Ford Mustang Mach-E Prototype Hints At Future NASCAR EV
If you asked us to name one motorsport we thought would never, ever go electric, it’d be NASCAR. The notion of the series using anything other than earth-shaking V8s is unthinkable, and yet plenty of people are thinking about it. Following on from NASCAR’s own electric concept last year, this is the Ford Mustang Mach-E NASCAR prototype.
Much like the car the series itself revealed last year, we’re not likely to see this thing actually racing any time soon, and it’ll be even further down the line that EVs supersede V8s entirely in NASCAR – if that even happens at all. It’s more likely that we might see an electric companion or support series to the main show in the not-too-distant future, though.
Anyway, like NASCAR’s prototype, Ford's shifts away from the traditional saloon and coupe-bodied stock car racers in another big way – it’s based on a crossover. While the NASCAR prototype used a generic body, Ford’s is, well, a Ford.
It is of course the Mustang Mach-E, a vehicle that’s already no stranger to controversy since it takes the name of Ford’s legendary pony car and slaps it on a battery-powered crossover. We can’t imagine this is going to make it any easier to digest for the V8 faithful.
We don’t know a whole lot else about the prototype right now. Ford says it has a 78kWh battery and three motors – the same setup, incidentally, as NASCAR’s own prototype. There might be a bit more commonality here than either side’s letting on.
It also has a full carbon fibre tub, while the wheels, brakes, suspension and steering rack all come from a current NASCAR cup car. Oh, and based on the pictures Ford’s shown off so far, it’ll also do huge, smokey doughnuts, so that box is very much ticked.
It’s not clear at this stage what Ford plans to do with this car. It only refers to it as a demonstrator for now, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up doing demo runs at a few NASCAR races soon. We wish all the best to whoever’s tasked with taking it out in front of a grandstand of V8-hungry fans.
The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.
Comments
No comments found.