NISMO LEAF developmental work on the track
Here we have about an eight minute video of the NISMO LEAF RC on the track at Sodegaura Forest Raceway in Japan. Nissan is continuing with developmental work of this all new racing platform. While many readers may wonder why we are so interested in the racing capabilities of an electric LEAF, it is only because that many of the innovations that we take for granted on our day-to-day rides that we currently drive exist due to experimentation, analysis and safety concerns discovered in race cars of the past. Modern day safety features such as seat belts and anti-lock braking systems are a direct result of racing development. Anti-skid technology is also a development of past racing programs. But in addition to safety, items of special interest to electric vehicle (EV) owners will be any innovations that move us in the direction of greater range – be they derived from weight savings or technical improvements. Hopefully, both.
In the video, there is significant discussion by Nissan technical engineers with a contribution also from the NISMO LEAF test driver. Enjoy.
PS: Almost forgot… don’t forget to check out the different sets of wheels that they are running with dry or wet tires. The gold wheels are double spoke (14 spoke) while the black wheels are slim six spoke wheels. Maybe some ideas for your own LEAF when you decide to go with some lighter wheels.
While I appreciate being courteous…I feel that since a public charging infrastructure is not available, and that Nissan has been the only major electric car manufacturer that is selling cars in any real quantities, it is in their best interest to let us use the car chargers at their dealerships. It’s also a good sales and marketing tool for other customers so see how easy it is to charge your car and not go to a gas station.
Any dealers who are not welcoming to Leaf owners are short sighted and are only getting in the way of widespread adoption of electric cars.
I think they should be putting out a welcome mat for early adopters since electric cars are the future and we are taking a gamble on Nissan.
Incidentally I feel a lot of these other companies like Ecototality and others are taking federal funds and not actually installing chargers in any reasonable volumes as promised, I feel they are just stealing these funds. When you look for electric chargers they seem so sparse…and its a shame that cities like Vacaville that were pioneers have most of their chargers not functioning or not compatible with the Nissan Leaf.
Even more distressing is the city of Sacramento..the capital of California..very few electric chargers work and most of them are not compatible with the leaf….sometimes there is so much hype and not enough substance.
Sam – welcome to Living LEAF. I agree with your statements regarding Nissan dealership charging station availability. To promote EV adoption, it makes sense to make it easier for current early EV owners.
Regarding the promotion of infrastructure – especially within California – much could have been done, seemingly, to provide for a quicker, more broad-scale implementation of EVSE units statewide. That said, it appears that there have been significant regulatory challenges that created additional hurdles to jump to make the first charge stations widely available. Now it seems that some of these hurdles have been cleared, installation is moving forward.