he knows he offers: “I’ve been massively impressed. We’ve run big events and basically the car doesn’t go near the workshop, customers don’t see faults … they’ve been really impressive.”

Such dynamic integrity and hardiness is a clear step up from the trad ‘electric performance’ feats of straight-line sprint pace that has pumped Teslas’ status (though, to be fair to Elon Musk’s team, it did establish a Nurburgring record time, since beaten by Porsche, with a Model S Plaid), but Martin isn’t really surprised.

The brands his business works with are renowned for engineering excellence and have issued countless combustion cars up to sustaining extreme track punishment. Performance EVs are built to same if not even higher standard and it’s only going to get better, he believes.

“In terms of a car for a track day your modern performance electric vehicle definitely can foot it with the best of them, in many senses. Yes, they can be heavier, but that can also bring advantage, with the low centre of gravity for instance.

“I think we are about to see more leaps … where you will see some big advances in terms of the instant torque and raw acceleration.”

This expert view about performance EVs having cojones for hard lapping is a positive reinforcement for the national motorsport authority, which is laying groundwork for the next step, competition.

MotorSport New Zealand, the Kapiti Coast-based affiliate of the world motorsport authority, the FIA, is deep into planning for motorsports plugging into the national grid.

It’s a future look running ahead of current trend; as things stand, electrics are rarely seen on track, not even at track days for road cars. There’s potential owners are keen, but event organisers and venues less so.

The country’s largest car club offers typical sentiment. The 400-plus member Manawatu Car Club, whose home turf is Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon, is open-minded, but is  awaiting clarity on all the obvious ‘what ifs’ before it gives a full Green light. Manfeild itself has not expressed view and has no sport-specific infrastructure in place for EVs, though there a low-power single car public recharging point has been placed in the facility’s public parking area.

MSNZ understands reasons for reticence. But it also appreciates the world is turning toward electric motoring, at accelerating pace, and there’s no avoiding that.

How will it kick off? Perhaps fittingly, Green shift will begin with grassroots simply because the highest-level national classes, which peak with the premier single seater Toyota Racing Series that springboards up-and-coming drivers into international success, because they are governed by regulation giving no allowance for electric at present.

MSNZ chief executive Elton Goonan instead sees potential for revolution at club level competitions, in which ‘run-what-you-brung’ is well established and bent for innovation well known. Full electrics, mild and plug-in hybrids, either as conversions of existing cars or ground-up one-offs … MSNZ expects to see all that.

“Electric and hybrid vehicles are going to be a big part of our future. There is already a growing interest from our competitors who want to use them for competition. We’ve heard some interesting ideas.”

This isn’t a case of a new tech bumping off an old; the authority is sure traditional combustion engines will maintain relevance in the sport for years yet. However, it also believes the swing toward battery cars could well see them having bespoke categories within five years.

Considering a technology that clearly presents different safety and technical requirements raises obvious issues, but as much as EVs present specific risks and regardless that acceptance ultimately lays with event organisers and venues – at present, two of the eight established national circuits won’t allow EVs and, for others, they’re a grey area – there’s no ignoring them.

Electric vehicles have an ever-growing presence nationally and are increasingly common in motorsport globally, Goonan reminds.

The bespoke categories of Formula E and the off-shoot Extreme, which respectively involve Kiwis Mitch Evans and Emma Gilmour, are now established. Last year the FIA announced an electric GR competition. Electric karting is a thing. Formula One, and the world rally and endurance (which involves another New Zealander, Brendon Hartley) championships and European touring car racing all have hybrid drivetrains.

First taste of the international recipe will come with Rally NZ over September 29-October 2.  Local scrutineers and marshals have to undertake a specific FIA training programme. Spectators can expect to receive advisories; the old days of lending a hand to push a stricken car back onto the road are suddenly a lot more complex.

Guidelines drawn up after consultation with a range of experts in vehicle and battery design, fire and emergency services, member clubs and car distributors circulated to clubs last November have been reasonably well-received. Questions have been raised. That’s fine. MSNZ wants this to be an educative process. Now training of rescue and medical workers in the use of an overseas-developed specialist emergency response gear is kicking off. 

“These (guidelines) will evolve as we all gain more experience in the use of EVs in a competition environment,” says Goonan. “We encourage clubs and licence holders to work with us and it’s an ongoing process, but there’s been good interest and feedback.”

A FIA grant has allowed MSNZ to purchase five personal protective equipment packs, each costing $5000, to ensure rescuers are protected in the case of a shock or fire.

 The packs including a helmet, heavy-duty gloves, a defibrillator, high voltage isolation poles and rescue hooks – designed to pull people away from cars if they've been temporarily paralysed by an electric shock – will be loaned to clubs whenever they accept electric vehicles in their events.

MSNZ’s role is about ensuring everyone, not least competitors themselves, have clear understanding of their responsibilities, with safety paramount.

Some projects and proposals seem a little too adventuresome – a proposal to run a car on multiple radio control car battery sets and a one-make series for early Nissan Leafs have been problematic – but there’s more promise from a South Island group trying to develop a single seater EV. There’s also Sebastian Steel’s Ghost EV, a homebuilt hill climb car developed in Lower Hutt, and the big headline maker - rally star Haydon Paddon’s Hyundai Kona, created in Cromwell, whose big-name backers include the Korean marque’s national distributor.

Having shown walloping pace in demonstration at several high-profile hillclimbs and rally sprints, an upgrade to a larger battery conceivably gives it strength to involve in the national rally championship, in which Paddon has shone in a petrol Hyundai i20.

So, good to go? Not quite, says Goonan. Balance of performance requires consideration. “A big part of our thing is fairness. Once you start running petrol and EV in the same class, you then have the equivalency factor to work out”.

Beyond that, until proven, it will likely have to steer clear of a natural habitat for rally cars, forests, due to fire risk. The South Canterbury round is the only one in the national series that doesn’t run through wooded areas; the 2022 edition was last month. At this point the car might have to await next year’s return.

How big is that risk? EV road cars’ batteries are well-protected, and so too is the Kona’s, but there’s still acknowledgement that even if the chance of a fire is low, if it does occur a lithium ion battery blaze is all but impossible to extinguish. 

Suffocating with inert gases is ineffective because, being a chemical blaze, it does not require oxygen. Vast amounts of water can help, but having that in readiness is obviously not always practicable even at a permanent arena.

Towing and touching is challenging, for fear of electrocution. In that scenario, EVs giving those who come into contact with them an electric shock if the power source isn't properly grounded is a risk that won’t simply be addressed by the emergency packs. 

Even when a fire is controlled, prevailing wisdom is that the surrounding area must be checked for discarded battery cells that could have been propelled from the battery pack by an explosion and might spontaneously ignite later.

MSNZ believes dedicated competition EVs will be required to be fitted with an emergency stop switch to isolate the general circuit breaker and high voltage components.

Status indicators could yet also become the norm on outright racing vehicles, borrowing a similar system to F1, Formula E and the WRC where a red or green light will be illuminated to show whether the vehicle is safe to touch or not.

Also, MSNZ intends series production and fully-fledged racing EVs will have to hold a motorsport log book, with the ultimate aim of gathering more data for incident management and assisting venues in understanding what facility upgrades may be required. Beyond all that, Goonan says, competitors will be expected to have to answers to every question about safety implementations that might reasonably be expected.

There’s one more challenge. Fuelling. While at least one national circuit now has electric car chargers on site, these are designed to deliver a much lower rate of replenishment that would be useful in a fast-turnaround competitive situation.

A racing environment in which multiple cars might be chasing fast, but intense, recharging between races clearly requires a much stronger solution, with much higher loadings and direct current charging.

A taste of that scenario came with Porsche’s roadshow. Preparation for that included installation of a trackside transformer, from which the peak draw was estimated to be greater than the absolute load the entire venue – apartments included - would have used on any race weekend.

*The author is a Manawatu Car Club member competing in the Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon-based national series for the petrol-reliant Mazda MX-5 sports car.

Images from: Logan West, Resonate, Chris Dillon, FIA, Richard Bosselman.