Cliff (and all),
First, although I had read that excellent article in the New Times last
month and seen that photo, I had no idea that it was shot at Bicentennial
Park. Very cool!
Second, and more importantly, thank you for the excellent status report and
rundown on the entire layout of the track at Bicentennial Park and
recommendation on how an EV Autocross could work there! I agree with you
that I think this would be an excellent venue! I would even call it a
spectacular venue! I also find the prospects of higher speeds very
interesting and enticing, although I think it might be advisable for the
rest of us without high-speed racing experience to go get some formal
training at either Moroso or Homestead as a prerequisite to compete in an
Autocross with such high speeds. After all, that would be the worst
possible black-eye for EVs -- to have an otherwise avoidable accident (due
to lack of adequate racing training and/or experience) in such a
high-profile place.
Andrew Roddy and I had each spoken with Shawn after this year's BBB about
the prospects of trying to stage an event of this type, e.g. a high-profile
EV Autocross, at a more centralized location in or near downtown Miami. I
believe Shawn's response was that if it were to be part of BBB, that the
logistics of a split/dual venue event on a single weekend can be very
challenging. I would certainly take Shawn at his word on that and have to
agree with him on that, as Shawn knows better than anyone else exactly how
challenging that is, specifically from the split/dual venue of the 2006 BBB,
with the drag race at Moroso on Friday night and the Autocross and other
events at FAU Jupiter on Saturday.
So I don't know if there is any appetite for taking on a challenge like that
in some future year (maybe 2010?) -- namely, to continue to do the Friday
night drag race at Countyline, but then have the Autocross and Show 'n Shine
on Saturday afternoon, say from 1pm to 6pm, at Bicentennial Park. It's
certainly something that the FLEAA board could discuss at our next meeting.
If there *is* any appetite to explore this type of possibility for some
future year, I would suggest 2010, and I think there are a number of
conditions and prerequisites that would have to come together, fall into
place, and be taken care of and prepared well in advance, in terms of the
organizing effort.
First, let me say, that I suspect by 2010, I wouldn't be surprised if gas
prices are over $5 a gallon, which of course will very much work in our
favor for generating tremendous public interest in this and making our PR
and advertising job that much easier and have much better prospects of
success. So I think time is on our side with this, the longer we wait.
Second, just given the location, I think we would need to start the planning
for this an entire 12 months ahead of time, very seriously, with the Park
Service people and working with a media PR firm to generate publicity. I
have some high-level connections with both the Bayfront Park Superintendent
and a very high-powered Miami PR firm that I know can guarantee the coverage
of every single Miami TV station at the event. But we would have to start
that effort a full year in advance. I tried but was unable to book this
high-powered Miami PR firm for this year's BBB because we didn't really get
started in earnest on the major organizing effort for it until about 4 weeks
before the event.
Third, we would need to ensure a large enough slate of well-prepped and
tuned, high-quality, high-powered, fast electric race cars in order to make
it worth all the effort, expense, and public exposure. So, I'm thinking
like, at minimum:
1) Cliff's ProEV Imp
2) Steven Cayre's Tesla Roadster
3) Any other South Florida-based Teslas that we can coax to come out
4) Matt's Joule Injected
5) Lowell's 944
6) Al Simpler's Spyder Juice (Got your ears on, Fran?; you got your work
cut out for you on this to motivate Al and get him going!)
7) Andrew's eBox (while not looking like much of a sports car, certainly
performs like one)
8) One of Paul Liddle's electric Porsches, set up and well tuned for racing
9) Steve Clunn's 912, operative, well tuned for racing, and preferably
cleaned up cosmetically
We would need to give all these guys a year's notice and lead-time to get
their cars working properly, cleaned up, with fresh, good, new battery packs
(of whatever chemistry), broken in, controllers tuned and dialed in, etc.,
etc. In other words, none of this down-to-the-wire, last-minute stuff that
seems to be the bane of EV racing. If we're going to go to all the effort
of calling out the entire Miami media and having a large crowd of
spectactors there, then we've got to do better than what currently passes
for acceptable in our EV racing culture. And hey, I'm sorry, I'm not trying
to dis' anyone here, and I know it's easy for me to say that, as a guy who's
never done it himself and doesn't have any idea what it's like and how hard
it is. But it's for that very reason that I'm able to provide a slightly
more objective viewpoint, maybe closer to that of the non-EV public.
I'm even thinking that if we wanted to do something like this every year at
Bicentennial Park (depending on costs, etc.), that I would be interested in
working on a permanent charging station for us there with, say, maybe around
ten 50A 208V outlets in a lockbox, something like that. ... And more than
that, even making it a grid-connected solar charging station, as a
"green"/sustainability showcase for the City of Miami. I know exactly who I
could work with on that to make it happen and who would probably be willing
to do it at relatively low cost. There is a guy named John Kimball who runs
a large solar PV wholesale distributorship/outlet just about 3 blocks away
from Bicentennial Park. I met him several months ago at his PV warehouse
together with Bill Young of FSEC, who goes way back, over 20 years, with
John, and introduced me to him. Bill and I spent an entire afternoon
hanging out with him. Kimball sells PV modules on the cheap, cheaper than
anyone else. He's also a really good guy. I'm just sure that I could get
him interested in project like this. Just think of the spectacular
synergies all coming together on this, in such a spectacular venue in the
heart of downtown Miami -- an annual high-speed EV Autocross race, at
Bicentennial Park, with the electric cars all being charged from a
grid-connected PV solar charging station located at the track/park. Oh man,
the media would just eat it up!
I was up in Tallahassee last week, and the building where we had our meeting
had a large solar PV electric car charging station right outside the
building in the parking lot. I checked it out and took photos of it. That
will be my newest addition to our charging station list. There is just
something beautiful, amazing, magical, and awesome about a solar charging
station, electric cars charging from solar energy, EV + PV.
Anyway, there I go dreaming again. But I think a Tesla or two would be a
huge draw for something like this.
Thanks again, Cliff, for the excellent status and layout report on
Bicentennial Park and Autocross recommendations!
Charles Whalen
----- Original Message -----
From: "montreal73" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Charles Whalen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "FLEAA Mailing List"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: [FLEAA] April 20 Miami Earth Day event(s) dilemma: 2 choices
Charles,
<Is that Bicentennial Park track layout still the same as in
> that ariel photo that Allan gave, or has it been torn up or deteriorated
> from neglect with multiple potholes, etc. since last used?
The track sections in the park that I have looked at, are in good shape. The
photo shoot for New Times last month was done on the north section of the
track. http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/photoGallery/index.php?id=469131&p=1
In this picture, we have our front right wheel up on the large yellow berm
that marks the apex of the corner.
When we want a 'racy' picture, this is the closest and easiest spot to get
to. Normally, we set up the other direction, zoom out, catching the track
and the ocean background. There were a couple of junky trucks and cane pole
fisherman that day that would have spoiled the effect.
<... Speaking of
> which, by the way, when was it last used for racing?
There was a downtown street race in Bayfront Park in 2002 and 2003 that did
not use the Bicentennial section. I think the last time they used this
section was 1995.
> I get so ambitious and manic just looking at that ariel photo of
> Bicentennial Park that it conjures up images in my mind of not just an EV
> Autocross but also of a track race sort of thing around that double-S/oval
> combo, although maybe just a "time trial" sort of thing where only one car
> races around the track at a time.
Unfortunately, the way the track is laid out requires the use of Biscayne
Blvd to complete the circuit. Google Earth shows the area well.
BTW For EV trip planning, Google Earth is great. It lets the EVers see and
plan each trip. It allows marking and saving places, so you can quickly
figure out how many miles the trip will be. Making a 'EV Charger Station'
layer that we could make available to FLEAA members should be easy. Google
Earth is a free downloadable program available at http://earth.google.com/.
<I have some
> high-level connections to the Superintendant of Bayfront Park that I could
> try to pull, if there is ever any interest in us having at least an EV
> Autocross at Bicentennial Park. And with Steven Cayre soon to take
> delivery
> of his Tesla in Miami, ... wow! ... what kind of drawing power would that
> be?!?!
I do think it would be a great venue. It might work as a autocross. Start at
the north end where the track is parallel to the water. Run the track
section south (which is backwards to the way it was used). Put the finish
line in the middle of the big double curve leaving slow down room. This set
up means lots of run-off room and never a point where a car might go into
the water.
We could stage the all the cars at the north end and then have them wait in
the big parking lot for all runs to be complete. When everyone is done, all
drive back to the north end to stage for another run. Or, after their run,
the drivers take Biscayne Blvd and the exit for 395 East at legal speeds to
rejoin the quay for another run.
The challenges would be a wireless connection for the start/ finish timer.
At least three walky-talkies equipped observers to make sure the track is
clear (start , finish, and on the hill in the middle). And
insurance/permission. It is a funny curvy course. I would guess the Electric
Imp would hit 80-90 MPH.
Cliff Rassweiler
Driver
ProEV's Kokam Battery powered Electric Imp
www.ProEV.com
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