Ace’s rally push goes electric

Hayden Paddon is first on the road with an electric rally car.

images Geoff Ridder

IN a variation on the theme of ``build it and they will come’’, rally ace Hayden Paddon faces a ``build it and they work out where you can take it’’ scenario with the fully electric Hyundai Kona rally car he unveiled today.

Paddon’s goal of competing in rallies with an electric car of comparable performance to modern day combustion engine gravel racers is not just a technology challenge. His pioneering programme means working with the sport’s local governing body to position the car in competition.

For the short term that means demonstration runs starting with a few quick blasts around the rallysprint course at the high-profile Battle of Jack’s Ridge event on Sunday November 14.

It will be a very public debut for a car that has only just completed two days of filming work.

By the end of November MotorSport New Zealand hopes to have published its first regulations for electric vehicles. Paddon’s hoping his car helps provide a framework for those rules.

``At the moment it’s going to be demonstrations,’’ said Paddon.

``Going forward we know we have to work with MotorSport New Zealand – one on the safety and two on the performance parameters to actually make it fit in.

``We have started that discussion but the key thing is nobody knows and we need the car running to see what it’s capable of. That gives us a benchmark to work from.

``I’d like to think within two years we can have it accepted within motorsport events including full-length rallies. In the short term we know people want it and it’s good for the sport.’’

There are few question marks over the performance potential of the car created by a small team of seven at Paddon Rallysport Group headquarters at Highlands Park.

In its current guise the car has electric motors and two-speed transmissions front and rear. Each motor has peak power of 200kW and about 360Nm of torque. Paddon says the car is geared to reach 240km/h and can accelerate from 0-100km/h in a little over 3secs.

It’s possible to lift that performace adding another motor both front and rear to double the output to 800kW. Paddon says his initial goal is to tune the car so its comparable to the AP4-spec 4WD Turbo rally cars currently competing in New Zealand.

The EV is a little heavier at 1400kg but the weight is positioned low in the chassis of the Kona.

The battery electric powertrain has been developed from technology supplied by Austrian company STARD. It features advanced safety and control systems.

``It’s very similar to a Formula-E battery. It’s not like an OEM battery and it has a fire system built into it.

``If there was a problem, we have so much control technology in the car to shut things down before anything goes wrong. In the worst-case scenario, it’s got the emergency flood connectors. You flood the battery to stop the car from going on fire.

``The safety in the car is quite is quite phenomenal. It’s not like taking an OEM EV car, putting a roll cage in it and making it a club car. That’s a lot higher risk.

``That’s where it’s difficult for Motorsport NZ going forward, because it’s almost like two sets of regulations between an OEM car and a be-spoke motorsport design EV car.’’

Ahead of development work in the coming months, Paddon believes the tuning the software will outweigh the challenges of mechanical fine-tuning and durability.

``It’s all software. Mechanically the car is way simpler. There are less working parts and it’s strong and simple,’’ he said.

``Mechanically it’s pretty sound. We’ve done two filming days now with a brand-new car and had zero mechanical problems. If you had a combustion car, imagine the amount of teething problems you would have had?

``But we can have bugs in the software. We have to go through all the programming and tuning and that’s a whole different kettle of fish.’’

In order to have the range to complete a full rally, Paddon’s team has created a quick-change battery solution.

``We want to do battery changes. We are not interested in charging on an event,’’ Paddon said at today’s launch.

``We have designed the car for quick battery changes – five minutes we can change a battery.’’

He’s not saying how big the battery is but confirmed it has a smaller storage capacity than the 64kWh battery in the standard Kona electric road car.

The team is working in scale at the moment with enough battery power for short runs at full performance. From there it can calculate the size of battery needed before locking into that expensive choice.

The big rally battery will have to be over 100kWh,’’ said Paddon.

``But right now we have to calculate what we need. The big problem is the batteries are six-figures and if you get the wrong size battery now, you’ve got a battery that’s no good to you.

``With this prototype battery we can simulate very condition – hot, cold, uphill, downhill, twisty, fast - and from all that we can calculate exactly what we need.’’

Other key areas of the development programme will be tuning the torque vectoring and regenerative braking systems and an important aspect of rally safety ensuring the car makes enough noise to warn spectators of its approach.

Paddon talked of airflow systems similar to air raid sirens that would generate different levels of noise as the car moves at different speeds.

``It makes a bit of noise but it’s not at the level we want yet,’’ said Paddon.

``We are still working on a sound generator. We were hoping to have it done by now but there have been some hold ups. It’s high up on our priority list to get that right.

``It will be a different sound. It won’t sound like a combustion car but it will be relevant and be from the inputs of the driver. It’s got to sound real and sound exciting.’’

Paddon’s electric rally car push times with EVs in motorsport review

Battery-compelled vehicles are moving into motor racing and the sport’s national governing body is now working out how to accommodate them.

haydon paddon’s groundbreaking electric rally car, pictured during construction, will be fully revealed tomorrow. It is based on the Hyundai Kona electric car, pictured below.

THE public unveiling of Hayden Paddon’s highly-anticipated Hyundai Kona electric rally car tomorrow is being accompanied by a review of MotorSport NZ regulations to encourage electric vehicles in competition.

Motorsport’s national body says it is supportive of including EVs in competition and 18 months ago it established a Working Group to produce guidelines for their inclusion. The regulations are now at a final draft stage.

 ``The draft guidelines were to be released a couple of months ago but the United Kingdom recently published their regulations and guidelines so we are reviewing some of the differences,’’ said Terry Carkeek, Motorsport NZ technical manager.

``We hope to have something published by the end of November.’’

EVs can already be accommodated in some events but Carkeek says car clubs wishing to invite any battery-compelled cars to an event should contact Motorsport NZ in the first instance.

``We will then provide them with requirements based on the event and the type of vehicle being used. To date, I think we have had three requests all of which we have been able to provide guidelines for,’’ Carkeek said.

``We currently don’t see any need to limit what competition EVs may run in. There is likely to be a requirement for the venue owner to approve the use of EVs to compete on their property and we would also require the approval of the local fire and emergency agency.’’

He said EVs could compete in a separate category but there is also potential to create an equivalency formula to allow competition against conventional powertrains.

``We currently believe that standard, largely unmodified series production EVs, will be relatively easy to include in a number of motorsport disciplines,’’ said Carkeek.

``We also believe that professionally designed and constructed EVs, like Hayden’s Hyundai, should also be relatively easy to include in some events.

``For EVs that have had the high voltage system modified, we will be looking to establish a certification process for those modifications. We have had initial discussions with LVVTA with a view to using their existing standards to accept those vehicles.’’

TOM SHORT has been a pioneer of electric drive within the sport of drag racing, fronting with modified classic cars including this LH Torana.

Kiwi drag racing has been an early EV adopter with a Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf appearing at recent Meremere Dragway street car events. 

And Taupo engineer Tom Short has built four electric drag racing cars and received a mixed reception in the straight-line sport.

Short has modified classic cars – a Datsun 1200 Coupe, an LH Torana, HT Holden Ute and most recently a 1970 LC Torana GT-R – by installing battery packs and an electric motor.

He achieved early success winning the NZ Drag Racing Association (NZDRA) Super Street national points title in the 2014-15 season with the Datsun. Other than the fact they are near-silent there is little about the performance - or appearance - of Short’s cars that identifies the pioneering role they have played in Kiwi motorsport.

Short said EVs were banned after this title win, re-admitted and then banned again by the NZDRA. At present his car is welcome at events run under International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) rules.

``They [NZDRA] said the ban was for Health and Safety reasons. Some people don’t like change,’’ said Short. 

Another area of New Zealand EV competition has been in moto trials.

A small number of Electric Motion electric trials bikes were introduced several years ago. They’ve been used in competition but are now mainly used by riders for training. 

At present the big area of EV interest is in mini trials and trail riding with the Oset brand of electric off-road bikes becoming a popular choice for 3-12-year-old riders. 

Editor’s note: The end result of a project announced two years ago, Paddon’s car is based on the Hyundai Kona, a compact fully-electric crossover that has been in the market for three years. The rally edition is a world-first for the type and delivers with four-wheel-drive, raised suspension and all the other addenda required for rallying.

It has been developed by the driver and a handful of employees, all hand-picked Kiwi engineers, working from a lock-up at Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell. Hyundai New Zealand, the University of Canterbury, Yes Power have supported. STARD, an Austrian racing team that specialises in electric rallycross cars, supplied the battery, inverter and motors. 

 The car is being unveiled tomorrow night in Auckland at Hyundai NZ’s headquarters.

Paddon’s old racer inspires road special

Hyundai’s WRC racer has finally inspired a road-legal hot hatch  … which, in turn, has inspired another rally car.

TURN the clock back four years – Rally Argentina has just ended and Hayden Paddon has claimed his - and New Zealand's - first world rally championship win by 13.3 seconds from Sebastien Ogier.

What better way to celebrate a hero than with an appropriate hero car?

Back then, the timing was just all wrong. 

Hyundai’s performance arm was certainly ramping up a hot hatch division then, yet it was already apparent the first model to benefit hadn’t obvious link to the works World Rally Championship racer.

No argument, the resultant i30 N hatch turned out to be a masterstroke and the more recent liftback is just as good. 

Yet it always seems a pity that Hyundai didn’t do the obvious and start with a road legal firecracker edition of the i20 small hatch, given that’s the car they were running then – and are still running now – in WRC.

Amends have finally been made. An i20N road car is in the making. 

Sure, it’s not a fiery four-wheel-drive and Paddon has left the team in which he achieved his best international successes though, sadly, never another world championship victory.

Yet it’s still a car that has good ‘fit’ here:  Paddon’s still very heavily involved with the Hyundai brand at national level and there’s a neat twist in that, since announcing the road car, the maker has also made clear that it’ll be a basis for a dirt-tuned competition car, developed for privateers. Which surely also rises a potential for a driver who is still racing and preparing gravel blaster fare. 

So what’s stopping this realising? Remarkably, it could well be Hyundai New Zealand.

Whereas other distributors, including Australia (which also celebrated Paddon) have been quick to sign up the model, have rushed to sign on the new talent, Hyundai NZ – which is a locally-owned independent rather than a factory shop - is dragging its feet. So far there’s not yet any local commitment beyond comment that the car is “under consideration”.

Maybe a petition is needed. Though pocket rockets don’t create big sales, they have potential to be huge image makers. The Ford Fiesta ST and Volkswagen Polo GTI are good examples of being attention magnets.

The i20N could well be up to their mettle, given Hyundai says it used its WRC expertise in this project, and not just to give it a nicely muscular look.

Under that bonnet is a pukka performance mill, in the same of a reworked (as in, exclusive turbo, remapping, a high-pressure injection rail) version of the 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine found in a number of other Hyundai and Kia models, tuned to produce 150kW from 5500-6000rpm and 275Nm from 1750-4500rpm. That’s less torque than the Ford and VW spin out, but slightly more power.  

The engine is mated exclusively to a six-speed manual transmission and while four- wheel-drive isn’t on the menu, it does achieve a limited-slip differential in order to aid handling and grip. The chassis has also been reinforced at 12 different points, while the suspension features reinforced front domes and knuckles, new anti-roll bars, springs and shock absorbers and increased camber. 

It also delivers with launch control, which facilitates 0-100kmh in 6.7 seconds. Top speed is 230kmh. power to weight looks good, too. Surely it’s no coincidence the car clocks 1190kg – the same as the i20 Coupe WRC car? 

Five drive modes are delivered: Normal, Eco, Sport, N and N Custom, with the latter allowing customers to individually adjust the parameters of the engine, ESC, exhaust and steering. The stability system can also be programmed into three stages – on, sport and fully off.

The car states its intent at the kerbside, too. The ride height is lowered by 10mm, it sits on 18-inch rims (behind which are tucked enlarged brakes) and the styling includes red accents around the front, rear and side skirts, plus a WRC-inspired roof spoiler. A lip spoiler and wide radiator grille – with a pattern inspired by a chequered flag - enhance visual menace. 

The interior also adopts sports seats, N-specific steering wheel, gear knob and pedals and there’s a 10.25-inch touchscreen navigation system, N driving data, digital instrument cluster.

Hyundai’s SmartSense suite of active safety tech is included, with forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind-spot collision warning, intelligent speed limit assist, driver attention warning system, high beam assist, lane following assist and rear cross-traffic collision warning.

And if you’d prefer it for weekend gravel road play? Well, that’s the i20 N Rally2, designed by an N-sport division, Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing, and intended for privateer teams and drivers. 

This one follows on from the Hyundai i20 R5 with which Hyundai Motorsport entered the Customer Racing arena at the end of 2015. That car has claimed numerous titles with customers, including national titles in Spain, Portugal and Poland since debuting late in 2016.

However, the brand says the i20 N Rally2 will be better, being “an improved all-round package” that builds on the experience gained by the department over the last five years.

Though the five-speed sequential gearbox from the i20 R5 remains the transmission for the new design nearly every other part, including the 1.6-litre turbo engine, is brand new.

The developer says new suspension components and dampers give the car more driver-friendly handling characteristics on all surfaces. This, it says, is vital in the Rally2 category, “which forms the basis for numerous national and regional championships as well as the international WRC 2 and WRC 3 classes, and are the cars of choice for both professional rally drivers as well as drivers who compete purely for pleasure.” 

An extensive testing programme for the i20 N Rally2 will begin later this month, with the first deliveries to customers and final homologation scheduled for mid-2021.

Paddon power play seen soon?

Talk about an assault with batteries … in addition to the ‘Kiwi Kona’ courtesy of Paddon Motorsport, Hyundai itself has shown off a slick electric racer and Ken Block has scored an ohm run!

the RM20e reminds that Hyundai Motor Company is also racing with electric power

ESSENTIALLY identical core components and closely-aligned performances, common basic aims … both behind the same badge.

As much as they are, quite literally worlds, apart each is being developed at a leading motorsport facility with intent to create race-winning performance, starting with some astounding grunt: Up to 745kW.

The timeline trajectories are uncannily close. Announcements about one seem to always be followed by an update on the other.

Who will be first? Is it a race? Who else might be competing?

As the days toward each project achieving readiness for full-out field testing draw closer, the nation’s interest in Haydon Paddon’s groundbreaking Hyundai Kona electric rally car is set to grow.

Meantime, in South Korea and in Europe, all eyes seem to be on a car that, while not a doppelganger, is clearly also from the same broad breeding, the RM20e Prototype.

Meantime, anyone taken notice yet of the Ford Fiesta ERX, an early starter in the FIA’s new World Rallycross Project E race series, recently subject of a wild run to victory with the world’s greatest hoonigan at the wheel? 

All remind how motorsport is heading fast toward where every day motoring is unavoidably gravitating … a future that involves electric assistance.

Paddon’s car deserves priority mention, being ‘local’ and all that. Even so, it’s the one we know least about, technically speaking.

This image of the Paddon Kona was run on the DirtFish website last week.

Yes, everyone knows it’s a massively reworked edition of the electric Kona crossover Hyundai has been knocking out for road use; delivering with four-wheel-drive, raised suspension and all the other addenda required for rallying.

But in terms of the exact spec of the drivetrain, the battery size and capability … that’s still under wraps. The team website continues to talk of up to 1100Nm torque, and more than one motor – as few as two, up to four, each making 220kW – through a single speed drivetrain.

There’s been talk of offering around 670kW in hillclimb mode and around half that for longer rallies, to improve range.

Any lack of detail does nothing to diminish the achievement: A car driven by our best known and most credentialed rally talent and created by a handful of hand-picked Kiwi engineers, working from a lock-up at Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell, developed alongside Hyundai New Zealand with the assistance of the University of Canterbury, Yes Power and STARD, an Austrian racing team that specialises in electric rallycross cars and has supplied the battery, inverter, and motor  … well, it’s a heck of a thing.

We do know it works. It ran for the first time last week and, according to a report from international rally web site Dirtfish, remains on target for a November 4 launch in Auckland – so, just over two years since project start. 

Hayden Paddon has big plans for the ‘Kiwi Kona’.

The car will be seen in public for the first time when Paddon completes demonstration runs at the Battle of Jacks Ridge on November 15.

“It was 100 percent pride when I drove the car for the first time,” Paddon told DirtFish several days ago.

“Everybody’s been working so hard here to make this happen – some of the guys have been putting in 100-hour weeks to get here … and it went absolutely to plan, no problems at all. We were only running the car at 30 percent power, but the responsiveness from the car is so obvious.

 “The other thing that became obvious is how much more straightforward the Kona EV is compared with a conventional rally car – the number of mechanical, moving parts is significantly less.”

Paddon told DirtFish the aim is to have the car out on a full-length rally this time next year. In other reports, he has spoken of hope to run it in selected rounds of the New Zealand Rally Championship in 2020; a hope that, to be realised, will require some rewriting of motorsport regulations.

Various safety issues have yet to be satisfied but, beyond that, there’s another question: Is it fair – or even conceivable – to expect parity between fossil-fuelled race machinery and electrics?

 Paddon asserts he doesn’t want an electric car for an electric championship. “We want to showcase this against current cars, to show electric can be fast, cool and hold its own. Motorsport should be any car against any car. 

That thinking is built on a solid foundation; like it or not, electric propulsion has a place in rallying at local and international level.

Hyundai says the RM20e will serve as a development tool for a future electric N performance road car.

Patently, this programme is not just to prove a point on local roads. Paddon is keen to exploit the car’s potential for his own driving career and, apparently, as a commercial venture. How many examples are created and to what aim has yet to be fully spelled, but the South Canterbury instigator has always seen a global market potential. He certainly hopes the Kona will give him an advantage as the World Rally Championship heads down an electrified path.

As Kona readies for its big day, so too comes news of another Hyundai headliner, this one from the brand proper. 

No shying with the stats in respect to the RM20e. Everything but the range has been provisioned. So, it has 598kW and 959Nm of torque deployed to its rear wheels, will smash 0-100kmh in less than three seconds and be travelling at 200kmh after just 9.88s. For the purposes of public road driving, top speed limits to 250kmh. Hyundai says it balances these “race-car-like levels of performance, balance, braking and grip” with “daily-driver quietness, responsiveness and road-going capability.”

The drivetrain has developed by an electric vehicle maker whose star power is somewhat brighter than STARD’s.

Rimac is a Croatian car manufacturer that develops and produces electric sports cars, drivetrains and battery systems. Founded just 11 years ago, it rocketed to world interest with the Concept One, the slinky realisation of ambition to create the world’s fastest production electric vehicle. It gained even more notoriety when Richard Hammond crashed it during filming for the Grand Tour Season 2. Was the car too hot to handle? Well, it’s a tame tabby compared with Rimac’s next electric performance flagship, the C-Two, will touch down in 2021 with 1490kW and a top speed of 415kmh.  

Eighteen months ago HMC paid 80 million Euros for an undisclosed share in Rimac, with intent to develop two models – a sports car for itself and a fuel cell car, likely for Kia. The investment represents a 14 percent shareholding for HMC; Porsche, another investor, has a 10 percent share. A Chinese battery maker, Camel Group, is Rimac's second biggest stakeholder with 19 percent, while Rimac founder Mate Rimac owns 43 percent.

the rm20e’s development programme was undertaken at the Nurburgring, home base of Hyundai’s N operation.

As revealed at the Beijing international Automotive Exhibition 2020 last week, the RM20e appears in readiness for track racing, just like the Veloster N eTCR, designed to take on a new eTCR electric touring car series. 

However, motorsport is not the end game in this instance. The factory says the car’s primary purpose is to act as a development tool and test bed for the N-branded performance road car division. It has the remit of being the basis of what yet one day become Hyundai’s equivalent of the Porsche Taycan.

The name is explained thus: RM stands for ‘racing midship’, and refers to the car’s mid-mounted electric motor, which is said to offer “ideal balance and agility from a low polar-moment of inertia.” Meaning it is easier to rotate the car about its axis. The numerical? Well, it’s a bit of a muddle, but effectively it’s the latest of a lineage. There have been four previous incarnations, the first being the RM16.

Back to the Fiesta ERX, which screamed – in a way only electric cars can – into motorsport history the other day by winning the first World Rallycross e-racing event at the famous Holjes circuit in Sweden, ahead of two identical Fords. 

Directly developed by STARD, this car is also a monster: 0-100km in just 1.8 seconds is a blistering time huge horsepower fossil-fuelled rallycross cars with anti-lag systems have been chasing off the start line for years.

What gets the ERX going is a giant 450-kWh battery pack liquid-cooled by dry ice. It delivers oomph through a pair of independent two-speed gearboxes that operate as single-speeds in race mode. Will the Kona go the same way?

Paddon on point for Catlins

New Zealand’s most successful rally driver is leading from the front – kind of – as the sport races back into action this weekend.

Hyundai driver Hayden Paddon will make his first appearance at a local rally since winning the South Canterbury event in June 2019.

Photos: Colin Smith

HAYDEN Paddon and his NZ title-winning Hyundai i20 AP4 make a return to local rallying this weekend with no chance of winning anything.

Paddon and co-driver Samantha Gray will race ahead of an 83-car field when the South Island’s Mainland Rally Series returns to action in South Otago with the 20th edition of the Catlins Coast Rally.

The former World Rally Championship star is using the event as a test session and rather than enter the rally and be eligible for a result he’ll make pace notes for the six special stages.

“My last blind (non pace-noted) rally was 15 years ago and I’m not quite brave enough to attempt one now in this kind of car,’’ said Paddon. 

“So we will run at the front of the field and on pace notes. The objective is to blow the cobwebs out and test some new development ideas on the car.

“My last rally was WRC Rally GB in September, so it’s almost a year ago. And my last rally in the i20 was South Canterbury just over a year ago.’’

 While New Zealand’s WRC plans and the 2020 National Rally Championship have been victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, grass roots rally sport is making a comeback.

The Catlins Coast Rally entry list is headed by four-time winner Andrew Graves (Gore) in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo3 who will start ahead of a trio of AP4 cars piloted by Canterbury drivers Matt Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage), Josh Marston (Holden Barina) and Robbie Stokes (Ford Fiesta).

Last year’s Catlins winner Garet Thomas (Darfield) is seeded fifth in his Subaru Impreza ahead of Balclutha’s Dean Bond (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6).

Heading the two-wheel-drive ranks are Marcus van Klink in his tri-rotor Mazda RX-8, Deane Buist (VW Golf GTI) and the Ford Escort of Mike Verdoner.

The rally starts from Owaka at 10am Saturday with the six-stage route totalling 152km of competitive driving. The cars return to Owaka twice for servicing and the 3.40pm finish.

 Meanwhile the northern region rally calendar re-started with the South Auckland Car Club’s Maramarua Forest Rallysprint on Sunday.

The event was the fourth round of the ABC Pipe Fitters Northern Rallysprint Series, one of the few 2020 motorsport series left relatively intact in spite of COVID-19 precautions.

Darfield's Garet Thomas was the Catlins Coast Rally winner last year in his Subaru Impreza.

The series had completed three rounds prior to the Level Four lockdown and while dates have changed the series is set to complete its scheduled six rounds at the original venues.

Young Aucklander Jack Hawkeswood was quick on the 9km forest stage in Maramarua on Sunday in his Mazda2 AP4 car - improving on each of his five timed runs and setting his quickest time in the final run-off to pip Matt Jensen (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) by almost seven seconds.

Former series champion Graeme Featherstone (Te Aroha) was third in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7 while Aucklander Haydn MacKenzie – a former BNT V8s Touring Car racer - continued to show promise on his switch to gravel surfaces taking fourth place in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9.

The remaining Northern Rallysprint Series rounds are the Hamilton Car Club’s Hoddle Rd event near Otorohanga on August 23 and the Thames Valley Car Club Piakonui Loop Rd event near Matamata on October 4.

Young Auckland driver Jack Hawkeswood won the fourth round of the Northern Rallysprint Series on Sunday in the Maramarua Forest.