Hasta La Gadget!

Ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, Qualcomm has come out to announce that it’ll be bringing its Halo wireless charging technology to the first-ever Formula E electric vehicle race next year. But before y’all get too excited, only the safety cars will be equipped with Halo for the first season, which goes from September 2014 to June 2015 in London, Rome, Berlin, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles and many more places.

As with these safety cars plus trial vehicles from London taxi firm Addison Lee, the current-gen Halo requires electric vehicles to stay still on large charging pads, which isn’t ideal for racing cars. That said, Qualcomm CMO Anand Chandrasekher told us that his folks are already looking into bringing dynamic charging to racing cars starting in the second season. In other words, these battery-powered vehicles will eventually be able to recharge while still running on the race track!

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What good is an EV racing league like Formula E if there’s no way to watch it? Not much, which is why the FIA has reached a deal making Fox Sports the official Formula E broadcaster. The agreement gives Fox a US exclusive for TV coverage as well as a mixture of exclusive and non-exclusive rights (including online content) in over 80 regions. We won’t know if Fox is truly ready for the job until the first Formula E race begins in September 2014, but it won’t be hard to tune in.

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Source: Formula E

Nissan’s ZEOD RC may sound fast at 186MPH, but it’s a slow poke next to Drayson Racing’s B12/69EV. The modified Le Mans car just broke the FIA’s land speed record, hitting 204.2MPH on a course at the former RAF Elvington base in Yorkshire. While Drayson is quick to admit that the 850HP racer is unusual, it sees the project as groundwork for both a 2015 Formula E car and technologies that could filter down to regular vehicles. The speed record also gives electric racing more credibility at a crucial moment — when EVs are just starting to rival gas-powered counterparts on the track, any leap in performance can help.

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Via: Pocket-lint

Source: BBC, Drayson Racing Technologies

We’ve seen electric off-roaders tackle the Dakar Rally, but racing on the Baja peninsula has proven elusive — until this weekend. After driving in smaller races, SRI’s EV1 has joined the big leagues by starting in NORRA’s Mexican 1000 rally. The 535HP, 400kW open-wheeler has participated in at least the first trio of special stages, and it will ideally join a handful of further stages that fit within the vehicle’s 100-mile range. While the EV1 is far from the front of the Evolution class, at 36th place as of this writing, winning isn’t the point — SRI wants to drum up enough funding to hot-swap batteries and complete every stage in future races. Its project should at least be proof that smaller EVs can thrive in some of the world’s harshest racing conditions.

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Via: Autoblog

Source: SRD (Facebook), SRI, NORRA

I’ve spent time driving the Ford Raptor pickup from a couple different model years and came away impressed by the truck. The Raptor has an impressively powerful engine and the sort of lifted stance you expect to see in a desert racing truck. I’ve also spent plenty of time road racing cars over the years and one thing I can definitely say about the Raptor is that I didn’t climb into the truck thinking “let’s take this thing to the road course!”

In fact, all of the warnings on the visor about the truck flipping would seem to absolutely contraindicate driving it in a performance manner on a road course. That didn’t stop race car driver and Top Gear USA host Tanner Faust from strapping into a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor and proceeding to hoon the big truck around the famous Nürburgring’s Nordschleife track in Germany.

The fact that the Raptor is made for off-road racing didn’t keep Tanner from putting it on the pavement. He jumps the car over curbing and generally embarrasses people behind the wheel of real sports cars in an automatic transmission pickup truck.

Sadly, the promo video doesn’t show much of Tanner’s lap, spending more time focusing on him talking about how unusual it is to see a pickup of any sort cruising the streets in Germany, much less racing on one of the most famous racetracks in all the world.

[via MotorAuthority]