Drag-racing the i-MiEV

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jray3

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
1,871
Location
Tacoma area, WA
Well it finally happened. Seattle EV Assoc president Steve Lough ran his i down the track. It covered the quarter-mile in 19.8 sec at 68.4 mph.
I'm glad Steve finally collected the stats, especially since I decided to stay home and wrench on my conversion and pusher trailer.
Wear you shades to protect from the blinding flash of sun-starved Seattle skin, or skip ahead to 0:30!
:cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTpaPVn5RX0&feature=youtu.be
 
Hi JAY... Thanks to the iMiev Forum for letting me IN.

First: Because this is under the sub-blog..." Suggestions to Mitsubishi" I have a BIG ONE

Who in heaven and earth can pronounce iMiev" IiiMMMeeeeeevvveee" It garners NO IMMAGE, and means even less !

How about like the Writing on the side of the car reads.." Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle"

PRONOUNCED "Mi - EV" My EV ! ! ! GET IT !!!

No wonder in the US they sell "Mi-EV's" by the hundreds, and in Europe by the Tens Of Thousands..
IN RED TOO

Secondly: The drag race. I was duly impressed. the 1/8th mile was 55 MPH, and as Jay posted
the terminal velosity was just under 70 !! Not bad at all for just 50+ kw AC Motor.
 
While iMiEV isn't the best car name I could think of, at least it's better than most of the monikers Volkswagen hangs on their cars - Tiguan, Passat, Touareg, Routan, Lavida, etc, etc

iMiEV even beats Prius, at least in my book - What 'image' does that conjure up?

Don
 
Hey Steve. Glad to see you here.

When I first got in 'Mi EV' I was expecting times near what my Gen1 Insight would do. Roughly timing the first 1/8th confirmed it's pretty close, but I hadn't made it out to a full quarter. Doesn't look like we'll be beating Wayland's Insight times anytime soon. Also the burnouts leave something to be desired by comparison... ;-)

Michael

FYI your old 'Leopard did over 8 years on my set of T105's (mostly due to Pat Sweeney's 'blue box') and then another two years before they had to start swapping batteries after it moved to North Carolina. I think it's still driving around there. Closing in on 35 years...
 
stevenslough, thanks for the video. Sadly, I read the 0-60mph time as 00:56 - 01:10 on the video which results in 14 seconds. Darn, I though we were around 12seconds. Just goes to show that this parameter is not representative of real driving needs as I usually find myself crowding the cars in front of me getting onto the Interstate. I like to accelerate early and hit the traffic flow at 65mph whereas so many (expletive deleted) SUVs mosey up the ramp at 35mph and then gun it, or, as occasionally happens, wander out onto the freeway at 35mph causing the oncoming traffic to scatter. :evil: </rant>

stevenslough, if you do this again, try pumping up those tires to 60psi and be sure the heater and aircon are off and your battery is fully charged. :roll:
 
JoeS said:
stevenslough, if you do this again, try pumping up those tires to 60psi and be sure the heater and aircon are off and your battery is fully charged. :roll:
And find a hack to undo the software-limited acceleration! :lol:
 
JoeS said:
stevenslough, thanks for the video. Sadly, I read the 0-60mph time as 00:56 - 01:10 on the video which results in 14 seconds. Darn, I though we were around 12seconds.
I know what's wrong - You guys are doing this on level ground! :lol:

That's no way to set records in EV's :mrgreen:

Don
 
I think a euro spec i-MiEV could do a little better than this due to the lower weight and different reduction gear ratio.
 
Don said:
...it's better than most of the monikers Volkswagen hangs on their cars - Tiguan...
The Tiguan is extraordinarily close to the Filipino word for "senior citizen". My wife and I get a giggle whenever we see one.
 
Emerald City Joules finally made the NEDRA web page, and once the times were posted I noticed something funny. Though the LEAF is 2 seconds quicker, as expected, the top speeds were almost identical in the quarter mile.

NEDRA NEWS - WASHINGTON (August 24, 2013) NEDRA had it's second annual Emerald City Joules event at Pacific Raceways in Seattle, Washington. There was a great turnout with several EVs racing. Here are some of the racing results.

Dave Denhart's 2008 Tesla Roadster - [email protected] mph
Rich Rudman's Mustang conversion - [email protected] mph
Eric Johanson's 2012 Nissan Leaf - [email protected] mph
Steve Lough's Mitsubishi MIEV - [email protected] mph
- See more at: http://www.nedra.com/#sthash.lPnP0DNx.dpuf
 
aarond12 said:
Don said:
...it's better than most of the monikers Volkswagen hangs on their cars - Tiguan...
The Tiguan is extraordinarily close to the Filipino word for "senior citizen". My wife and I get a giggle whenever we see one.
Ah . . . . Tagalog! That takes me back to an earlier time - I spent a couple years at Clark AB way back when

Don
 
Here's some great video of an i getting dynoed. The laughter from the peanut gallery kinda quiets down when they see the hp curve (or lack thereof- it's just plain flat). 73.2 hp= 54 kW, and they claim it hit 80 hp on one run. Wonder whether the dyno was tuned a little on the generous side, or the iMiEV was spec'd conservatively?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI-bCZ_lKtw
 
So I'm coming off of a short highway stretch and spot a white Tesla up ahead. My response when I see an EV, Pavlovian, my wife says, is to speed up and check out the car and driver. Upon occasion, I have even had a short conversation with another EV driver. But I DO NOT drool.

But, he's lead footing it; I had to stomp in it to catch him, which if it wasn't for the light, I woudn't have. But I do catch him at the light and his attention. After complementing him on his car, a P90D, and hearing from him how great the car is, he looks at the iMiev and says: "What's that your driving?"

Sigh. I explained that it was a Mitsubishi iMiev and that it was all electric.

His response, with jaw dropping, was: "Really!?!"

I then explained that it cost under $10k.

This was followed by a short silence and a peel of laughter. So my response was: "It's quick, wanna drag race?"

He just about fell out of his car laughing, but said: "OK!"

The light turned and I floored it. Well, we were dead even for the first 10 feet . . .well, maybe 8 feet. . . Or maybe 3 feet. . . And he was gone, pedal to the metal. There was no other car near him, me included.

I really do appreciate the speed of the iMiev when floored, but I've never seen anything as fast as that Tesla before in person. It was a rocket.

My wife laughed at the story, but no, didn't toss me a bone. . .

Now, for the next EV in sight....
 
I once was beside a Tesla at a red light. I knew the driver and was hoping to do a quick jolt up to the speed limit, but he turned. What a killjoy!

I did come across a Camaro ZL1 driver who was in a hurry. We ended up both being front cars at a red light. Light turns green, I hear him gun it, so I plant the pedal. I held him to 42 MPH before he started pulling ahead of me. At that point, I backed off as I approached the speed limit.
 
That's been my experience with ICE cars also; their acceleration just isn't that great.

EV's tho, is another question.
 
Question regarding drag-racing and battery charge level.

We all know the i-MiEV has about a two-second ramp-up time delay before achieving full battery current (about 155A) when we floor it. Infuriating, when we know it could be so much quicker off the line.

155A appears to be the maximum current, no matter what the SoC.

I've brought this up before, but never had much feedback and, frankly, have not tried to take measurements to validate the following:

Does battery charge level influence 0-60 drag-race times?

A fully-charged i-MiEV with a 360vdc battery pack would, if the voltage didn't sag a bit, put out 360v*155A = 55.8kW = 74.8hp

For example, a partially-charged i-MiEV has a battery level of, say, 330vdc; thus, 330v*155A = 51.2kW = 68.6hp

Thus stands my question.
 
JoeS said:
Sadly, I read the 0-60mph time as 00:56 - 01:10 on the video which results in 14 seconds. Darn, I though we were around 12seconds.

Could anybody tell which model that was? Steel vs. aluminum wheels alone could probably make the difference between 12 and 14 seconds.
 
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