I was recently covering a story on the future of American racetracks and the challenges they face today, when I stumbled upon something interesting – the problem with racing electric cars.
As nearly any article concerning the future of the automotive hobby is wont to do, I’ve been asking about alternative energy cars, and what the green movement means for track racing and drag racing. The general consensus seems to be that no one has a problem with these green cars racing, in fact, a few of the local tracks have seen the odd Prius throw a 17 second quarter-mile.
But, just as no one cares if the green tech does race, no one cares if it doesn’t either. And why is that, well, it’s boring. Racing comes with drama, flair, sometimes flames. Racing comes with the angry growling of big block engines and tires streaking down thick, sprayed tarmac.
The noise is the brilliance, the noise makes those 11 second runs seem somehow so much slower and so much faster at the same time. When one goes to a drag race they want to feel the rumble of pissed off, hyped up dragsters reverberating through their skulls. They want to know, down to the tips of their toes, that when that car, vibrating on the starting line, takes off it will peel off the top layer of track as it shifts the worlds tectonic plates apart, from sheer, fiery speed.
The electric car will not do that. The electric car, even the wild and unexpected Tesla, is too subdued, too polite, too well-mannered for that kind of brashness. When the electric car takes off the line it does so, not like a bat out of hell, but like the refined, behaved, all around delicate car that it is.
I
t may run a fantastic time, it may rip to shreds the quarter-mile of every GTR, Stingray, and M3, it may hold the title of fastest car of the year, leave trails of eco-friendly tire behind, but, short of summoning Captain Planet himself, it will not be exciting to watch.
As both an automotive enthusiast, aware that things have to change, and a nature gal, who could spend sunny afternoons barefoot and covered in dirt, I know that eco-cars are the way of future. I know that the Prius and the Volt and the Tesla will create a sustainable industry in the years to come. But I also know that there’s nothing quite like the sound of angry, revved up engines make mincemeat of racetracks to the tune of 8 pounding cylinders.
Automakers take note.
Images by Ruby Rae Scalera