World-first flying car drag race held in South Australia

Mass-produced flying cars are still a long way from reality, but that hasn’t stopped the technology being developed and applied in a competitive environment with Australian aviation firm Alauda having just held the world’s first flying car drag race.

Conducted in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges last week, the quarter-mile event was contested by two internal Alauda Racing teams in the lead up to the remotely-piloted EXA Grand Prix season.

The cars themselves were a pair of remote-controlled Airspeeder Mk3s and were flown roughly 10m above the ground at more than 140km/h, however, the GP-spec cars are tipped to race at more than 300km/h.

“We are on the cusp of making motorsport and mobility history with the world’s first electric flying car races,” Airspeeder and Alauda Aeronautics founder and CEO Matt Pearson said.

“This test race provides the world a glimpse at the next generation of motorsport and mobility.

“This first test drag-race is a major moment in the creation of our sport and a giant leap forward for the development of electric flying cars.”

No official race data has been released save for Team Bravo’s three-second winning margin over Team Alpha, but Alauda has confirmed the race was conducted under the same conditions as the upcoming GPs and eventual crewed racing series.

All teams/participants will be given an identically specced – weight, power, dimensions – Airspeeder, but they will have total technical and tactical freedom to find a competitive edge in the series, making the events more about pilot skill and race management than the craft’s capabilities.

Both the Airspeeder EXA Series (piloted) and the Airspeeder Series (crewed) will be broadcast globally.

Following the success of the drag race, Alauda says it’s now poised to release the 2022 Grand Prix calendar which will be contested over circuits of various natures including snow and ice, the ocean, deserts and even forests.

To prevent mid-air collisions, all vehicles will be fitted with a suite of LiDar and radar-powered safety systems that serve to create a ‘virtual forcefield’ around them to produce “close but ultimately safe” racing. It was these systems ultimately being tested in last week’s drag race.

“Alauda Aeronautics has created the motor racing arm of this new form of transport and with it a place and a space for the industry to rapidly develop key safety, performance and digital technologies,” Alauda said in a statement.

“This will hasten the arrival of electric flying cars that promise to liberate urban environments from congestion through a clean-air form of advanced aviation mobility.”

Airspeeder’s drone-based airborne racing tech was first shown off at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed and a wide range of car-makers and tech companies are working on electric vertical and take-off vehicles (eVTOLs) for both commercial and private use, including Uber, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Hyundai, Geely and, until recently, Audi/Airbus.