Earlier this year, Drayson Racing managed to set a whole new record using a highly-modified race car originally developed for the American Le Mans Series. Led by former British science minister and avid racer Lord Paul Drayson, the electric race car managed to record the highest speed achieved in one mile in the FIA’s sub-1000 kg category with a 328.6 km/h.
With Drayson Racing running the 596 kW (800-horsepower) electric Le Mans Prototype, they had brought this new machine to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with the aim of attempting to beat their own record. The attempt is actually taking place as we speak and the team is very confident that they will be able to set a new record.
“Back in June, the relatively short runway at Elvington limited our top speed as we had to brake as the car was still accelerating”, said Mr. Drayson. “We are looking forward to discovering just how fast the car can go on the wide-open spaces of the Bonneville Salt Flats, although it’s been a major engineering challenge to prepare the car for running on salt”.
Drayson’s electric speeder is called the B12 69/EV and it is based on a Lola chassis, designed for a V10 power plant. The thrust come from four electric motors, two powering each of the rear wheels. The peak output has been increased to 596 kW and the juice is fed from a 20-kW-hour battery encased in a carbon battery cell integrated into the chassis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbmbX6KuO4
