Offroad race using Elaphe motors

Just as a side note, another EV just finished the NORRA Mexican 1000 which is a race 3 times the length of the above Baja 250. This was using a stock Volkwagen ID4 with modified suspension for off-road use. It utilized the stock motor and battery. It came in in the middle of the pack, but the important thing is that it finished. Let's hear it for EV's!!

https://insideevs.com/news/505095/volkswagen-id4-completed-norra-race/

More ominous news about Lordstown, the only other company that I know of using the Elaphe hub motors.

https://news.yahoo.com/taxes-another-troubling-sign-electric-161421557.html

I guess the BMW was the retrofitted vehicles(s) I saw on various videos...

it could have been the same videos “replayed”

Do you think the cars in the Elaphe videos were just retro-fitted?

Well more Apterae coming, at least ten I believe...before production so pop some corn:

Grueling race with a heavy,inefficient box (truck) in sands etc..... so maybe not much to apply to Aptera Elaphe motors type motors😔 on paved/ graded riads, but as said ... they did not breakdown😀

Baby steps to observe...👀

On loose surfaces, you are usually traction limited and not much torque is needed to break the tires loose. Torque could be a problem with the large tires on a good surface, although it doesn't look like they had many high friction surfaces in the race. Watching their example video, the bumpiness of the course could be the problem. Each bump will take a fair bit of your kinetic energy, so that adds up fast.

Lordstown had estimated a 3x worse energy usage in off-road racing vs normal street use, but they experienced higher usage especially in deep sand. I would also expect regen to be of limited help off-road with the sand slowing you down for the corners.

For any of you fellow forum members who are interested in the outcome of the Lordstown Endurance in the Baja 250, here is some additional info. It appears that the energy required by the Elaphe motors was much more than they had calculated for. The truck did not have any mechanical failures or breakdowns. But after the first leg of the race which was 40 miles, they calculated that the truck would not make it through the second leg of the race which was 65 miles. The data-metrics showed that the truck was using about 4 times the energy over what was initially calculated for street driving on the stock battery pack. Since the second leg involved a 1750 elevation change, they figured that the truck could not be rescued easily in that part of the track and withdrew from the race. This is not so much a failure of Lordstown, but to the grueling nature of this race. 30% of entrants usually do not finish. So the good news is that it was not a mechanical breakdown, but worrisome in that the motors were using much more energy than was initially spec'ed.

I was able to watch indirectly much of the 19 hrs of the race. I had it playing on my sports tv computer and TV during the day while I was busy with other things. I watched the truck start the race, but then lost track of it. Unfortunately when this mornings final finish roster came out, it confirmed that the Lordstown Endurance "Did Not Finish" the race. The other EV also did not finish. I asked another viewer who said that it broke down 40 miles into the race. I will try and find out what was actually the cause of the failure.

Thanks Biff. They had their pre-running on April 3rd. They will be using a heavily modified stock skateboard, stock motors, and batteries with a purpose built body of course. They will modify programming but use stock 4WD, torque vectoring, traction control, and electronic stability control. The suspension and cage modifications are being done by Brenthal Industries in Temecula, CA (near Aptera). Since the race is 8-9 hrs (trophy) they will most likely have to recharge on the course which is estimated at 30 minutes, maybe even twice. Most of the race coverage will be given to the Trophy vehicles, the 600 to 800 hp purpose built race trucks with 24 inch suspension travel, 100 gal gas tanks getting about 2mpg. Although the Endurance, better known as Baja #e414 will most likely run in a classification closer to the Jeeps, VW Bugs, and Dune Buggies, I think it will get some coverage because it is a first time EV in this race with unconventional hub motor layout. But it is not the first EV in desert racing. I think the Acciona competed in the Dakar Rally in So. America back in 2017. I am especially interested in seeing the suspension reaction especially in the Whoops portion of the race course. My main concern is why Steve Burns is not using a professional driver. One of his security staff Matthew Blanchard is driving the truck with his son James as co-pilot/nav. Even though he is taking driving lessons, this is a high profile race for the company with a lot to gain or lose. Let's keep our fingers crossed for EV's