EV Drive Day at Mount Panorama

[Dark Angel]

Went to an EV drive day at Mt Panorama race circuit yesterday. Free tickets and allowed to drive as many different EV cars as were available.

First drive: BYD Shark. Hybrid dual cab ute with a 1.5L turbo petrol range extender, slightly bigger than a 4x4 Hilux but not seppo tank sized.
Impression: Very nice to drive. Well finished and with solid effortless acceleration up Mountain Straight

Second Drive: BMW iX2 eDrive 30
Impression: Sublime! No noise in the cabin. Nothing. Zip. Nada. No engine noise, no road noise, NOTHING. Just pure comfort and VERY good acceleration up the mountain. Hard, really hard, to keep below the 60kph limit (they didn't get permission to close the track for the day)

Third drive: MG4 XPower
Impression: I said to the MG rep "I'm gonna do the thing". He said "Go right ahead!" So I nailed the pedal to the floor.
HOOOOOOLLLLLEEEEEEEFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!!! Five hours later and my neck still hurts from how hard I got snapped back! I was told it did 0-100 in 3.8s up front. I really should have respected that a LOT more! The acceleration was BRUTAL and not even a chirp from the tyres! MG bloke just sat there giggling like a school boy.

Fourth drive: Volvo XC40 Recharge
Impression: Not as nice as the BMW nor as hard accelerating as the MG (thank fcuk!) This one had one-pedal-drive mode active, no need to go for the brakes coming down onto Conrod straight, just ease off the pedal and the regen braking took care of it.

For reference this video starts on Pitt Straight, then a left hand turn onto Mountain straight

[Grogan]

That sounds like a very useful event, getting to test drive them.

One of my parents' cars is a Ford hybrid, it's pretty slick. Saves a lot on gas (very few trips to fill up) and it's more practical around here than the plug-in EV's, or plug-in hybrids. I'd get one of those, but I don't trade my vehicles in every few years like they do, so I'm leery of the added complexity and repair bills. I don't do much driving anymore, anyway. Out for supplies once or twice a week, and one 30 minute trip on most Saturdays (not every week in winter).

I've never heard of the single pedal controls, that's kind of scary to change long standing convention like that.

[Dark Angel]

It still has regular brakes, the single pedal thing is just an optional setting. You still need to use the regular brakes to hold position and the car won't power on unless you hit the button while holding the brake pedal in.

I'd like a plug in hybrid, it would suit my particular use-case very nicely. Still charges off the petrol engine on a trip, with regen braking etc, but you can top off the battery with a trickle charger when at home. I know someone that has one and his only starts the engine when he drives between towns. Around town it's all electric.

[Grogan]

That's better then, if it's just an optional assist.

I really like the sound of that MG4 XPower though. That's one thing I like is acceleration, because I do a lot of passing. Mine is very good at that, if I press "sport" (turns off overdrive) on the automatic transmission. It will pin you back in the seat.

[Zema Bus]

No Teslas there? That does sound useful (and fun) getting to test drive them all in one place. There are some EV versions of muscle cars where they've added artificial engine sounds, inside and out.

This is my only experience driving an EV:

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Back in the 90's when I was working as a student assistant in college for several years.

[Dark Angel]

There was a Tesla there, a Model 3 I think. I deliberately ignored it. Because fuck Musk and especially fuck the cyber-dumpster.

Every car I drove had really good acceleration and had it from nothing, no build up like an ICE powered car. That MG was really something else though. I've never driven anything like it. For comparison, a guy I knew many years ago had a police pursuit special he got at auction. Those things came with a race spec 5.0L V8, very potent for it's time. My friend was a mechanic and went through it and corrected everything they'd done to de-tune it for the road. It was a tricky thing to drive, very aggressive, and lighter than the MG. It wouldn't hold a candle to the acceleration the MG had out of the box let alone the road holding.

[Grogan]

From what I know of it, Teslas are the worst, even without the "fuck Musk" sentiment (which is mutual, of course).

I don't think the cops have anything special here, certainly not economy cars, but they don't do a lot of chasing here.

[Dark Angel]

The cop special was, in it's day, something special here.
1984, VK Commodore with a very highly tuned 304ci (4.9L to be accurate) V8. The biggest difference between it and the Group A race car was the exhaust headers and the tuning to suit. My friend replaced the cast iron manifolds and stock two inch exhaust with tuned length extractors, a three inch pipe, and a monster 4 barrel carby to suit. The difference was significant, including to fuel consumption but we paid a lot less back then. Back then the cops WOULD chase you. No question. They LIVED for it! The best part of this thing though was that it was a plain white sedan. Nothing more than the brand and model badges. Nothing to tip you off it even had a V8 in it (202ci straight 6s were the common variant) let alone a hot one except that big tail pipe.

[Grogan]

That sounds awesome... I miss the cars from the 70's and early 80's. I used to like my grandpa's big old Ford LTD, that was a great car to drive. Of course it would feel awful now, being used to front wheel drive vehicles with tight, reactive steering etc.

You really can't outrun the cops, something is likely to happen that they catch up with you. You can sometimes evade them though, if you are far enough ahead that they haven't got your plate yet. If you are able to turn, and turn again etc. and they don't know where you went. Don't ask how I know

[Dark Angel]

Here they still like to chase, but they also like to use licence plate cameras.

In the state north of me, Queensland, they REALLY like to chase. They went so far as to set up a Hyabusa (1400cc superbike, does 350kph) with all the cop toys just to make a point.

[Zema Bus]

In high school I got to drive an ex-cop car in my drivers ed class. It was an early 70's Dodge and probably had a 440. Nice deep throaty exhaust and a lot of power. It still had the black & white cop car paint scheme. In the 80's and 90's the cop cars here were mostly Ford Crown Victorias but they seemed to have all switched to SUVs after Ford stopped making the Crown Victoria.

I learned how to lose the cops in GTA 4 and 5

[Grogan]

Who knew Aussies would have some Mad Max in them

(Couldn't resist, but I can picture cops chasing people on long, straight stretches of road there.)

P.S. Zema, that's similar to here. Crown Victorias in the past, but now they drive those SUV style cars.

[Dark Angel]

We don't have that many forced induction cars though.
I mean there was a super charged V6 Holden (GM) and a turbo straight six (Ford) ... oh and the twin turbo BMWs the cops in my state are currently using ... yeah, and the company that makes the Sprintex under bonnet screw blower ... yeah maybe a little more than I thought