Here’s What NASCAR’s Electric Race Car Sounds Like
It’s all motor. Electric motor.
NASCAR demonstrated its new electric vehicle prototype on the Chicago Street Course on Sunday morning, following its Saturday reveal at the temporary track.
The vehicle features a generic NASACAR-branded SUV-style body on a Next Gen chassis that has been equipped with an all-wheel-drive powertrain comprised of three electric motors.
The total output is more than 1,300 hp and the 78 kWh battery pack is partially recharged while driving through regenerative braking, which uses the motors as generators to help slow the vehicle down in the same way that production electric vehicles and hybrids do.
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NBC Sports reporter Dustin Long posted videos of the car doing a standing start and a full-speed pass along a straight section of track.
Its sound is pure electric motor and similar to the Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck that was entered in this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
It apparently does not use any digital or amplified enhancements like Dodge’s Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust.
NASCAR hasn’t said exactly how quick or fast it is, but test driver David Ragan said it has “incredible” acceleration.
NASCAR isn’t immediately planning to put it into any type of competition, but said that it is best suited for road courses and short tracks where it can take advantage of the regenerative braking.
The battery would be quickly depleted on intermediate ovals and superspeedways and the time required to recharge it with a plug would be too long for pits stops with current technology.
Ragan tested it a Martinsville Speedway and on the quarter-mile short track that was built inside of the Los Angeles Coliseum for the 2024 Busch Light Clash, but video of those sessions has not been released.
The car was set to make its public debut at The Clash, but the race was moved from Sunday to Saturday due to approaching inclement weather and the reveal delayed until Chicago.
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