Michael Czysz did a
pre-race Q&A with Asphalt & Rubber.
One thing that stood out:
That’s one of the things that makes us different from Kingston and Mugen. They’ve said specifically that their bikes are designed to run only at the Isle of Man. Kingston has no interest in racing elsewhere, and Mugen has said they build the Shinden to specifically break the 100 mph lap. So if they want to come with a 50 lbs heavier bike, which they have, and that means 50 more pounds of batteries than us, then that’s a fine call for the Isle of Man, but that would be devastating if you wanted to do other things with the bike, and we do.
The 2012 E1PC bikes are 14+ kWh. Rumor and speculation pegs the Mugen bike at ~20 kWh .. as large of a pack as the Honda Fit EV. Even if it's not quite that large, certainly it is massive and the bike is significantly larger than the MotoCzysz.
The key to laptimes at IOM TT, speaking very broadly, is average power + aero + rider. Over a 22 minute lap, even a massive 20 kWh pack can only support average 55 kW power draw .. that's well under the maximum output of the current crop of motors. Moto Czysz and Mugen both did very well, they had fantastic riders but they approached the power + aero equation from opposite sides.
I think that's part of why Brammo has (so far) declined to join in the TT Zero after the inaugural race. Brammo produced a 75.350 mph lap back in 2009 on the Enertia TTR, which used an 8 kWh pack. The Empulse RR in 2011 and 2012 uses a 12.4 kWh pack - almost certainly the same cells used in the Enertia Plus and the Empulse, just 100% more than the E+ and 33% more than the Empulse. Without advanced aero, however, a 14 kWh pack will beat a 12 kWh pack, all else being equal.
I believe we're at the point with short distance course racing, as in the NA TTXGP, where more weight from a larger pack isn't necessarily helpful. Brammo might be able to put out less power than the E1PC averaged over the entire course due to a smaller pack, but that's partially compensated for using less power in general due to lower weight. As batteries get lighter and lighter, the pack capacities will go up but the pack weight will generally trend downwards. Eg if a magical double capacity cell became available, none of the racers would build a fresh start bike with a double capacity same weight pack .. they'd size it something like 80% the weight and 160% the capacity.
This isn't necessarily true for the IOM TT race.. since the corners are much higher speed and the average speeds are much higher. Capacity trumps weight on this course.
Anyways, it's going to be very interesting to see the E1PC on course at NA TTXGP. Lightning vs Moto Czysz is going to be a fun fight as always.. I hope Brammo can join in.
I think every competitor for next year will have learned their lessons from Michael Czysz, especially Mugen. 102 mph is very impressive for a first entry, although I was still surprised that they "lost". TT Zero and TTXGP are much looser with aero rules than other competitions, I hope we will see some new and interesting race designs next year that are heavily aero-optimized. I would have loved to see the feet-first entrant race.
