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RE: Old Firefighters Never Die: They Just Smell Smoky
An electric car race, huh? I like it! I'm sure those cars are well insulated from problems with rain, or puddles, or anything like that. When they catch on fire, or when they crash and someone's pinned inside--well, that can be a problem. We've had training on electric cars, and it basically boils down to trying to get the main power shut off.
Formula E is a pretty interesting series. Interesting to watch, and well organised and produced. The race tracks are mostly temporary tracks inside cities like Rome, Mexico City, Paris, Bern, Berlin ect.
What's puzzling at first is, that they are so silent. Usually it's a hell of a noise when a bunch of race cars drives by - but these are only humming. You can even hear it if they collide a little bit.
But yes, them being electric requires some precautions. They have a massive battery pack in them, that allows them to drive for 45 minutes at race speed - and thats up to 170 mph.
If a car breaks down, they have to disengage the battery before they start salvage work. Usually the driver does that with a master switch, and there is a light in front of the cockpit that shows its status. Over all, the cars are very safe, kind of Formula 1 standard. This year was the 5th season and nobody got seriously hurt so far, and there was no incidents with the batteries bursting into flames. But it can happen of course, as we know from mobile phones and other devices with Lithium batteries. Tesla cars have had such issues, too, but not often. And its not as if petrol cars never catch fire - even without any accident. Seen that myself on the motorway: a whole family standing in a field, watching their nice Mercedes burn down on the hard shoulder of the motorway.
But in a accident it can easily become a fire hazard if Lithium batteries get damaged, as this video shows:
This is from a popular british motor show, formely known as "Top Gear", until the BBC cancelled the show and Amazon hired the 3 guys who were in it.
And in one episode they took part in a hill climb race in Switzerland, I think, each with a different car. Richard Hammond, who they like to play jokes on, got a 1 million Euro worth prototype electric car from the Kroatitian company Rimac, with 1200 bhp. No pressure, you know... :)
And after crossing the finish line, he... well, forgot to brake in time and went down a hill side. He broke a leg in this and the car went up in smoke. Luckily some people managed to pull him out of the car fast enough. That was in 2017.
Ah, I do miss the Top Gear guys ... sadly, I don't get Amazon.
The original Top Gear was still on the air with a different cast, last I heard--but it just isn't the same.
The continuation on BBC is called "Extra Gear", you can watch that on Netflix, if you have that. If not... don't worry about it. It's trying to be like Top Gear, only without the sillyness of the 3 guys, without humor and without any new ideas.
I just recorded something new they're calling "Top Gear", but I haven't seen it yet--maybe they're sticking with that name here in America. Or more likely it's something else completely different, since I don't get Netflix, but I'll find out ... there used to be an American version of Top Gear which was, of course, not as good, but I thought it got canceled. In any case, I can't imagine they'll ever recapture the imagination of the original three.