Future Car Challenge Highlights

10/11/2011

Autocar Ace Surrenders his Title

Jim Holder, editor of Autocar magazine, was crowned champion of the inaugural Future Car Challenge in 2010 at the wheel of the prototype Volkswagen Golf Blue e-Motion. The winning combination was reunited in 2011, with the Golf Blue e-Motion now expected to go on sale in 2013.

 “I think I only won last year because of the car,” said Jim. “It’s the same car as last year but it’s a lot tougher competition with much better drivers than me.”

Autocar has dedicated increasing column space to alternative energy vehicles in the past year, a decision which Jim believes reflects both where the industry is today and where the public will be tomorrow. “I don’t think you can ignore alternative energies, whether your feelings about electric cars are positive or otherwise. It is the way it’s going, we have to use less energy in our motoring and this is the way it’s going to go.

“Personally I think they’re fantastic to drive and nobody should comment until they’ve tried it, there’s a lot of different technologies but electric cars, in the short to medium term, are the way it’s going to go.”

Assessing the field with a critical eye, Jim already had a sneaking suspicion who had taken the technology to the next step beyond today’s production cars. “The Golf is great and there are cars like the Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt which create their own power and the Nissan Leaf is are already on sale. Looking ahead, though, you’ve got Gordon Murray’s cars which are super lightweight, super high-tech vehicles which are taking it the next step.”

Classic Electric!

There were in fact 51 gorgeous Jaguar E-Types present at the Regent Street Motor Show, thanks to the Future Car Challenge. While the entrants for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run were gathered with 50 Jaguar E-Types and 50 Mini-Coopers for their shared 50th anniversary celebrations, the Future Car Challenge saw the familiar shape of an E-Type arrive in electric-powered silence, driven by Willi Balz.

“It’s ‘E’ for electric!” said a delighted Willi after completing the 60-mile trip from Brighton to London and taking his place as a star attraction at the show. “I’m a racing driver of classic cars but my in for example Goodwood or Le Mans but my work is in making offshore wind farms and so it was my idea to make a conversion from a historic car – a light historic car – to an electric system. It is a responsibility to develop this sort of technology, absolutely.”

Don Wales tries Toyota

The evocative 257mph Bluebird electric land speed record car took pride of place outside Hamley’s for the Regent Street Motor Show, giving the ‘wow’ factor for children and parents on their pre-Christmas shopping expeditions.

Project leader Don Wales, grandson of Bluebird record-breaking legend Sir Malcolm Campbell and nephew of Donald Campbell, was meanwhile busily engaged in the Future Car Challenge Auris Hybrid T-Spirit and thoroughly enjoyed the occasion.

“It’s a fabulous car and I’ve enjoyed my day – trying to drive economically and having an awareness of the road conditions around you can only improve everyone’s driving skills.

”In order to try and post a competitive performance, many of the Auris’s mod cons were switched off, making for a Spartan experience for the occupants. “We got steamed up a little but we wouldn’t put on the air conditioning, we had no radio so demisting everything by hand hopefully worked and we’ve done well,” Don said.

“This car’s built in the UK so that’s a big positive, and with the cost of petrol today a car like this will allow you to see energy being put back into your tank free of charge – what is there not to like about that?”

The Bluebird team is meanwhile raising funds to build a new £2.5 million Bluebird that aims to reach 500mph. “We went down to Pendine and tried to improve our records recently but I’m afraid we got a little bit unstuck with poor visibility and my son Joseph, who was driving as well, ended up bending the car in a mogul field! By 2013-2014 however we want to have an electric car that will do 500mph. There will be another Bluebird that will be driven by its wheels and aiming for that record.”

Kevin McCloud samples a Grand Electric Design

The Future Car Challenge brought many of the great and the good together in the name of comparing the virtues of the latest alternative energy vehicles in the real world, including Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud. Driving the bright blue Delta Motorsport car designed and built at Silverstone, the popular TV personality cut a dash in his four-seat sports car with gull-wing doors.

“It was great fun, I overtook quite a lot of cars!” said Kevin, who is one of the fastest drivers around the BBC Top Gear test track. “The point about this rally is that there’s no point driving an electric car slowly so that you expend 5.75 kilowatts instead of 6 kilowatts, the amount of fuel that it costs to get from London to Brighton is measured in pence with this car so why not enjoy it?”

The Delta’s performance remained at the forefront of Kevin’s experience on the Future Car Challenge, not having had to contend with any problems on the 60 mile hike up from Madeira Drive.

“We drove quite fast – at the speed limit – but the joy about these cars is that at the lights you can burn up anything and get past the buses and we had great fun getting here. If we put out the message that electric cars are slow then we’ve missed the boat haven’t we? The point is that these cars drive like any other in normal traffic and on the open road they’re fantastic fun with great acceleration.”

Smoothly does it for Mark Goodier

Popular DJ Mark Goodier, formerly of Radio 1 and today on Smooth FM, was delighted to be part of the Future Car Challenge, having been a pioneering owner and driver of electric vehicles for some years. Taking the wheel of a Nissan Leaf electric supermini, Mark revealed himself to be a fund of knowledge on the cars and technology on show at the event.

“I actually own a Nissan Leaf, like the one I’ve been driving today. It was one of the first in the country and I’ve had it for about six months but ordered it about 18 months earlier – I was so excited that it felt like it was the longest pregnancy ever,” he said.

“I’ve been driving electric for ten years now, so they’ve really been quite experimental things and the Leaf is the first one that really feels like a ‘normal’ car. I think all electric cars surprise people who have never tried one before because they have plenty of get up and go on acceleration and the motors are powerful and get you going very nicely.”

“I don’t think that everyone has to drive an electric car and the good thing about the Future Car Challenge is that it takes in so many different forms of alternative power to traditional petrol or diesel engines. However last year only a few cars were all-electric whereas this year more than half are all-electric and I think that shows the direction of travel because, high mileage drivers aside, it is increasingly a very, very good option for people to take.”

“I have a charging point and I’ve had 14 solar panels fitted on the roof, which develop 4.29 kilowatt hours and that’s giving us great value. If you can put solar on the roof, you can park for free in Westminster, if it’s a company car you’re not getting any benefit-in-kind tax, if the company buys the car they can write it off against tax and it starts to become a no-brainer if you live and work in an urban environment.”