Breaking news
EGT
Electric GT delivers first race-ready Tesla
The Electric GT organisation has delivered its first race-ready Tesla Model S P100DL to SPV Racing, the first team to confirm its entry into the 2018/19 Electric Production Car Series.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Jun 22, 2018, 1:27 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The delivery consisted of the first race specification version of the P100DL road car, which has been transformed to compete in the new category, and took place at the Barcelona circuit.
The EPCS is scheduled to start its first eight-round 2018/19 season at Jerez in December.
When the series was first announced in March 2016, it was set to feature a grid of Tesla's Model S P85 variant, but Electric GT has since decided to use the more powerful P100DL type that the American manufacturer began producing nearly two years ago.
The car has been converted by the championship's technical partner QEV Technologies, which runs the race team for Mahindra in Formula E and has the Campos Racing squad as part of its shareholding.
As well as racing brakes, suspension and safety technology, the EPCS P100DL uses body panels made from natural composites produced by Bcomp.
Bcomp specialises in lightweight composites similar to carbonfibre, but can be made translucent, which EPCS will use to produce LED panels that will feature live car and driver data.
"In August 2016, Tesla presented this P100DL, and it very quickly was proven to be the fastest accelerating car you buy," Mark Gemmell, CEO of EPCS organiser Electric GT Holdings Inc, told Motorsport.com.
"And we just thought 'well that is such a serious statement, that has to be the car that we're racing'.
"We said 'we need to get the balls-out fastest car there is' and that was that.
"The differences are relatively minor - but being more powerful meant we wanted to upgrade the brakes, the suspension always needs to be improved [for racing].
"And at the same time the FIA advanced their safety specs, so we had to change the extinguisher, the netting.
"We also wanted to use the composites from Bcomp - the first [EPCS car] was built with carbonfibre - and we said 'let's build the car out of their natural fibre."
A race-ready P100DL costs "a bit less than €300,000", according to Gemmell, who added: "bear in mind that's an almost 800bhp race car.
"The equivalent from McLaren or whatever, that's double the money. And the spare parts are bargains in comparison."
When asked about more teams joining the grid for season one, Gemmell said that "right now, we've got four very interested teams".
"There's three others that are warming up," he continued.
"If three or four more teams were to approach us, we'd basically be saying 'it looks like we're going to be filling the roster very soon'."
EPCS also announced that its inaugural season would end at the Vallelunga track on October 27-28 2019 - which leaves one round of the season yet to be confirmed.
LVP [League of Videogame Professionals, by MEDIAPRO] was also revealed as promoter of the Electric GT eSports series that will accompany EPCS events.
Tesla P100D testing
Photo by: Electric GT Championship
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Electric GT reveals eight-round calendar for first season
Next article Electric GT delays Tesla-based series launch
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alex Kalinauckas
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Formula 1
Formula 1 May 3, 2025
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Apr 2, 2025
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Apr 1, 2025
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Latest news
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 3 h
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 3 h
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
5 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
7 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe