Australian automotive company Holden has revealed an aggressively named and aggressively framed conceptual vehicle for parent company General Motors. Billed as a "plausible" racer of the future, the electric Time Attack Concept is Holden's exploration of advanced racing technologies, and is envisioned to hit 100 km/h (62 mph) in not much more than a second.
The Time Attack Concept was cooked up in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Holden's first ever win at the Bathurst 1000, an annual touring car race held over the past weekend in New South Wales. Unlike the main event that tasks endurance drivers with covering 1,000 km (620 mi) over 161 laps of the Mount Panorama circuit, the Time Attack Concept is built for Time Attack racing, where racers try to cut the quickest single lap time.
To that end, the concept's carbon fiber and Kevlar body cuts an extremely low figure with low frontal area. Powered by four axial flux permanent magnet electric motor drives pumping out 250 kW apiece for a total of 1,000 kW (1,340 hp) and 3,240 Nm (4,393 lb-ft) of torque, Holden imagines the Time Attack Concept hitting the 100 km/h (62 mph) mark in just 1.25 seconds. A three-speed planetary automatic gearbox would handle the shifting.
Holden's Design Director Richard Ferlazzo challenged his team, headed by lead designer Ewan Kingsbury, to design a futuristic racer that incorporated new and emerging technologies, while making use of sophisticated simulation software that allows them to conjure up images of the finished product. This was also used to complete a virtual lap of Mount Panorama, blitzing the current lap record of 2:01.567 set in a McLaren 650S GT3 in 2016. According to Holden, the Time Attack Concept (virtually) completed the journey in 1:29.30.
"Ewan perfectly captured the essence of what we wanted to achieve; an expressive, futuristic design which also displays innovative engineering solutions," says Ferlazzo. "Concepts are always meant to push the boundaries but are even more impactful when they are feasible and this concept is plausible as an advanced racer of the future."
A simulation of the Time Attack Concept in action can be seen below.
Source: GM Holden