The teams and vehicles contesting the e-miglia 2011 rally presented themselves on Monday. The 31 purely electrically operated vehicles, together with their drivers and co-drivers, faced the astonished public ahead of their five-day, five-leg event. In total, seven nations are taking part in the journey across the Alps in a bid to showcase to the world what e-mobility is already able to achieve.
Unexpectedly, Peter Podhorsky of Munich landed in the co-driver’s seat of the Tesla roadster piloted by former Formula 1 driver Erik Comas. Comas’ original co-driver had to unfortunately cancel at the last minute due to health reasons. On the Monday morning, Podhorsky was actually only at the TÜV high-speed train on the way to have his wife’s car checked. Just two hours later, it was set: Comas had a new co-driver.
The following morning, the start flag was waved by Hans-Josef Fell, member of the German Federal Parliament and World Councilor for Renewable Energies. Tim Ruhoff, the reigning champion with start number 1 crossed the start line in Munich to lead the competitors southward. Ruhoff said at the start ceremony: “My chances are good, we’ve trained a lot and we have a good vehicle so we’re optimally prepared.”
30 more excited teams followed in one-minute intervals. “We want adventure,” says Sabine Heiss, driver of the women’s team in an eRUF Coupé with starting number 21. They’re bound to get that, since they’re rather rally inexperienced and arrived at the midday charging stop very late.
The first charging stop took place in the town of Oberaudorf. Ralf Schollenberger of Team Allianz Autowelt (starting number 26) said: “During the first half of the day, we made two annoying beginners’ mistakes that cost us a lot in penalty time. That can’t happen again.”
The Brunnerlions (starting number 11), in a Peugeot iON, also displayed ambitions of winning. Evelyn Brunner, the driver, said: “We’re athletes and set the goal to place amongst the top ten. We know the vehicle well so it should be possible, but we aren’t experienced rally experts. We already goofed-up today, but lots can happen until St. Moritz.”
Erik Comas, on the other hand, is a professional who already stood on the podium in 2010 but he too had to battle adversities: “We lost about 10sec when we crossed the finish line after the first special stage, because another participant was blocking our way.”
Since electric power consumption is a new evaluation criteria in the e-miglia 2011, the interpretation of the daily results is delayed. It’s already obvious to the drivers though, that the timeframe for the stages is tight and that no one can afford to dawdle.
And the daily winner is:
1. Tim Ruhoff, Team Energiebau/NextGM, Tesla
2. Kurt Sigl, Team Bundesverband eMobilität, Tesla
3. Michael Huhn, Sonnenpflücker Racingteam, Citroen C-Zero
4. Lars Krüger, Team Jetcar, Jetcar
5. Fuzzy Walter Kofler, Team Autotest Motorsport, Think City
Day One Route:
It’s 189km from Munich to Mittersill, and only the cyclist Michael Buse (starting number 8) managed it in 182km: “I used a route planner for bicycles, which spared me 7km. I might have however missed a check point by doing so.” He pedaled 124 km uphill and only 65km downhill. The highest point of the route was the Thurn Pass at about 1200m.
