Left: FIA EcoRally Scotland is the ultimate EV road trip, an accessible event covering picturesque and challenging terrain
Right: The Alpine A290 EV hot hatch is ideal for motorsport
THE EV EXPERIENCE
Motoring journalist Steve Cropley has driven and raced hill climbs and sprints in four different EVs and has reached a clear conclusion:“ Not enough people realise how much fun it is driving an electric car.”
Cropley has a long history in speed events over the years, competing in everything from a 1955 Lotus Six to a supercharged Ariel Atom, and he adds:“ I’ d definitely say competing in an electric car, like the BMW i4, is a whole lot of fun.
“ If you’ re switching from a petrol car to an EV, it does require a bit of adjustment because you’ ve got a lot of power but also a lot of weight, so when you head into the bends, you often find yourself arriving very fast.
“ You have to get your braking right, otherwise you’ ll make a mess of the corner. So, precision
Below: Steve Cropley drives a BMW i4 in the Watergate Bay Sprint really matters – but once you get used to it, they’ re tremendous. It really is endless power, so it’ s really exhilarating.”
Joe Baguley, who is one of the early pioneers of EV motorsport but also regularly races with traditional engines, agrees.
“ The first time I tried one was at Laguna Seca, when a friend of mine gave me a go in a very early Tesla and I just thought‘ oh my God, these things are gamechanging.’ It was so quick; it was unbelievable and I got one as soon as they came out in the UK. You have to go and try an EV. You’ ll be surprised how much fun they are.” for competition. That means hundreds of thousands more could be.
The second-hand EV market is growing. According to Autocar, a tenth of all cars aged 5-7 years old are now electric – and with older vehicles like the original Renault Zoe costing as little as £ 2,000, they represent a genuine opportunity for grassroots motorsport – but only if events are equipped to deal with them.
Motorsport UK is keen to help any club that is thinking about allowing an EV class. Shelsey Walsh has been doing so for six years now, as event manager Annie Goodyear explains:“ We used to run them at the end of the batch, but people don’ t worry about that now, as long as we’ ve announced that we’ ve got one on the hill, just as we would with methanol.
“ We’ ve got all the appropriate additional equipment in our first response vehicle and rescue unit such as the pole, gloves and face helmet – you can easily find what you need in the NCRs – and it’ s just having that confidence that the EVs are not going to do anything unusual. In fact, in many ways, they’ re probably actually safer than a lot of the other cars!”
Goodyear says it is all about education, so that organisers and marshals understand that“ they’ re not as scary as people think” so perhaps now is the time for clubs to bring that EV evolution to the racetracks and rally stages of the UK.
Click here for the latest Motorsport UK guidance on competing in, or running an event with an EV Class
Revolution Magazine 45