Videos of Sparky Flexing Its Torque

[NORTON]

..I do not know what you mean by porn or "next image". It should only be one image.

Yes the link came to this image. But then to see the rest of the story about this very strange picture of skid marks, I clicked "Next" which led to a bad place. I'm not trying it again....

Wow, you set the record for embedded image size on this post above !!

Which brings up SO many questions: If the car started at the bottom of the image, what speed was it going when the skid marks fade just near that curb at the top of the image? :?

Does anyone else wonder WTH is going on with this image? (Shades of 'My Cousin Vinny' when they use skid marks images during the trial !! Remember that?!)

Sorry Jeff, I sort of call BS on this one. If you made these marks, how and why did you waste all that rubber? (Without crashing at the end of the burnout? )

Post a video next time and I will be a true believer !

 

[Nashco]

How did you do this? Seriously, what procedure allowed a prolonged two wheel burnout?!

Traction control off, Stability control off, SPORT mode, Low "gear".

No special prep. Stock Ecopias at 35 PSI, cold.

This is extremely hard for me to believe. I've hooned around a LOT with my Spark EV, and absolutely no way would my (2014) car allow this much wheelslip. It was obvious this would be the case when it snowed shortly after I took delivery of my car (January 2014)...even with ice on the road, the car won't sustain a "burnout" because it reduces the propulsion power significantly when there's a differential of speed between front and rear axles. With reduced propulsion power, no way my car would sustain a burnout on dry pavement. Also, once the car detects wheel speed above 30 mph, stability control is automatically turned back on.

So, I really would like to know why your car allows this type of burnout and mine doesn't. If you take a video of your car doing a burnout like this and the procedure you use to do it, I'll send you $20 via paypal to buy yourself dinner and a beverage...no joke. That will be the first step to figuring out what could be different between your car/procedure and ours.

Bryce

 

[Dinoco]

Highly doubt this as well. Video or this never happened.

Also I tried putting in nuetral, pedal to the floor and popping into drive idea suggested.... made no difference.

 

[NORTON]

Come on. Look at the skid marks. They taper off 12' feet from a curb and a 90° turn. This is a faked shot or a 'shopped' photo.

No car could have done this on it's own. Maybe with a truck holding its speed down and tapering off the power near the end.
Or they achieved 78 mph and disappeared, only to arrive 20 years later.

 

[PhilPen]

It is possible to do very long burnouts at low speed (or even without moving) by having the brakes on on the non-driving wheels. This is done using "line locks" on rear wheel drive vehicles (line locks when engaged enable fluid pressure on the front brakes to be maintained after releasing the brake pedal, leaving the front brakes on but the rears off) or by using the emergency brake on a front wheel drive vehicle. I think these marks weren't made by either photoshop or by a Spark, but by some other vehicle with brakes applied to the non-driving wheels. Since the lines are so straight it was probably a front wheel drive vehicle with the e-brake on.

 

[SparkevBlogspot]

If you're trying to make dual tracks using acceleration, you will need limited slip differential. Otherwise, only one wheel will slip. Limited slip differential is rare.

But if you yank on the parking brake while moving, it will leave two tire tracks. Brakes are the most powerful things on a car, and it's easy to make the tires leave marks. Not sure if SparkEV can do with parking brake button. I won't risk mine, maybe some crazies here can try?

 

[JeffTAC4]

I find it hilarious that this is so hard to believe!

The car is not modified in any way, and I posted my settings earlier. No special preparation went into the making of these skids.

There was no photoshop involved. There were 2 ~200 lb males in the car (driver and passenger). The front Ecopias are fairly new (<1,000 miles on them).

The car did start at the bottom of the image. I do not know what the speed was at the end of the run, but it was not unreasonably fast. The sustained wheel spin prevented the car from accelerating very quickly. At the end of the run, I rounded the corner to the right.

Why? Because I can!

I promise there is nothing fishy going on here. I just thought it was a cool picture and wanted to share it with you guys.

 

[SparkSS]

I find it hilarious that this is so hard to believe!

The car is not modified in any way, and I posted my settings earlier. No special preparation went into the making of these skids.

There was no photoshop involved. There were 2 ~200 lb males in the car (driver and passenger). The front Ecopias are fairly new (<1,000 miles on them).

The car did start at the bottom of the image. I do not know what the speed was at the end of the run, but it was not unreasonably fast. The sustained wheel spin prevented the car from accelerating very quickly. At the end of the run, I rounded the corner to the right.

Why? Because I can!

I promise there is nothing fishy going on here. I just thought it was a cool picture and wanted to share it with you guys.

Thanks for being a good sport. Some of the comments were pretty harsh. I would love to see a video of a Spark EV, especially a totally stock one, doing a burnout. Please post it here. Thanks.

 

[JeffTAC4]

I have not tried to replicate this particular scenario (don't wanna kill the tires THAT fast!), but I will give it a try this weekend.

 

[NORTON]

I have not tried to replicate this particular scenario (don't wanna kill the tires THAT fast!), but I will give it a try this weekend.

Yay !! Please do. At the exact same parking lot.
I just can't visualize how fast you were going to make the turn at the end of this 'burn out'.

And just for the record: "L and Sport mode" does nothing for power. Both are minor SW operational changes. Full Go Pedal always equals Full Power.

I'm back on my original ecopias and trying to use up these turkeys so I can get back to performance tires.
How can I make smoke just like your Spark EV does?

 

[SparkSS]

I have not tried to replicate this particular scenario (don't wanna kill the tires THAT fast!), but I will give it a try this weekend.

Yay !! Please do. At the exact same parking lot.
I just can't visualize how fast you were going to make the turn at the end of this 'burn out'.

And just for the record: "L and Sport mode" does nothing for power. Both are minor SW operational changes. Full Go Pedal always equals Full Power.

I'm back on my original ecopias and trying to use up these turkeys so I can get back to performance tires.
How can I make smoke just like your Spark EV does?

Programmers are a funny lot. Sometimes, a certain combination and/or sequence of buttons/keystrokes/settings yield "Easter Eggs" or special results.

If Jeff can replicate the burnout, IMHO it's worth paying attention to all the details. Personally, I'd like to see how to uncork the top end, but burnouts are cool in their own way.

 

[JeffTAC4]

I should be able to try again tomorrow / today (parking lot at work is empty on the weekends). Just a forewarning, however, I don't think much smoke was produced. I was obviously looking where I was going, not in my rear view or at my speedometer. That being said, I have been around muscle cars and seen what a real burnout looks like. This was not as much of a burnout, more of just imparting a small amount of rubber to the pavement over a prolonged distance.

Fingers crossed that I can replicate! If only to satisfy / satiate the non-believers. All of your guy's doubt now has me worried that I encountered some strange magical one-off scenario. I have never tried anything like this before or since (in the Spark EV), so I am now worried I'll disappoint everyone.

 

[JeffTAC4]

Also, regardless of the outcome... Here is some more proof for the non-believers. I forgot I had taken a second picture from my office window. Here are the original photos, plus my horrendous MS paint job of showing my path. I realize that most people find it hard to believe I was able to negotiate the corner. Hopefully this helps:

I apologize for the images being "lo-res", but I did not want to break my record for the largest embeded image on this site! Hopefully you can see what I mean based on the original and drawn upon photos. If it is not clear enough, I have the original (4K) images to share, if you like.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[JeffTAC4]

The Jeep is my co-worker's, and I assured him ahead of time it would be OK where it was at. I can ask him to move it for the follow up, or repark it in the same space.

A bit of background, I come from the world of high performance cars. I used to race in several performance driving circuits including NHRA, NASA, and autocross. My most recent car (prior to the Spark EV) was a 400WHP Subaru WRX STI.

Jeff

 

[NORTON]

Jeff,
Thanks for trying.
But I don't see any images, just a symbol.
(I use photobucket for images. I never tried to embed a youtube video, but that is done here.)

Without an actual video of your Spark EV smoking the tires, and not accelerating that much, I remain a non-believer.

Even if you staged this still image with a tow rope holding the car's speed down while the tow car let your Spark EV creep, the TC RE-activates at some speed on its own.
You'd have to keep the smoking front tires under that speed, (28 or 38 MPH, is it?)

Traction Control keeps the front and back wheels from having different speeds.
And it operates FAST. Who hasn't accelerated across large white stripes at an intersection and had the power shut off with a loud thump/bang from the drive unit 'motor mounts' ?

No amount of driver skills will change the way a stock Spark EV operates.

 

[SparkSS]

Jeff,
Thanks for trying.
But I don't see any images, just a symbol.
(I use photobucket for images. I never tried to embed a youtube video, but that is done here.)

Without an actual video of your Spark EV smoking the tires, and not accelerating that much, I remain a non-believer.

Even if you staged this still image with a tow rope holding the car's speed down while the tow car let your Spark EV creep, the TC RE-activates at some speed on its own.
You'd have to keep the smoking front tires under that speed, (28 or 38 MPH, is it?)

Traction Control keeps the front and back wheels from having different speeds.
And it operates FAST. Who hasn't accelerated across large white stripes at an intersection and had the power shut off with a loud thump/bang from the drive unit 'motor mounts' ?

No amount of driver skills will change the way a stock Spark EV operates.

It's one thing to be skeptical. It's quite another to call someone a liar. IMHO, you've either crossed that line, or are at least standing on it.

 

[NORTON]

It's one thing to be skeptical. It's quite another to call someone a liar. IMHO, you've either crossed that line, or are at least standing on it.

? By saying 'I'm a non-believer' ???

I don't know any more polite way to say what I mean.

"you've either crossed that line, or are at least standing on it."
I'm a non-believer of this statement also.

If Jeff found some way to fool the TC,, FUN !

If not.......

 

[JeffTAC4]

But I don't see any images, just a symbol.

I have edited the original post, you should now see images.

And unfortunately, it is now pouring rain. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[Dinoco]

Meh. There are all kinds of tire marks in that parking lot. Looks like a significant amount of fun being had by several cars.

I'm all too familiar with how the computer limit any kind of wheel spin in these cars. Have never even come close to producing even 3 ft of anything looking like something in those pics.

Forgive me. Not trying to be antagonistic but I still say video or this never happened. If it did this car is either hacked or broken.

Don't get me wrong. I hope I am totally off base and I end up eating crow because I really want to do this!!

 

[JeffTAC4]

Here ya go:

https://youtu.be/vg6mg9K1k9k

All you people doubting me kinda shook my confidence. In this video I let off early and braked early, so the skids are not quite as long as the first one. Still definitely proves the concept. Be sure to watch in hi-def.

Here is a picture from attempt 2 (attempt 1 being what start all the controversy!):

Hope that's good enough for you guys. I could go for an attempt 3 and try harder, but it's not worth it to me.

EDIT: Also, in reference to the comment "lots of cars having fun in that lot". The large dark marks that looks like donuts? Those are actually from the huge garbage truck that comes every night. The truck driver has to do a sort of maneuvering in a circle around that island.