Team APEV with MONSTER SPORT, led by the racing legend Nobuhiro
“Monster” Tajima, teamed up with Rimac Automobili. As a result, 2015 Pikes Peak
International Hill Climb Race will have a new 1.1 MW beast at the starting line,
the Tajima Rimac E-Runner Concept_One.
Rimac Automobili are once again showing their vigorous racing DNA
taking the challenge in one of the most prestigious races in the world. Mr.
Tajima’s decades long experience in racing and Rimac Automobili’s state of the
art technology and know-how brought to life a staggering creation, the Tajima
Rimac E-Runner Concept_One. It is powered by four independent electric motors,
giving the car a total power of over 1,1 MW (1,475 HP). That is more than twice
the power Mr. Tajima had in his 2014 car when he broke his own Pikes Peak
record, stopping the clock at 9:43,90.
There are no gearboxes or differentials on this car. The power of
each independent motor is transferred to each wheel by an innovative chain
drive system developed specifically for this project, which saves a lot of
weight and space. Embracing the Rimac Automobili technology, the Tajima Rimac
E-Runner Concept_One features an adapted racing version of the Rimac All Wheel
Torque Vectoring system, first implemented in the Rimac Concept_One.
The Rimac
AWTV controls the torque of each motor 100 times a second. The system can vary
the torque on each wheel depending on the steering angle, speed, longitudinal
and lateral forces, yaw-rates and number of other variables. The ECU runs the
collected sensor-data through complex mathematical algorithms which calculate
the optimum torque distribution on a millisecond-level. This enables the
vehicle to take full advantage of the tires, squeezing the maximum out of their
potential and giving the driver the desired vehicle dynamics at any given
moment. Mr Tajima will thus have both the 1,1 MW of power and maximum grip in
each of the Pikes Peak’s 156 corners.
The Pikes Peak hill climb is 19,9 km long and ends up at 4,301 m above
sea level. Petrol engines have oxygen starvation problem at that altitude - the
power of the engine decreases over 40 percent. However, electric motors don’t
use oxygen, so Mr. Tajima will have the full power of all four electric motors
available from start until the finish line.
