Since then many design teams have created vehicles to push the boundaries of EVs. Instead, EVs have become bigger and bulkier, heaping on batteries to push the limits of all-electric speed. On June 25 a team from Drayson Racing Technoliges will attempt to break the old record with an astoundingly efficient Drayson-Lola B12/69EV.
Built around the modified body of a LeMans racer, the Drayson-Lola B12/69EV will test its mettle along the 1.86 mile track at the decommissioned RAF Elvington facility in Yorkshire, England. While the speed record is an important aspect of this trial, Lord Drayson, head of Drayson Racing Technologies (and former UK science minister), puts the attempt in perspective. “It is not the outright speed that is impressive about this record attempt, but the engineering challenge of accelerating a 1000kg electric vehicle to such a high speed and sustaining that speed over a measured mile, before stopping safely all within a relatively short distance then turning round and doing it again within an hour.”
Beyond the engineering challenge Lord Drayson also feels that the public needs to know that EVs should take a backseat to no car. “The reason we are doing this is to showcase the maximum level of EV performance at the moment—and in a real racing car rather than a teardrop-shaped land speed record car. We are also demonstrating the future potential of [EV] technologies.”
The Drayson Racing Technologies land speed record attempt is scheduled for June 25, 2013. On that date the 480kW B12/69EV will show the world exactly what an EV can do. If the B12/69EV can achieve Lord Drayson goals it’ll prove, yet again, that EVs aren’t the plodding, dull cars of yesteryear.
Watch a Video of the Drayson-Lola Being Tested:
Images & Video Courtesy of Drayson Racing