yet another Challenge Class idea...

What about a EV class?  I think it's been suggested before.  We seem to have a significant portion of The Hive interested in EV technology.  Maybe someone can figure out a way to build a better mousetrap.  

I think the general consensus is the recharging would be legal, battery swaps would not be legal. That only affects how heavy the car needs to be for multiple runs.

I tried to convince the GeorgiaTech group that they should tackle it. They have enough people to attack the issues properly.

EVs are plenty competitive with the gas-powered cars (that Model 3 from last year was a great example, IIRC it won highest dynamic score) so I'm not sure what splitting them into their own class would do. 

A class/competition for home brew ev's & hybrids would be cool.  Used leaf/Prius batteries should be fine for drag & autocross

I could maybe see something like a special (cheater) "Spec Leaf" subclass for people who want an excuse to do silly things with an EV, but lack the skill/ talent/ motivation to pull off a real $2k build.  I say "subclass" b/c these could simply run as non-budget if GRM did not want to deal with the overhead of making anything official.

• you get to start with one "normally-functional-equivalent" 2011 Nissan Leaf, and then have a $1k budget using all the other Challenge rules (or whatever $ amount).
• no recoup on any parts from the 'free' Leaf, that way the car's original condition does not matter.   You can choose to go on a quest for the most stupidly-cheap Leaf on the planet or try an insurance auction to keep your real $ out of pocket low, or you can choose to buy the closest Leaf and get on with the fun stuff.  Repair parts e.g. to fix crash damage would be exempt from the budget, hence the "normally-functional-equivalent" qualifier.
• IDK if any on-board ICE should be allowed?  (I mean, something like another LeafZX would be really cool, and utterly impressive if you could pull it off for $1k.  OTOH, it loses the "EV-ness" which is most of the point)

I think Leaf battery degradation affects only capacity and not max power output, but I'd have to check.  Also, 2011 and 2012+ Leafs had significant differences, but they may be close enough in "performance potential".  Whatever: fiddly details, and this is just a thought exercise (right?).  Obviously it would be perfectly fine to put the Leaf powertrain into a different car, or use the $1k budget to buy a 2nd Leaf and have AWD...

Otherwise, there was already a DIY hybrid ca. 2009, and I absolutely believe there are people who could build a  competitive BEV for $2k but it is significantly more difficult.

stafford1500 said:

I think the general consensus is the recharging would be legal, battery swaps would not be legal. That only affects how heavy the car needs to be for multiple runs.

I thought it was more like: if you do swap batteries, all of the battery packs used have to be included in your budget?  That does lead to a semi-absurd case where rigging up your own fast charger to recharge the car from a stack of batteries left in the pits would be 'cheaper' than physically swapping the battery packs.  
I keep imagining that with a DC-DC boost converter and some hackery, plus a big radiator and cooling fan, a Prius could be turned into a self-mobile 37kW charging station.