Electric supercar, would you?

af_thefragile

A supercar is meant to be about speed, looks, thrill, excitement, fear and noise. Its supposed to be a wild animal that roars at you, bits your head off and then comes back to have the rest of you for dessert. But what about one that does all the above but in dead silence so that you never notice what hit you and how your arm has gone missing...

Do you still think a car can be a supercar when you take away the noise?

Here's the new Mercedes SLS electric and its silent... eerily silent!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAQN3lxzeZg

ANd just for comparison here's its fire breathing ancestor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOpINKXTQ6c

Sesshoumaru

This is apparently the production car



http://www.gizmag.com/mercedes-benz-sls-amg-coupe-electric-drive/24320/

Of course an electric supercar isn't going to sound as fearsome as its ICE powered brethren, and since this isn't any fun, Mercedes AMG has installed eleven loudspeakers in the SLS that makes it sound like a “real” car; all coughs and growls tuned to the appropriate driving conditions.

750bhp as well! I'd go for it if it was handed to me

keithclancy

Of course an electric supercar isn't going to sound as fearsome as its ICE powered brethren, and since this isn't any fun, Mercedes AMG has installed eleven loudspeakers in the SLS that makes it sound like a “real” car; all coughs and growls tuned to the appropriate driving conditions.

That is focking lame ... may as well make vroom vroom noises meself

650Ginge

Electric thanks.

Don't tyres make way to much noise!

scamalert

Drive it on the irish country road and you will have sounds like driving a tractor :pac:

Voodoomelon

After watching the electric video first, it makes the petrol engine seem almost vulgar.

djimi

Id sooner have a sports car than something that has speakers installed to make it sound like sports car...

Cuddlesworth

150 mile range is a bit of a killer, but for sports performance its not half bad.

I find it interesting that all the electric cars still have body shapes that are defined around large engines. I'd like to see a electric car that acknowledges that it runs off four motors and battery's and utilizes that dead space that other models have created by keeping conventional shapes.

darragh o meara

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

150 mile range is a bit of a killer, but for sports performance its not half bad.

Well given that the Sls if you we're giving it some welly would run out of juice in or around the 150 mile mark from a full tank the range is quiet good. However having been lucky enough to have driven an SLS you don't buy one to potter around in blissful silence you buy it cos it sounds fcukin mean when you put down the shoe.

By the way I'd live to have a spin in that just to see what it'd be like torque wise!! With electric motors its almost instant

Dartz

Great Stealth Speeder.


Whrrrrrrrr.........

Although, if I had the choice I would gas-turbine one. Run on anything liquid that burns.

darragh o meara

Actually on reading the review mercedesa are putting a heap of speakers in the car to replicate the noise from it. Dunno if that's just inside the car or outside though.

high horse

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

150 mile range is a bit of a killer, but for sports performance its not half bad.

I find it interesting that all the electric cars still have body shapes that are defined around large engines. I'd like to see a electric car that acknowledges that it runs off four motors and battery's and utilizes that dead space that other models have created by keeping conventional shapes.

The Mitsubishi i-Miev is like that. There's very little up front where an engine would normally be so the passenger compartment is bigger

darragh o meara

high horse wrote: »

The Mitsubishi i-Miev is like that. There's very little up front where an engine would normally be so the passenger compartment is bigger

True they do maximise the interior room, but to be fair if you crash a SLS your a lot more likely to be going quiet fast and if it were me I'd much prefer the extra bit of crumple zone before the bulkhead comes into contact with my legs.

extremetaz

af_thefragile wrote: »

A supercar is meant to be about speed, looks, thrill, excitement, fear and noise. Its supposed to be a wild animal that roars at you, bits your head off and then comes back to have the rest of you for dessert. But what about one that does all the above but in dead silence so that you never notice what hit you and how your arm has gone missing...

Do you still think a car can be a supercar when you take away the noise?

Hell yes - noise is nice for sure, no question - but its absence takes nothing from the g-forces, which to me, are what a supercar is all about.

I like the idea of the stereo in the car giving the occupants the option of "audible feedback" though - that's a wicked idea - hell you could even throw a hemi/turbine/v12/(merlin!! :P) in under the bonnet if you wanted in that case!

norrie rugger

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

150 mile range is a bit of a killer, but for sports performance its not half bad.

I find it interesting that all the electric cars still have body shapes that are defined around large engines. I'd like to see a electric car that acknowledges that it runs off four motors and battery's and utilizes that dead space that other models have created by keeping conventional shapes.

Keeping the regular body shape allows them to keep production costs down

H3llR4iser

norrie rugger wrote: »

Keeping the regular body shape allows them to keep production costs down

And the public isn't ready for revolutionary shapes yet. The change will come, but very slowly.

I'd like to see a video from the inside - outside, it sounds very silent; However, the Tesla roadster sounds interesting with the electric whirr giving it a certain futuristic appeal - almost like a spaceship out of Star Trek. Wonder if the SLS has the same.

The Recliner

OSI wrote: »

Considering a decent chunk of the appeal of the SLS is that mid 40's fighter plane sounding engine, I certainly wouldn't want an electric one.

Seriously, drive the SLS past most pensioners and they'll be jumping into bushes thinking the Luftwaffe were back.

I adore the sound of that engine, when I watch F1 I almost wish for an incident to bring out the safety car just to hear it

It is a hard one though because for an electric car that body shape makes it sexy but it feels kind of wrong to me, have nothing against electric though once they get decent range/infrastructure I would be happy to have one