Dearborn, Michigan - So electric cars are boring, and you can’t take them drifting, right?
Ford’s Mustang Mach-E 1400 is here to shatter any enjoyment-related prejudices you might have had towards battery-powered vehicles.
Built for the track, drag strip or gymkhana course, the Mustang Mach-E 1400 has seven electric motors and its makers are promising an output of around 1400 horsepower, which is 1044kW in metric speak.
The one-off creation is the result of a collaboration between Ford Performance and performance specialist RTR, and it’s based on the Mustang Mach-E GT electric crossover, which in its normal guise produces 342kW and 830Nm, albeit with five less motors. It took 1000 hours to conceive and produce, but its makers believe it will “bridge the gap between what an electric vehicle can do and what customers tend to believe it can do.”
“Getting behind the wheel of this car has completely changed my perspective on what power and torque can be,” said RTR found Vaughn Gittin Jr.
“This experience is like nothing you’ve ever imagined, except for maybe a magnetic roller coaster.”
See it in action:
The Mustang Mach-E 1400 has taken shape without rules, Ford says. The Ford design team and RTR used many of the same tools Ford uses for its race cars and production programs.
Three of the car’s electric motors are attached to the front differential, while the remaining four are attached to the back axle, one on top of the other. Ford says they have a huge range of adjustability to set the car up for everything from drifting to high-speed track racing. The chassis also allows for different layouts, including rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive. Drift and track setups, for instance, have completely different front end configurations like control arms and steering changes to allow for extreme steering angles in drifting.
Feeding the powertrain is a 56.8-kilowatt-hour battery that’s made up of nickel manganese cobalt pouch cells.
“The challenge was controlling the extreme levels of power provided by the seven motors,” said Ford’s motorsport director Mark Rushbrook.
“Mustang Mach-E 1400 is a showcase of the art of the possible with an electric vehicle.”
Expect to see it at a Nascar race soon.
IOL
Motoring