So fährt sich der ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup Corsa! Ein etwas anderer Electric Drive Fahrbericht!

To make a long story short, we're indeed driving the Opel Corsa-e Rally, whose lightweight body shell is powered by the familiar 100 kW electric drive from the standard Corsa Electric. The torque? A maximum of 260 Nm! Powered by a 50 kWh lithium-ion battery, the rally-prepped Corsa sends its power to the front axle via 7x17" BRAID wheels, which, by the way, have an offset of 20. Naturally, I was interested in how the high-voltage components, and especially the battery, are protected, because, between you and me, even I scraped the bottom during my laps. However, I was assured that nothing would happen to the car and that it wasn't due to my weight. A five-millimeter-thick aluminum plate under the car protects the high-voltage battery, and the engine also has underbody protection. There's also a fire suppression system and a warning system. Otherwise? Pure rally! Bilstein suspension, 4-piston brakes with 332x28 mm discs at the front, 264 mm discs at the rear, roll cage, bucket seats, limited-slip differential, all driver assistance systems deactivated, and the hardware and software have been adapted for rally racing. The safety level is designed to be as high as possible, and on top of that, the car is incredibly fun to drive. I was allowed to drive for almost 25 minutes. The first few laps were hesitant, as you have to get used to the handling. Then I got faster and faster, and every now and then my right hand went to the fly-off handbrake to let the rear end slide out a bit. In the cool-down zones, I braked hard again so that the already mosquito-infested bearings wouldn't get covered in dust. Then it was back to full throttle and off for the next lap. I got faster with each lap, dared to take even higher corners, and felt like little Jens used to play video games on the PlayStation – but this time I experienced the car with all my senses – and that's truly a great experience. By the way, real rally drivers, and especially the female drivers, manage to drain the battery within 60 kilometers, but that wasn't the point of our drive. We were simply supposed to experience what it's like to sit in such a vehicle. So we weren't going for a record, but rather to feel with our own "seat-of-the-pants" feel what it's like. Driving a car on gravel. You wouldn't do that with a standard test vehicle, or with your own car either—just flooring it on the gravel track, a truly exhilarating experience. I didn't manage to drain the battery, but that wasn't the intention anyway, and charging options were readily available. Within 25 minutes, the Corsa was back up to 80% charge. Opel reasoned that they couldn't just put diesel generators there; that wouldn't make sense. Therefore, they set up a temporary charging network. In a selection process, the mobile solution from the company eLoaded in Neusäß near Augsburg ultimately prevailed. The energy is fed into the public medium- or low-voltage grid and distributed to the charging units via a DC bus system. Charging is possible at up to 500 amps within a power range of 200 to 980 volts. In short, each charging point can deliver up to 140 kW, matching the maximum charging capacity of the rally cars. 100 kW – and it uses green electricity. I wouldn't have thought beforehand that the 100 kW Opel Corsa Electric from the ADAC Opel e-Rally CUP could be so much fun. A quick note about the brakes: the cars still have the brake booster, but it's deactivated, so you have to really put your foot down. The steering, by comparison, is incredibly light. It feels a bit surreal at first, but after just a few laps, you get used to it and can really push it, even on gravel. Safety is truly a priority here. The fire extinguishing system required in the rally car is a Lifeline Zero 360 type and uses an electrically insulating extinguishing agent. The risk of fire in an electric race car is generally much lower than in a conventional combustion engine vehicle due to the lack of fuel on board, but then there's the battery. The high-voltage system is constantly monitored! Different malfunctions trigger different actions. In the event of an insulation fault, sophisticated sensors ensure that the indicators of the Master Alarm Indicator System display a warning. Report any malfunctions in the high-voltage system, which operates at up to 434 volts, immediately. The system can then be manually shut down from inside or outside the cockpit. #Opel #Rally #Corsa Electric Drive on the web: https://www.electricdrivemagazin.de Electric Drive on Readly, the reading subscription service: https://de.readly.com/electricdrive