Rollout of ‘julier’ Formula Student Race Car

[Sombrero]

More infos at

http://mcuoneclipse.com/2013/05/19/roll ... -race-car/

This project remember me some first gen Can-Am cars like the AVS Mk I for example.

Electric, but nice and interesting.

[Tim.Wright]

One thing I've never understood with electric cars, is the fetish for hub mounted motors. More unsprung mass and 4 motor+gearboxes instead of 1.

Ok, torque verctoring would be one advantage, but apart from that?

Cool car though.

[Greg Locock]

Hub motors simplify packaging a lot and 2 studies by Damien Harty and Lotus showed that the degradation in ride and handling wasn't as bad as you might think - in fact for the car they looked at there was an optimum unsprung mass somewhat greater than the current design, albeit not as great as a typical wheel motor.

I agree with the durability questions on the idea.

[Lycoming]

Hub motor means no driveshaft and no joints. Particularly at the front, it's easier to package it in the hub, at least on a car like that; there's no room for motors in the footwell. You do pay for it somewhat as its somewhat of a tricky thing to integrate within a 10" rim, but if you're using 4 motors, they can individually be smaller. On the reasonably smooth tracks that car will race on, unsprung mass is not a huge corcern. It's not a rally car after all.