Racing

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mrspeedy123 @ Mar 2 2006, 10:24 PM) [snapback]219394[/snapback]</div>

Why buy a Pruis to race? Fuel economy will not be nearly as good if you are racing, and isn't fuel economy the reason people buy the Prius?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mrspeedy123 @ Mar 2 2006, 10:24 PM) [snapback]219394[/snapback]</div>

I don’t know what the intension is for this topic, if it’s related to the infamous hybrid racing thread or not. But... MOST people who bought the Prius for reasons other than racing. If they are looking for a race car, then they bought themselves a wrong one. The Prius is not built for that purpose.

 

Some people just like to have fun with their cars as well as use them for regular transportation.

Drag racing is the largest participant motor sport in the world. At the local level track hold bracket racing events so that anybody can compete on a fair basis regardless of the performance of their vehicle.

As a rule of thumb everybody competing at a bracket race event will receive two to three time trials. This is when you take your car down the track to see how quickly it will go.

For eliminations, each driver puts a number on their windows indicating the estimated time for the quarter mile. Two drivers at a time compete in each race. The reation time at the start is not calculated into the estimated time, but will have a definite impact on the results.

If the estimated ET (elapsed time) for a Prius is 18.0 seconds and that is put on the window and the person in the other lane has 14.0 on their window, the Prius would receive a four second head start. The first vehicle to the finish line without going quicker than the number on the window wins the round.

Most events have between 4 and 9 rounds of racing. Something as simple as cloud cover can change the ET of a vehicle significantly enough to alter the outcome of a race. To be proficient the driver will generally need to have a reation time of quicker than .550 (.500 is perfect), and the vehicle will need to perform within 2 hundredths of a second of the estimated time (dial in).

Look at it this way... It is a day at the track. Most racers are interested in technology rather than being against it. Hybrids are cool and the potential performance of electric engines is incredible.

The sport is extremely difficult to win at consistently as there are so many factors that can impact a vehicles performance and the driver has a lot to do with the outcome. simple selecting exactly where you line up at the starting line can alter the elapsed time by up to half a tenth of a second.

It is legal. You can win money. You spend time with other automotive enthusiasts. It is the safest of all automotive sports. There is no oncoming traffic, the strip is plenty wide, and you probably have more risk of hurting something while in a mall parking lot than you do at the drag strip in a Prius.

Just my .02....

 

tnthub, most Prius owners' reponse to this is, "are you kidding? that would kill my lifetime (or tank) MPG!!!" :lol:

Getting the most MPG out of the Prius is fun for many of us.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ScottY @ Jun 20 2006, 10:42 AM) [snapback]274068[/snapback]</div>

I spend most days trying to get the best mpg possible out of whatever vehicle I am driving and I agree that it is fun and very challenging. However I also made it to the semi-finals of an "import day" a couple of years back driving a Suzuki Aero... 8 rounds.... :blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tnthub @ Jun 20 2006, 07:33 AM) [snapback]274063[/snapback]</div>

I remember seeing an old ad for Stutz Motor Cars which explained why they raced. It puts the greatest amount of stress on the car in the shortest amount of time. They could see what went wrong at the track and would make changes in their cars.

 

When I race my Prius with my friends, I always say "First one to get there with the highest MPG wins." I haven't lost yet.

Maybe we should have some Priuschat races. "Teams of two (Both Prius owners- One hypermiler, and one new owner) 50 mile course (25 miles about 50 mph, 25 miles below 41 mph), whoever has the highest MPG wins." It would be a great place to learn P&G from your teammate.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mrspeedy123 @ Mar 2 2006, 10:24 PM) [snapback]219394[/snapback]</div>

If you did this mod, you'd have a three-way hybrid and could win just about any race. Plus the hatchback in the 2004-2006 Prius would probably make it easy!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/artic...&type=printable

- Tom

 

As someone who used to take has taken his 287 hp Z (and 255 hp Maxima) to track for drag racing, I think racing a Prius is downright silly.

It wouldn't do well in an autocross stock and would be beaten by almost everyone in a drag race. In a drag race, about the only ones you'd beat are really slow econoboxes. I don't think bracket racing would be a good idea either due to variation in 1/4 mile times due to variance in battery SOC.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Jun 21 2006, 02:51 AM) [snapback]274530[/snapback]</div>

This really intrigues me. Cloud cover can change a dial in by 2-3 hundredths. DA readings can vary at my local track fro -400 to 1500 in one day... There are so many variables to deal with that I wonder if I only had to deal with the battery if it would be possible to be more consistent?

 

At the Houston Raceway, my wife ran consistent 17.8 second quarter mile times at about 14 MPG. The biggest variance seemed to be the temperature of the motor inverter and battery as the times would fall off some when the back to back runs were close together. We would brake stand before the run to top off our SOC. That would of course raise the temperatures of the above components, so there is a trade off.

Hey ya'll, if the thread is about racing the Prius, let's talk about that instead of scolding the practice. Scolding adds nothing of interest to the discussion. Our Prius ran at 14 MPG through the quarter. Many cars run in the gallons per mile for the same course. We learned a lot about the operation of the Prius during our evening at the track.

The times we ran are similar to many SUVs and identical to the times run by our old 64 Pontiac station wagon with the 400 cid engine. We were definitely not the slowest car at the track.

Some day, I think electric cars are going to rule the track. We just have to solve the power to weight ratio. It may be accomplished with ultra capacitors that are charged right on the starting line. Time will tell.

 

If there was a way to have the same amount of charge each pass and the same engine temp... As much as I like to go fast, what I really like is the competition, and if the Prius could be a better (more consistent) tool for the job this would be a wonderful way to introduce hybrid technology to the racing community. Racers, at least the drag racers I know, tend to be extremely open minded and would rather try a new technology than trash it.

 

I've done some tuning, but it's a real doozy trying to squeeze extra performance out of the car. I get fairly consistent performance out of my Prius at the track, albeit abysmally slow. Any engineer will agree that electric engines are the future of racing, we may even have some "hybrid" formula cars next year that use the electric motor as a pwer adder for the 60 seconds of extra boost rule.

With the advent of the Lexus 450h, I've given up tuning the Prius for putting my research into a car that is already a monster performer. The biggest factor in electric racing is charge density, but that's not really a factor in drag racing where only short bursts of power are necessary. If you really want a fast drag car pure electric would be preferable to hybrid electric. But in the event of Formula racing elecric alone isn't suitable... hybrid is king.