Just raced with a Chevy Volt

[smkettner]

Be careful out there. Speed contest is a rather serious ticket.
My days of these shenanigans is long since past.

But I would be good to go on a sanctioned track event

 

[LakeLeaf]

Great videos, Andy!

 

[DaveEV]

Who's going to be the first to strip the interior of the Leaf looking for maximum weight savings to improve performance? Very common low-budget modification.

With many commonly modified cars, it's not hard to find a list of the weight of easy to remove parts.

Who's going to weigh the stock wheel/tire combo? I'm sure some good weight can be saved there. That huge lead-acid battery under the hood surely could be replaced with a lighter AGM battery as well.

"To add speed, add lightness."
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
- Colin Chapman

The nice thing is that adding lightness will also get you farther per kWh.

 

[AndyH]

That huge lead-acid battery under the hood surely could be replaced with a lighter AGM battery as well.

Sacrilege! Sacrilege I say! Lithium or nothing! :lol:

 

[Jimmydreams]

Based on my driving of both cars, and perhaps because I always drive the LEAF in ECO mode and the Volt in the "L" range (which gives more immediate regen and effectively stronger regen braking)....The Volt feels (much) faster than the LEAF. Last night, coming home from a dinner social, I switched the LEAF into the regular "D" mode for the last couple of stop signs approaching our house and while that felt a bit more responsive than the "ECO" mode, it still was NOT as quick feeling as the Volt.

A "bit more responsive"??? We must drive completely differently....ECO mode feels like I'm driving through molasses, D feel like I'm driving a v6 with turbo....there's no "a bit" about it, but I cannot compare it to the Volt, so......

 

[mark13]

Does the Leaf have a break in period ? Should you drive it in eco mode the first 500 miles ? I think the Leaf is a very fast car going to 30 mph but after that the family car reality comes into play..Its just nice to know that the Leaf will never need gas..

If I take the Leaf to the track should I take the doors-hatch-hood off and empty car of seats :lol:

It might be interesting to take it to a 1/8 mile track to be competitive but not a 1/4 mile at least as a serious racer..But as a curios driver I will take it to the 1/4 track and have it vidoed..

I think 5 years from now there will be a number of EV sportscars to choose from..

There is currently only one EV that running the track at SpeedWorld in Phx AZ..

 

[Boomer23]

Great videos, Andy!

+1. So much fun to watch!

 

[AndyH]

Great videos, Andy!

+1. So much fun to watch!

Here's the 'rest of the story' from the Plasma Boy video, I think! I wonder if I'm too old to be adopted? :lol:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cf89tawZX8[/youtube]

We have it turned way down...if we run 11.50 they'll throw us off the track because we don't have a roll bar... :lol:

 

[evnow]

My recollection on comparative acceleration tests is that the Volt is about .5 second FASTER to 60 mph and about 1 second faster in the quarter mile with maybe 10-15 mph faster top end.

Yes, what I was thinking.

 

[evnow]

MOD THAT LEAF! :lol: :lol:

Exactly.

<goes back to leased Leaf to wait for ESFlow>

 

[Boomer23]

My recollection on comparative acceleration tests is that the Volt is about .5 second FASTER to 60 mph and about 1 second faster in the quarter mile with maybe 10-15 mph faster top end.

Yes, what I was thinking.

Here are some numbers from Road and Track that I posted a while back:

............LEAF Volt
0-10mph:..0.7 sec 0.8 sec
0-20:.....1.8 ..1.9
0-30:.....3.0 ..3.1
0-40:.....4.6 ..4.6
0-50:.....6.7.. 6.4
0-60:.....9.4 ..8.8
0-70:.....13.1 ..11.7
0-80:.....17.8 ..15.6
0-90:.....24.7 ..20.6
0-100:.....NA ..28.1

1/4 mile: 17.2 ..16.8

You'll note that LEAF is ahead by a bit until 40 mph, but Volt is well ahead by 60 mph. Interesting how seat-of-the-pants feel is different for different people, and at different parts of the speed range. As far as handling, Volt is heavier and is more front-heavy than LEAF, and slalom speeds are better for LEAF, so on a road course, I'd put my money on the LEAF.

Pretty funny, though, how we're debating performance specs for the current contenders for top eco-machine. :lol:

 

[jkyu99]

Don't you love the first video, where White Zombie says, an electrical engineer told him it can't be done under 18s. [because] "I've done the math".
:lol:

 

[AndyH]

MOD THAT LEAF! :lol: :lol:

Exactly.

<goes back to leased Leaf to wait for ESFlow>

But the Leaf's a sleeper.

 

[TRONZ]

Ran across my first Volt this week. A white one down near the town center. When I got up next to him, I just waved... but he either didn't see me or was ignoring me.

I have a pic somewhere on my phone.....

 

[ericsf]

If he looked pissed that could very well be the same guy I saw :lol:

 

[turbo2ltr]

I had a little impromptu race against an Altima 2.5 2 door rental. It wasn't really a race as he was behind me as we got on the highway. I had me and a passenger, and the Altima just had the driver.

I was the first so I got a head start on the rolling start but he was only maybe 3 car lengths back. Afterwards, he said he could not catch up and was impressed. This is coming from someone that drives a modified Audi S4. (he's also an EE for the hybrid company I work for.)

 

[TomT]

I think my bicycle could beat that! <G>

I had a little impromptu race against an Altima 2.5 2 door rental.

 

[gascant]

I think my bicycle could beat that! <G>

I had a little impromptu race against an Altima 2.5 2 door rental.

My wife's Altima Hybrid is pretty quick off the line. We love it except for having to put gas in periodically. The 20 gallon tank sucks up a lot of $$ these days.

 

[aqn]

Two eco-sloths "race" each other - priceless !

I won't believe the "sloth" moniker until I get my LEAF and find out several things for myself.
One: whether it's true that the LEAF can do a burn-out with the traction control turned off: http://blog.caranddriver.com/10best-surprise-the-nissan-leaf-burns-a-different-petroleum-product/
Two: the LEAF's 60-foot and 330-foot times, from a standing start.
Based on my very limited test drive experience which included flooring the accelerator from a crawl for about 100 feet, I suspect the LEAF can be a more-than-willing accomplice for limited degrees of hooliganism.

My recollection on comparative acceleration tests is that the Volt is about .5 second FASTER to 60 mph and about 1 second faster in the quarter mile with maybe 10-15 mph faster top end.

Pardon me while I rectify a pet peeve: "fast" describes velocity; "quick" describes acceleration. A car is "fast" if its top speed is 250 mph, but if it takes all day to reach that speed, is not "quick". An example of a "fast" car is a land speed record vehicle with very tall gearing. Conversely, a vehicle can be very quick, getting up to speed very quickly, but if it is not able to reach a very high speed, is not "fast". An example might be a dragster.

Here are some numbers from Road and Track that I posted a while back:

............LEAF Volt
0-10mph:..0.7 sec 0.8 sec
0-20:.....1.8 ..1.9
0-30:.....3.0 ..3.1
0-40:.....4.6 ..4.6
0-50:.....6.7.. 6.4
0-60:.....9.4 ..8.8
0-70:.....13.1 ..11.7
[...]

You'll note that LEAF is ahead by a bit until 40 mph, but Volt is well ahead by 60 mph.

And again pardon me while I rectify my other pet peeve . Time-to-speed and time-to-distance are different and not necessarily related things. This is why one car may have a lower 0-60 time (or 0-30 time, or 0-40 time) but takes longer to cover the quarter mile.

Consider these five cars:

• 2009 Ferrari F430 Scuderia
• 2007 BMW Alpina B7
• 2007 Lexus IS350
• 2011 Leaf
• 2011 Volt

whose acceleration times are charted in a graph, here. In that graph, the area under a curve represents the distance traveled. The Leaf may be quicker to 30mph than the Volt but takes longer to cover the quarter-mile. Here's another graph illustrating the (exaggerated) difference between a "quick" car and a "fast" car.

Pretty funny, though, how we're debating performance specs for the current contenders for top eco-machine. :lol:

"Performance" and "eco-machine" are not necessarily mutually exclusive terms. I may be a gourmet chef, that that does not necessarily mean that I don't enjoy a Five Guys burger now and then.

This also reminds me of what Peter Egan wrote in Road & Track a long time ago. Someone asked him what kind of speeds he gets up to on the track in his race car (a Triumph TR6 or something like that). When he said "Oh, maybe about 80 mph..." people look like him like "That's it?!" Egan's point was that in some cars, 80 mph feels like taking your life into your own hands.

 

[GeekEV]

Conversely, a vehicle can be very quick, getting up to speed very quickly, but if it is not able to reach a very high speed, is not "fast". An example might be a dragster.

Not sure what kind of dragster you're thinking of, but a top fuel dragster can hit speeds around 300mph in under 5 seconds. I think that qualifies as both quick and fast...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_fuel_dragster