Photo: S. Baldauf / R. Kah
What? An autonomous race car? What nonsense is this you might say? Well, think of those Hot Wheels sets you used to have when you were small, you know, those that had some predefined tracks that the small cars were restricted to... Well, it’s something like that.
The ED Torq is exactly something like that, only that it’s real and you can actually touch it if you visit this year’s Geneva Auto Show. Oh, and did we mention this is also an all-electric car?
Yes, if we were to talk to Joachim Gauck for example or Nikki Lauda, they’d probably consider this to be the real Antichrist, the one omen that the world is coming to an end.
What could possibly be worse to a gear head than an electric car that races on the Nurburgring all by itself? Few things in our book...
And yet the Italians behind ED claim that this is just a first step in a long run that will see us changing the way we see and experience ... motorsport events.
The thing is, racing has always been about the bond between the driver and the car and with this.. Well, one of the parts is missing. Furthermore, the company claims that their creation can also be used for endurance racing but what’s the point if all the cars drive themselves and all have the same specs. How on Earth will we ever see an overtaking?
Leaving all that preposterous stuff behind, the car does look impressive in the metal. The aim was to be as aerodynamic as possible so the two seats inside are completely blocked out from both the sun and the wind. The only connection the driver has to the outside world is a 360-degree screen.
As far as the power goes, this thing has one hub-mounted electric motor for each wheel and together they make 429 HP and 1,327 lb-ft (1800 Nm) of torque. All of this stuff is fueled by an 88 kWh lithium-ion battery that’s quite heavy at 1,212 lbs (550 kg). The overall kerb weight of the thing is 2,205 lbs (1,000 kg or one metric ton).
According to the company, it would be capable of around 50 minutes of hardcore racing as per their tests conducted on the Circuit de la Sarthe. How exactly does this qualify as endurance racing? Sure, if the batteries could be swapped fast enough, it could be an alternative but even then, we’d be too reticent to adopt this thing as a replacement for the oil burning monsters we have today. And you thought Formula E was bad...
Yes, if we were to talk to Joachim Gauck for example or Nikki Lauda, they’d probably consider this to be the real Antichrist, the one omen that the world is coming to an end.
What could possibly be worse to a gear head than an electric car that races on the Nurburgring all by itself? Few things in our book...
And yet the Italians behind ED claim that this is just a first step in a long run that will see us changing the way we see and experience ... motorsport events.
The thing is, racing has always been about the bond between the driver and the car and with this.. Well, one of the parts is missing. Furthermore, the company claims that their creation can also be used for endurance racing but what’s the point if all the cars drive themselves and all have the same specs. How on Earth will we ever see an overtaking?
Leaving all that preposterous stuff behind, the car does look impressive in the metal. The aim was to be as aerodynamic as possible so the two seats inside are completely blocked out from both the sun and the wind. The only connection the driver has to the outside world is a 360-degree screen.
As far as the power goes, this thing has one hub-mounted electric motor for each wheel and together they make 429 HP and 1,327 lb-ft (1800 Nm) of torque. All of this stuff is fueled by an 88 kWh lithium-ion battery that’s quite heavy at 1,212 lbs (550 kg). The overall kerb weight of the thing is 2,205 lbs (1,000 kg or one metric ton).
According to the company, it would be capable of around 50 minutes of hardcore racing as per their tests conducted on the Circuit de la Sarthe. How exactly does this qualify as endurance racing? Sure, if the batteries could be swapped fast enough, it could be an alternative but even then, we’d be too reticent to adopt this thing as a replacement for the oil burning monsters we have today. And you thought Formula E was bad...
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