Limiting power?

[olliewebb]

Wonder how some people would cope driving a 40 ton truck ?

Don't think it would fit in my work car park.

I've piloted plenty canal boats though.

 

[siteguru]

The advice is to accelerate on a slip road to such a speed as to match the traffic flow on the road you are joining and merge safely not floor the bastard and see what happens whether it has 100 bhp or 500bhp.

That's all well and good, but as the photo showed earlier ... that's not always possible; some slip roads are virtually non-existent.

 

[olliewebb]

The advice is to accelerate on a slip road to such a speed as to match the traffic flow on the road you are joining and merge safely not floor the bastard and see what happens whether it has 100 bhp or 500bhp.

My point being you don't know what will happen, you could brush the throttle and it could scream away, or you could floor it and it'll feel like the handbrake is on.

Do you see the issue? And before you go on about trucks again, you know what a truck is going to do because you know the weight in the back when it's loaded.

This car doesn't tell you what's going to happen until you do it.

Imagine having an ICE car with an intermittent misfire, would you fix it? I know I would.

 

[gary333]

You can tell people don't live in a rural setting here.

Busy road, joining with no slip road at 60mph. You could sit and wait, but you might be there forever with traffic backing up behind you. What you need is a punchy car that can safely get you into a gap.

Also dual carriageways that have essentially no proper slip road too, you have to get to 70mph in the safest way, I'm gonna floor it (sorry, not sorry). An example here on the A1 to a place I go a bit with the TF:

View attachment 41399
And that's a long one.

When you go to put your foot down and you sometimes get half the power you're expecting, it's not exactly safe. This is why the car should tell you before you do.

I want strong acceleration, I don't give a monkeys about top speed, hence a high powered EV.

And to be clear I'm talking about peak travel times here, which is not when I'm driving a 23 year old MG, or a 56 year old one, and then when traffic is really bad I use the bike, because if you're sat in traffic you're not, you are the traffic.

Ultimately after two years with the car I can say it's a bit like the Genie from Disney's Aladdin, "Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space battery." I've driven a Smart #1 Brabus and the drop in power at low SoC was no where near as much, and I'm hopeful the IM5 will be better too. Because genuinely it feels like going from a 3.0 turbo inline 6 (BMW B58) to a 1.5 turbo three pot (BMW B38) when it's cold (under 2ºc) and you're getting under 40% charge.

Maybe because I'm a lot younger than people who tend to own these cars, but when I learnt to drive I was taught to use the power of the car to get up to traffic speed asap.

Pah! You’ve got a run way sized slip road there, you wanna see this beauty when Nottingham’s race car drivers are all gunning it at 85+ here on the A52

Street View of Borrowash · Google Maps

Derby, UK

www.google.co.uk

 

[olliewebb]

Pah! You’ve got a run way sized slip road there, you wanna see this beauty when Nottingham’s race car drivers are all gunning it at 85+ here on the A52

https://maps.app.******/6LXA8nXG5P4xQ5FG7

I did say that was a long one.

 

[gary333]

I did say that was a long one.

I know mate, I was having a joke as there's loads of these junctions about where there's zero slip road and cars gunning it at well over 70mph where having a faster car is useful. Here's one of the many on the A1.

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

 

[tsedge]

You can tell people don't live in a rural setting here.

Er... what? I live in rural Devon, about as a rural as you can get around me.

Busy road, joining with no slip road at 60mph. You could sit and wait, but you might be there forever with traffic backing up behind you. What you need is a punchy car that can safely get you into a gap.

There are loads of slip roads like that around here and I have zero problems getting up to speed with the traffic.

Getting up to speed does not require 429 horsepower and if you do deploy all of that at once, you're only going to surprise people on the road as you suddenly appear and muscle into a tiny gap when they are not expecting it, which is exactly how accidents happen.

When you go to put your foot down and you sometimes get half the power you're expecting, it's not exactly safe. This is why the car should tell you before you do.

There are ZERO circumstances when you NEED 429bhp on the public road. You might choose to deploy it all - hopefully when the roads are clear - but that is for fun, not for necessity.

You should never be doing so in busy traffic. You will just cause accidents.

I want strong acceleration, I don't give a monkeys about top speed, hence a high powered EV.

What you want is irrelevant. You have a responsibility to drive safely while minimising risk and being courteous to other drivers. It certainly doesn't sound like you do any of that - but perhaps I misunderstood?

Maybe because I'm a lot younger than people who tend to own these cars, but when I learnt to drive I was taught to use the power of the car to get up to traffic speed asap.

I bet you weren't in a 429bhp car when you were learning. Obviously your instructor did not mean full send in an XPower.

Like I said, I have no problem with you enjoying your car when the traffic is light in good conditions when you pose a minimal risk to others.

But if you are connecting that level of power as being necessary to join busy traffic or overtaking on busy roads, or on a regular busy commute rather than a weekend drive, then in my opinion you need to seriously re-evaluate your driving before you hurt someone.

 

[Everest]

what he said ^^^

 

[olliewebb]

Er... what? I live in rural Devon, about as a rural as you can get around me.

There are loads of slip roads like that around here and I have zero problems getting up to speed with the traffic.

Getting up to speed does not require 429 horsepower and if you do deploy all of that at once, you're only going to surprise people on the road as you suddenly appear and muscle into a tiny gap when they are not expecting it, which is exactly how accidents happen.

There are ZERO circumstances when you NEED 429bhp on the public road. You might choose to deploy it all - hopefully when the roads are clear - but that is for fun, not for necessity.

You should never be doing so in busy traffic. You will just cause accidents.

What you want is irrelevant. You have a responsibility to drive safely while minimising risk and being courteous to other drivers. It certainly doesn't sound like you do any of that - but perhaps I misunderstood?

I bet you weren't in a 429bhp car when you were learning. Obviously your instructor did not mean full send in an XPower.

Like I said, I have no problem with you enjoying your car when the traffic is light in good conditions when you pose a minimal risk to others.

But if you are connecting that level of power as being necessary to join busy traffic or overtaking on busy roads, or on a regular busy commute rather than a weekend drive, then in my opinion you need to seriously re-evaluate your driving before you hurt someone.

My issue is still around the nature that sometimes you get full power, and then other times you don't. Like I said, it's like having a ICE car with an intermittent fault that cuts power.

The amount of reduction in power is really silly in my car, there's a chance it might be faulty but I've run out of energy to care any more with it going back. To the point where I've seen under 60% power at around 40% SoC. And like I keep saying, you do not now how much power the car will let you have until you try and accelerate, all I want is a warning from the car, I'd happily drive around it if that's just the nature of it. The classic "they all do that sir".

A 40% reduction puts it at what? Around 250bhp, in a 1800kg+ car that's not really all that much when you're supposed to have nearly double that, and especially when the last time you drove it the car was giving you all the shove. Anyone who's driven higher performance cars will know that the difference between 250bhp and 430 is quite significant.

Like I say, one minute you brush the throttle and you get a nice shove, another time you can floor it and it's like driving a car with the handbrake on. That's not safe. I've had it when it's been sluggish one second and then later in the day even without charging it seems to be back to full power again.

The only common factor is cold weather, it's fine in spring/summer even at low SoC. So you go to heat the battery and the car or app tells you it doesn't need to be heated.

I will say I've had a clean license for 20+ years, and take driving (and riding) very seriously. I'm very rarely giving it full beans, but it can be useful and even actually safer (reducing time on the opposite side of the road overtaking extremely slow moving vehicles like tractors) time to time.

 

[tsedge]

My issue is still around the nature that sometimes you get full power, and then other times you don't. Like I said, it's like having a ICE car with an intermittent fault that cuts power.

The amount of reduction in power is really silly in my car, there's a chance it might be faulty but I've run out of energy to care any more with it going back.

I'm with you on this aspect. It does sound like you may have a fault and it is your right to get what you thought you paid for. There certainly are some lemons out there and if you had one, that is bad luck you didn't deserve.

 

[olliewebb]

I'm with you on this aspect. It does sound like you may have a fault and it is your right to get what you thought you paid for. There certainly are some lemons out there and if you had one, that is bad luck you didn't deserve.

Thanks.

When I test drove the IM5 I did make sure I ran it down to a low SoC, and it was a fairly cold and wet day. It actually felt faster than my XPOWER, not as much traction of course, but I can live with that having driven a M140i through a few winters on Cup 2 tyres.