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Mercedes unveils its first Formula E race car
Mercedes-Benz said it would participate in Formula E this year, and now you know what it'll bring to the track. The tri-star badge has unveiled its first racer for the all-electric league, the EQ Silver Arrow 01 (no real relation to the Silver Arrow concept), and it's clear it will at least be competitive. The machine will pump out up to 340HP during qualifiers and in FanBoost mode (272HP in normal racing, 306HP in attack mode), and hit 62MPH in a brisk 2.8 seconds. There's a 52kWh battery to keep it humming throughout the entire race.
The 'Proving Grounds’ track gives every car a chance to be a winner
The Nurburgring track is the de facto bar for testing cars. Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Ferraris all fly around the asphalt altar and post impressive numbers. It's built for insanely fast cars, and your average sedan, minivan, truck, or SUV isn't invited.
HTC Vive Pro McLaren Edition is made for Formula One fans
When HTC and McLaren announced their multi-year partnership back in May, the two had already teased an upcoming limited edition Vive headset along with some special VR content. Well, the wait is finally over for hardcore Formula One fans. As announced at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, said hardware turns out to be based on the Vive Pro full kit (not to be confused with the cheaper starter kit), which makes sense given that the Vive Pro is the official VR device for McLaren's eSports competition, Shadow Project. The Vive Pro McLaren Limited Edition is accented with the racing team's signature orange around the headset's front cameras, as well as on the menu button and strap on the controllers (2018 version, to go with the bundled Base Station 2.0 units). Naturally, this package comes with its very own box artwork. The damage for all of this is $1,549, which is a tad more than the standard full kit's $1,199 holiday offer.
BBC will broadcast every Formula E race this season
The BBC may have lost Formula 1 coverage years ago due to budget limits, but it's making up for that in style. The broadcaster has reached a deal to air every race of Formula E's 2018-2019 season in the UK, starting with the December 15th race in Saudi Arabia. In other words, it'll be very easy to follow the electric racing league if you live in the country. This is also important for exposure -- availability on a free-to-air TV network could introduce Formula E to people who otherwise wouldn't know it exists.
Roborace won't use a fully driverless car for its first season
Roborace has long talked of completely driverless cars hitting the track when its first season gets underway, but the company has had a change of heart. CEO (and Formula E winner) Lucas di Grassi has revealed to Motorsport.com that Roborace's "Season Alpha" will use a new DevBot 2.0 car with space for a human driver. The organic crews will take the wheel for part of the race, with the autonomous component taking control for the rest. Why the more conservative approach? It's a combination of shaping public perception and the nature of racing itself.
Fox Sports’ new virtual studio runs on Unreal Engine
It's no secret that Epic Games has enabled a number of gaming studios to create more-realistic visuals with its Unreal game engine. Since its debut in 1998, powering the first-person shooter Unreal, the technology has evolved to power hundreds of games, from Fortnite to Street Fighter V, and with that process, the virtual has become increasingly more realistic. Now in its fourth iteration, Unreal Engine is no longer exclusively being used for gaming, as other industries have taken notice of the possibilities. Unreal Engine 4 has become a key element for film and television in recent years, and Fox Sports is using it to power its new, completely virtual studio set. "Virtual sets have been around for quite some time, and we've done our fair share of using them," Zac Fields said. "But it's always been a struggle to give that sense of photo realism." Fields oversees Fox Sports' Graphic Technology and Integration department, which includes the addition of new gear during a studio build. He said the team started thinking about the idea of a virtual set about two years ago. Around 15 months ago, the network started getting staff familiar with the software and began tests. Then last winter, the broadcaster did a virtual show. Fields described this as a "full run-through" of a show on the virtual set that was built in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Jaguar's next-gen Formula E race car packs more power
The next wave of Formula E cars is finally trickling out, and it's clear they're considerably more exciting this season. Panasonic Jaguar Racing has unveiled the next generation of its racer, the I-Type 3, and it's a dramatic improvement even compared to Jag's last outing. The new machine is 25 percent more powerful than its predecessor without a significant change of weight, producing as much as 250kW (330HP) with a 0-62MPH time of 2.8 seconds. That's important when the league is introducing an "attack mode" that boosts the power to 225kW when a driver just has to overtake a rival.
BMW will unveil its Formula E racer next week
The fifth season of the Formula E championship is scheduled to start on December 15th in Saudi Arabia, and it will be the first one where BMW participates as an official manufacturer. While all of the cars will use the same next-generation Formula E chassis designed by Spark Racing, the components inside (electronics, inverters, gearboxes and motors) and livery are up to the teams. For this BMW iFE.18 -- last seen while testing in Spain this spring -- the company said engineers who worked on drive components for its i3 collaborated with its racing team, in a way that should allow information to flow from the track to the street (and vice versa). We'll find out more about how it looks and works when it's officially unveiled on September 14th.
Lockheed's drone challenge: create an AI pilot that beats pro racers
While autonomous drones exist, they're not usually what you'd call speedy when many skilled pilots could beat them in a race. Lockheed Martin and the Drone Racing League want to do better. They're launching an AlphaPilot Innovation Challenge that will encourage the public to develop drone AI that can not only race at high speeds, but win. Competitors will have to build an NVIDIA Jetson-based AI system that can swiftly move through the League's Artificial Intelligence Robot Racing circuit.
Amazon turned its ‘The Grand Tour’ TV series into a racing game
If you've enjoyed The Grand Tour on Amazon, here's some synergy you probably didn't see coming: The ecommerce giant's in-house studio is making the show into a video game. Before you ask, yes, hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May lend their voices to the title. But don't expect a one-and-done racing title. The game will be released piecemeal on a weekly basis during Season 3, with each episode featuring cars, locations and content from the show.
'Forza Horizon 2' leaves the Xbox Store on September 30th
We hope you weren't thinking of scoring Forza Horizon 2 on the cheap now that Horizon 4 is almost here. Turn 10 and Microsoft are removing the open-world arcade racer and its add-ons from the Xbox Games Store on September 30th. You can still play it if you have a copy, but you'll have to shell out for one of the later games if you just have to get your fix. The developer didn't explain the move beyond saying that the title was "end of life."
Tesla's Model 3 Performance has an experimental 'Track Mode'
Tesla's Model 3 is very quick, especially if you spring for the dual-motor Performance variant, but it's still tame for safety's sake. What if you want to launch an all-out assault on a race course? You might have that option soon. YouTuber Marques Brownlee recently had an opportunity to drive the Model 3 Performance on a track, and he pointed out an experimental "Track Mode" that takes the gloves off. The in-testing feature switches on "stability control and powertrain settings configured for track driving," and it's no secret what that means: you can drift, understeer and otherwise push the electric car past its usual limits.
Pro drone racing confronts its amateur roots
"The drone racing league is a sport. We are a league. We do an annual season. We have a clear rule system and scoring system," Nick Horbaczewski, founder and CEO of the Drone Racing League (DRL), enthuses in a small business suite located on the second floor of the Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas. With a deal with ESPN in the bag, his league is poised to bring the sport mainstream, and within moments of our introduction, he's let me know he's serious.
VW's electric Pikes Peak racer is now the champion at Goodwood, too
VW made good on its promise to conquer Goodwood's Hillclimb with its pure electric race car soon after tackling Pikes Peak. The I.D. R Pikes Peak was the fastest vehicle to take on the legendary ascent at the Festival of Speed, finishing the climb in a brisk 43.86 seconds -- as you'll see in the video below, driver Romain Dumas outpaces the competition almost immediately. It's the first electric car to win the Festival's shootout, and certainly the fastest EV in the competition. Second place was also an EV -- Nio's EP9 was slightly slower at 44.32 seconds.
Watch a self-driving car complete Goodwood's legendary hill climb
Want a hint of how the automotive zeitgeist is changing? You only need to look at the just-ended Goodwood Festival of Speed. Roborace has carved out a small niche in history with the first self-driving vehicle to successfully complete Goodwood's famous hill climb, where vehicles have to tackle a gradual 300-foot ascent that includes narrow hay- and brick-lined passages. It wasn't a flat-out assault, but the attempt (which was preceded by a practice run) went off without a hitch -- which you can't say for the other autonomous contender at the festival.
McLaren's expanded eSports program includes mobile racing games
McLaren is enamored with eSports -- so much so that it's expanding the scope of its program. The 2018 edition of the Shadow Project promises to be more "open and inclusive" than you might expect, letting you compete for virtual motorsports glory not just with die-hard PC racing simulators like iRacing and rFactor 2, but more forgiving experiences like Forza Motorsport on the Xbox One and even a mobile game, Real Racing 3. It may seem counterintuitive for a performance car brand to accept competitors who may only ever play casual titles, but there's reasoning here -- it's not about the games so much as the intellect involved in playing them.
Watch VW's electric racer destroy the Pikes Peak record
When VW smashed Pikes Peak's all-time record with an electric car, there was one lingering question for those who couldn't see it live: where's the footage? You've got it now. VW has posted uninterrupted aerial footage of its I.D. R Pikes Peak racer's 7-minute 57-second hill climb, and the pace is as relentless as you'd expect -- the helicopter can barely keep tabs on the EV as it makes short work of undulating turns. Moreover, it's a good primer on why electric cars are well-suited to Pikes Peak.
VW electric racer smashes Pikes Peak's overall record
VW may have been overly cautious when it hoped to beat Pikes Peak's electric vehicle record with its purpose-built racer. Official lap time data has confirmed that Romain Dumas' I.D. R Pikes Peak made it up the legendary hill in just over 7 minutes and 57 seconds, crushing not only the EV record (8 minutes and 57 seconds) but the overall record (just over 8 minutes and 13 seconds in the Unlimited class). It managed that with an average speed of 90.5MPH, clearly trouncing the 83.5MPH of its closest competitor, a Norma M20 SF PKP.
Electric GT's first race-spec Tesla Model S hits the track
Two years ago, we learned that a Tesla Model S-based electric racing series was in development. This week Electric GT holdings showed off its first race-spec Model S P100DL in Barcelona ahead of the series' planned debut in November. Its builders say the EPCS V2.3 Tesla P100DL is more than just a standard P100D with Ludicrous mode, capable of going from 0 - 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds, which is three tenths faster than the production car, and speeds up to 250 kph. The improvement comes thanks to Pirelli P Zero wet/dry tires, and a race weight that's lighter by 500kg with carbon fiber body panels and a roll cage. There's a double steel wishbone suspension up front, a new front splitter / rear wing setup for more downforce plus upgraded suspension and race brakes to keep everything under control on the track. With the 100 kWh battery on board, Electric GT expects its cars to complete 90 km on a single charge.
Jaguar breaks the world's electric boat speed record
You frequently see car manufacturers trying to break electric speed records on land, but where are the boats? Don't worry -- Jaguar, Vector and Williams feel the need for nautical speed. The trio have broken both the world and UK speed records with the Jaguar Vector Racing V20E, reaching an average speed of 88.61MPH on England's Coniston Water. While that may not sound fast, that's nearly 12MPH faster than the previous best, set all the way back in 2008.
