Driving the #27 Andretti Autosport Honda (right), Alexander Rossi sweeps across the front of pole qualifier and fellow Honda driver Colton Herta to take the lead during the first lap at Road America.
Alexander Rossi drove to an unimpeded victory in the REV Group Grand Prix as the Andretti Autosport driver led every lap but one Sunday on Road America’s high-speed circuit. Rossi with Honda power won by 28.4391 seconds over Will Power’s Chevy. There were only two passes for the lead during the snooze fest.
This gave Rossi a second victory in the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series, and the seventh of his four-year career. In what was a yawner of a race, it closed the 27-year-old Californian within seven points of the championship lead with seven races remaining. Continue reading
BMW Group Power BEV – A Regulation Forced Car
Brand attributes versus regulation requirements that are brand neutral and universal are the territory the marketing wars will be conducted over on selling EVs.
The BMW Group trial vehicle “Power BEV” presented during #NEXTGen explores what is technically and politically possible under current and proposed emissions regulations. The electric car has “fifth-generation electric drive units” with a maximum system output of the three motors of ~ 530 kW/720 hp. This enables it to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under three seconds.
In a brand defensive move – increasingly difficult with regulation spec vehicles – chassis and powertrain engineers worked to maximize the car’s performance. Key to its dynamic attributes is that the two electric motors at the rear axle are controlled separately. This allows so-called e-torque vectoring, which enables maximum drive power to be translated into forward propulsion even in extreme driving maneuvers, it’s claimed. Another aspect of this how much individual brand quirks will be transferred to an autonomous vehicle since they likely will have more than one non-brand-fan driver? Continue reading →