Yorkshire: it may not be the most obvious place to go chasing speed records, but this
is Elvington Airfield, home to a 2-mile landing strip that was once converted for emergency
space shuttle landings.
The goal for Drayson Racing and its driver, Lord Paul Drayson, was to break the 200 mile
an hour barrier in a converted Le Mans prototype racer, and in doing so, break a record for
sub-thousand kilo electric cars that had stood for 39
years.
It's really important to us. We're really here to try and set this new world record
to show what electric vehicle technology can do, to prove that there is no reason why an
electric car can't do everything an internal combustion engine can do. We're here to really
break this record.
Regulations meant the team would need to run twice in opposite
directions up and down the runway, and all within an hour.
Timing glitches earlier in the day meant that light was fading
fast and the pressure was on.
The electric motors deliver 850bhp on tap, and 0-to-60mph is dispatched in just 3 seconds; 0-to-100 in 5.1 seconds. With the car shorn of downforce
to help it slip through the air, it's a real handful as momentum builds. In testing, Drayson
had spun at 178mph, but even with the car bucking wildly as speed builds, he has
no such problems today.
The first run's speed is 203.263mph, more than enough to put the team on track for its
record. Now it's a race against the clock to cool the motors, top up battery, and get
the car ready to run again before the sun goes down.
Lord Drayson: Tell me that's OK, please. Male 2: Timing says 205. Male 3: 205. Lord Drayson: Fantastic, 205. What's the average both ways?
Male 2: Here we go. Are you all listening? It's an average speed of 204.1580 mph.
Really brilliant. That was hairy, that last run. I said to myself at the beginning I was
not going to lift off, whatever happened. Coming up to here, just as I was going past
you, the car was moving about so much that I could hardly see where the beacon was, I
could just see where we were on the runway, and just try to keep it straight, keeping
my foot in. Sigh of relief when I went past that timing beacon and could lift off and
hit the brakes.
Drayson's final average was 204.185mph, a new world record. Having made the headlines,
he now plans to evolve some of the technology he developed for the bit to use in future
electric cars.