What's the news?
Drayson Racing has set four new electric Land Speed Records including a new World Electric Land Speed Record for sub-999kg cars. Although still subject to final FIA homologation and MSA ratification the two-way average speed over the measured mile was 205.139mph. Lord Drayson drove the electric racing car at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, setting acceleration records and a British Land Speed Record.
From a standing start Drayson covered the quarter mile in 9.742 seconds, reaching a top speed of 92.383mph and representing a new World Record for electric vehicles. By making the record breaking top speed run in the UK, Drayson also set a new British record speed over a mile for wheel-driven vehicles.
This is the second set of record breaking runs for Drayson Racing at Elvington this year. In June the team reported that the car was still accelerating hard at the braking point on the runway. Over the summer the DRT 4X2 640 all-electric drivetrain was improved while chassis partner Multimatic made adjustments to reduce aerodynamic drag.
Commenting on the run Lord Drayson said, "We are continuing the testing and development programme of our electric drivetrain technology and we are delighted with the results achieved today.
"Drayson Racing is a laboratory for novel EV technology such as the high power Qualcomm HaloTM wireless charging system, testing it to the most extreme level and that's why we do this. The engineering challenge of accelerating a 995kg electric car to these speeds and then stopping in time on such a short runway is pretty intense, but it's a great proving ground for our technology. It's also an exciting way of demonstrating what's possible with a state of the art electric vehicle."
Anything else?
A run was scheduled to take place at Bonneville Salt Flats last month, to see how quickly the car could go on the fifteen mile track; however, the event had to be cancelled due to flooding. With the preparation work done the team decided to see if the record could be improved within the confines of Elvington's 1.8-mile runway. The unofficial, one-way, top speed recorded at Elvington was 219.1mph.
John Lambert - 16 Oct 2013
