VitaminJ
Well-known member
Report from today's autocross with the Leaf. All in all was a lot of fun considering the intended purpose of the Nissan Leaf and the on-paper stats (107hp, 3400lbs). Running 225/45/17 BFG Rivals (the most competitive tire in the class) I was about 3 seconds off of a Mini Cooper S with decent tires and placed 13th out of 23. I was 4 seconds off the lead car.
The weight of the car and the open differential really hurt overall performance. Aftermarket suspension would help a lot, but only so much. Basically at low speeds the inside tire would spin like crazy unless you took care to feather the throttle. It is really odd not having engine noise as feedback, but on the other hand you can hear every little noise the tires make.
In the end removing the fuses for traction and stability control and ABS was key, the car will not let you throw it around like this with the systems enabled, and with them off I noticed no bad tendencies or problems except a bunch of warning lights on the dash. I have a Leaf Box but I unplugged it as not to introduce any unwanted tendencies not prepared for by the Nissan engineers.
We towed it 200 miles round trip otherwise it would not have been possible. We started at 100% charge and ended about 50% after about 10 minutes total of running! Nearest charger was L2 and 25 miles away.
The weight of the car and the open differential really hurt overall performance. Aftermarket suspension would help a lot, but only so much. Basically at low speeds the inside tire would spin like crazy unless you took care to feather the throttle. It is really odd not having engine noise as feedback, but on the other hand you can hear every little noise the tires make.
In the end removing the fuses for traction and stability control and ABS was key, the car will not let you throw it around like this with the systems enabled, and with them off I noticed no bad tendencies or problems except a bunch of warning lights on the dash. I have a Leaf Box but I unplugged it as not to introduce any unwanted tendencies not prepared for by the Nissan engineers.
We towed it 200 miles round trip otherwise it would not have been possible. We started at 100% charge and ended about 50% after about 10 minutes total of running! Nearest charger was L2 and 25 miles away.