The TTXGP is a Grand Prix race featuring zero emission motorcycles. It's first run was today, June 12, 2009, as part of the overall TT races on the Isle of Man. The TT races have existed for over 100 years and is a 37 mile course spread out over the island. It's a very demanding race that has long been a proving ground for advancing motorcycle technology. For the first time electric motorcycles are competing on the race course with an eye to using this venue to advance the state of the art of zero emission vehicles. The following is from the detailed TTXGP coverage I collected on the VisForVoltage forum.
The final race results were:
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Pos 1 AGNI X01 (Rob Barber) – Time: 25:53:50 – Speed: 87.434
Pos 2 XXL Racing Team (Thomas Schoenfelder) – Time: 29:04:93 – Speed: 77.841
Pos 3 Brammo (Mark Buckley) – Time: 30:02:64 – Speed: 75.350
Pos 4 Mission Motors (Thomas Montano) – Time: 30:33:26 – Speed: 74.091
Pos 5 Htblauva (Paul Dobbs) – Time: 36.10.63 – Speed: 62.575
Pos 6 Brunel X-team (Stephen Harper) – Time: 56:27:89 – Speed: 40.092OPEN Class
Pos 1 Electric Motorsport (Chris Heath) – Time: 34:17:30 – Speed: 66.022
Pos 2 Barefoot Motors (Chris Petty) – Time: 36:23:06 – Speed: 62.219
Pos 3 TORK (John Crellin) – Time: 37:26:01 – Speed: 60.475
This is excellent performance for electric vehicles indicating the improvements which have come from lithium ION battery technology. However it's useful to recognize that a gas bike on the same track a couple hours later turned a in 17 minute lap for an average speed of 130 miles/hr. Further some of the electric motorcycles had difficulty finishing the one lap. In other words electric vehicles have made a huge step forward to be part of this competition, but they require further steps to be competitive.
The winner, Rob Barber on the Team Agni bike, apparently was in a commanding lead through the entire race. From the first timing point at Glen Helen he was in the lead and stayed in the lead through to reaching the finish line. Their bike used motors from Agni Motors, who builds the design by Cedric Lynch. This video has a good showing of the finish line and a chance for Cedric to say a few words. His motor design inspired several motor designs such as the eTek, the PERM, and the MARS motors that are widely used in high speed electric motorcycles. The hallmark of that design is a high power to weight ratio.
If it's the battery which makes the electric vehicle shine, that the winning bike used Kokam batteries means that battery supplier deserves a second look. Most electric vehicle projects I've seen with lithium batteries did not use Kokam batteries. Thundersky, Hi-Power, A123Systems, Emoli Systems, Lifebatt, etc are frequent battery suppliers.
In the results I'm most intrigued by the fourth place winner, and a bike that didn't even finish. Both are "superbikes" expected to have richer-than-god prices. Mission Motors was founded by people who formerly worked for Tesla Motors and similar to the price for a Tesla Roadster, the Mission Motors bike is also expected to have an eye-popping price. The other superbike maker, MotoCzysz, had a number of troubles through the whole week and had to drop out of the race very early on. It makes me scratch my head why the high end bike makers had trouble, and the other makers at the lower end of the scale (Agni, Brammo, Electric Motorsport, Barefoot Motors, etc) finished the race with respectable results.
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