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[af1 racing]

AF1 Racing took a Energica Ego to the Texas Mile event last weekend.  The Texas Mile is a standing start mile long top speed test.  We had two identical best runs of 161.6mph.  The acceleration on it was awesome, hitting nearly 130mph at the end of the 1/4 mile, 150mph at the half, and topped out just after the 1/2 mile. 

here is video from our first run at 160.6mph


Tried all kinds of final drive gearing and riding techniques and nothing seemed to really matter.   Tried cruising the first 1/4, then going wide open, to see if we could get a burst of higher speed at the end.  We used 10% of the pack per "lap"  (run-coastdown-around to timing tent, and back to pits).  We could have gone all weekend on a single charge.  We did top up every night though.  We did 9 runs total.

The fans at the track loved it, we answered lots of great questions, and people were real positive about an electric competing there.  Very impressive top speed number for a production bike.  We were the only EV there.   The got to see the future, now.

[Curt]

Congratulations!

If you hadn't charged at all, wouldn't the drop in battery voltage result in lower top RPM?

10% per run also seems like a lot. The battery drain at such high speeds must be enormous.

That is one beautiful bike.

[SBK74]

Well done!

however, my question is: how did you achieve 160 mph while the Ego is limited to 150mph and what does the speedo display as top speed?

[af1 racing]

Well done!

however, my question is: how did you achieve 160 mph while the Ego is limited to 150mph and what does the speedo display as top speed?

speedo reads off motor RPM, all our runs were done with taller than stock gearing since we kept our smaller than stock 38T on the back, and ran 16-17-18T fronts.  Dash showed high 130s low 140s.  We were so excited to see the real numbers at the timing tent.

the 10% drain was a little less than we expected, it was about a 4.5 mile "lap" (run-coast down-timing tent-back to pit area-back to starting line).  We didn't seem to be getting regen on the coastdown, prob related to it just spending 23 seconds dumping full power and not being ready to take the energy back right away. 

At 70% SOC we didn't seem to lose any performance.  Should have checked it all the way down, but we think the loss would be minimal down to like 15-20% SOC.

What a fun weekend otherwise, we had Motorcycle Missions and a bunch of US veterans as our pit crew helping out.  They were awesome, and fun to hang out with.   www.motorcycle-missions.org.   Helping vets with PTSD thru motorcycles.

Racing an electric has to be the easiest racing we've ever done.  No fuel, no tuning, no warm up, no overheating, no leaks, no spills, no mess.   We just plugged it in at night.  Twist to full throttle and hang on.  No shifting, no clutch.

The Moto-E bikes are going a little bit faster top speed with the same motor, controller, but a different battery.

We wish we'd gotten more runs, but the first two days so many ICE cars/bikes blew up or caught on fire causing long delays for track cleanup.

[Doug S]

We wish we'd gotten more runs, but the first two days so many ICE cars/bikes blew up or caught on fire causing long delays for track cleanup.

And so many people are scared to death of Li-ion battery fires. Lordy.

Kind of reminds me of a couple of years ago. Someone took a Tesla Model S to the Nurburgring, and people were laughing because it shut itself down to keep itself from overheating too badly. "What kind of performance car does that?" they said, though the Model S isn't sold as a performance vehicle.

Then, literally a week later, Acura was testing a prototype of their new NSX at the 'ring, and it CAUGHT FIRE and burned to the ground. Would you rather your car catches fire or shuts itself down to prevent any damage? Perspective, people.

[ultrarnr]

af1,

Did the bike seem like there was a lot more at the top end once it stopped accelerating? I ask because I have a friend who took a stock Ego out and tested it. They said the bike pulled really hard all the way to 150 MPH and then just wouldn't go any faster, like there was a lot left but it was electronically limited. What was your experience? Thanks, Vinny

[af1 racing]

af1,

Did the bike seem like there was a lot more at the top end once it stopped accelerating? I ask because I have a friend who took a stock Ego out and tested it. They said the bike pulled really hard all the way to 150 MPH and then just wouldn't go any faster, like there was a lot left but it was electronically limited. What was your experience? Thanks, Vinny

kind of the same feeling, it hits top speed with such authority it feels like there is lots more left in it.  Some of that maybe how we think it should feel based on our ICE experiences.  hp/torque curves are so different on EV.

We still have RPMS we can pull, but its hitting a limit of some kind.  Either firmware in the motor controller limiting the power, or we are simply maxed out with regards to the controller size, or motor output.  Aero becomes a very big deal at those speeds, and we somehow need more power from the battery, motor, or motor controller or a combo of all three to go any faster.

[MostlyBonkers]

Very interesting, thanks for posting and congrats too!

How would you compare the performance to a modern piston powered sports bike? What size engine would you need to get the same or better results? I'm guessing around 600cc?  A 600 wouldn't make more than about 130bhp but would have at least a 60kg weight advantage and presumably better aero due to a smaller size of bike.  Maybe.

I don't suppose you have access to a Lightning LS218 by any chance? I'd love to see the results from one of those!  :-)