FIA ETCR: The most EXTREME touring cars ever

The FIA’s first-ever electric touring car competition, the FIA ETCR eTouring Car World Cup, started last month with Infinite Reality Race FR on the streets of Pau. Time for a look at the technology behind the cars in this series, with a few words from the lucky drivers who get to do battle on track.

The Most Extreme Touring Cars Ad/> FIA ETCR are created by manufacturers using a road car chassis as a base, then engineering a standard kit supplied to teams by WSC Group, with energy stored in Williams Advanced Engineering battery packs and fed through Magelec Propulsion transmission, motors and inverters. FIA ETCRDriver Focus: Tom BlomqvistYESTERDAY AT 17:33 All cars are rear-wheel-drive, with two electric motors per rear wheel.

The electric beasts have two power modes, 300kW and 500kW, with the latter figure equivalent to 670bhp whilst the former is still equivalent to over 400bhp – no limp mode here! The four electric motors run at 12,000 rpm through a single speed transmission, with no engine-braking or regeneration to slow the car, it’s all on the brakes to arrest the 1800kg cars. Grooved all-weather Goodyear tyres are another aspect that sets FIA ETCR apart from other touring car competitions, while being both sustainable and relevant to the automotive industry, they add to the challenge for the drivers.

As an FIA series the development and deployment of the cars has been noted by no less a touring car luminary than Alan Gow, FIA Touring Car Commission President. “It has been a great pleasure to witness the development of this concept from the original idea to the present day,” said Gow.

“The cars are truly impressive in terms of performance and their unique demands represent a great challenge for the drivers. The