Drive eO is an engineering company specialised in the design and manufacturing of electric and hybrid electric prototype vehicles in Latvia, not a place known for its automotive industry.
The car competed in Colorado Springs, up the famous Pikes Peak hill climb where it set a blistering time of 9:07.222 on the 12.4-mile track, of which saw no competitors in sight.
The car is an amazing feat of engineering. The six YASA 400 electric motors are mounted deep in the chassis. The diameter of each motor is tiny, at just 280mm all round, but nevertheless they still pack a punch. Each motor delivers 170 kW at 7500rmp. This then produces 1020kW of power, just over one megawatt. What
this translates into then in
horsepower terms, is that the car
produces 1368bhp with a
peak torque 2160 N.
Impressively, that’s more than an LMP1 or F1 car.
This car is a serious bit of kit. Its all-wheel-drive and a 50 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, which is currently more than the second generation Porsche 919 Hybrid car. Everything is controlled via eO’s own controllers, which are designed in-house.
20-time class winner Rhys Millan, has always designed and built his Pikes Peak cars. For his latest car, he used an old IMSA Daytona Prototype (DP) chassis for its lightness and simplicity, (something which doesn’t need to be hugely adapted for use as his new chassis). Although it has 6 motors, it still features a Hyundai turbocharged petrol engine for energy recovery, which is taken from MGU on the front axle.
Electric motors are rather complex. They are built using a coil of wire which is free to rotate between two opposite magnetic poles (N/S). When an electrical current flows through the coil, it experiences a force and moves. The direction of the current must be reversed every half turn, otherwise the coil comes to a halt again, and therefore would stop.
Inside an internal combustion engine block, Oxygen and fuel ignite to force down a piston, which then propels the crankshaft. The magnets essentially do the same; however, the crankshaft then leads to a spline which exits the back of the motor’s case. A drive shaft is connected from the motor’s differential and leads to the rear axle, which is a limited slip diff concept, (it’s a direct drive build by Sadev). All 1368bhp is transferred onto the road by sticky Hankook R18 slick tyres with BBS magnesium alloys.
The Drive eO has two battery packs on board which contain 2646 individually tested and machined lithium ion cells, delivering 720v DC and 49Wh of energy. They wind up in a hermetically sealed and isolated aluminium containers weighing 345Kg. The battery pack is capable of a full discharge in less than eight minutes, with no need of any liquid cooling, allowing for some weight savings.
Like any electric vehicle, DC must be converted to AC, so Drive eO has designed its own Inverter. There are six controllers which are all laid together and have to be water cooled to avoid overheating.