What the world needs right now is a new kind of racing. Electric car racing … not in a straight line, but through the twisty bits. BMW would do well to follow Volkswagen’s lead (with their successful Jetta TDI Cup program) and create a racing series for the Mini E.
Imagine a Mini E racing series, with a dozen or so Mini E race cars piloted by celebrities. Each car would be fully outfitted with cameras fore, aft, and inside the cabin. The races would be livestreamed over the Internet. A legion of fans would follow each event.
Huge potential awaits …
Cable networks are hungry for good clean green entertainment. Hi-tech sponsors would line up for the chance to splash their logos across the flanks of the cars. Celebrities would fight tooth and nail to gain a ride. The public would clamor for this new form of interactive and environmentally-sensitive form of racing. And perhaps most importantly, engineers would gather a remarkable amount of data from each and every car in a fantastically short time frame.
To counter the argument that racing needs to be loud to win over the fans, special audio systems (with bleacher-rattling subwoofers) would be fitted to each Mini E race car. While most mechanical modifications would be prohibited in the spirit of fairness (and to hold down costs), individual teams would develop distinctive soundtracks for each vehicle. The potential for corporate sponsorship is staggering, from video game companies (such as Electronic Arts and LucasArts), through audio companies (like Kenwood, Alpine, and Kicker), and the high-tech world (think IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Oracle).
Events would take place on each coast, with the initial events in the NY/NJ and LA areas to serve as gathering points for the installed base of Mini E test drivers.