[Music]
That car has 850 horsepower, 4,000 new m
of torque, and it weighs 990 kg. And
it's powered by electricity.
This car is the brainchild of Lord Dson.
It's called the
B1269 EV and it started off as a Lola
LMP1 car. In fact, this is the chassis
that Paul Dson finished Lemon in. It's
now the fastest sub 999 kg electric car,
too, boasting
205.139 mph over the measured mile.
I'm the least qualified person to talk
you around this incredible motor car.
So, Paul Dson, owner of the whole
project and the brains behind it. Let's
just have you talk us through the main
points about this incredible car for a
kind of car nerd audience. We started
out with a Lola LMP1 car. Correct. Yes.
That raced in the Lemon 24 hours in 2010
and was pretty competitive. We we came
third in the in the championship that
year and that was our starting point.
Take a current Lemon prototype car and
convert it to 100% electric drive and
then put on it all the different
technologies which are now available to
optimize the performance of the car.
Really discover just how fast and how
far an electric car can go when it's
using the latest technology.
The thing that that that I really
believe is that this technology is going
to be transforming the cars that we
drive in the future. We've got to get
more electric cars on the road. Things
like charging of cars with cables which
are, you know, clutter and inconvenience
to people. We're developing wireless
charging technology with this car.
That's another technology which is
coming. The tires that are being
developed looking at the way in which to
develop the tire compounds to suit the
very high torque that comes electric
drivetrain. It's it's a fascinating area
because there's more innovation and
technology development going on here
than there's been for I would say like
50 years within within cars. And the
beauty of doing it in a motorsport
context is you don't have to play with
legislation, do you? You can go out
there and learn. Yeah. In a sensible
way, in a more pioneering way, cuz
you're not held back with legislation
and and testing and all the other stuff.
I would say overall the thing that's I
think I'm most proud of in this car is
the performance we've been able to
achieve with it within the weight limit.
We wanted to show that we could use
lightweighting technologies to bring in
a car which was under the class weight
limit of 999 kilos. This car weighs uh
995 just over 995 kilos in this
configuration. And of course, people
worry about the weight of batteries of
electric cars. How does that affect the
handling? What we've shown here is we've
been able to produce a car. We do uh you
know, pretty considerable speeds, 290
220 mph. It's got 300 kilos of batteries
in the car in total. And the car comes
in at 996.
So, the the million-dollar question, or
I suspect more than a million dollar
question, is how long until we've got a
battery technology that allows this to
do a stint at Lamont? Well, today in
laboratories, research laboratories,
those batteries exist. They're pretty
hairy though in terms of how they
perform when they're at their limit, and
they do slightly surprising things. So
they're not suitable yet to be put in a
car which is going to be raced or or
used on the road. But I actually think
that the pace of battery technology that
within 5 years that laboratory tech is
going to be ready for use in cars. A lot
of testing a lot of safety testing uh
understanding how the batteries perform
when they're at elevated temperature.
All those things will be taking place.
There's billions of pounds being
invested in that right now. And that's
an area where the the UK does have a
scientific lead. We're real really good
at that type of technology. Also, the
electric motors, those are motors which
are came from Oxford Gas Motors, a
spinout company from Oxford University.
Absolutely state-of-the-art motor. So, I
think the the encouraging thing for me
is that, you know, Britain's the world
leader in motorsport engineering. You
know, we we dominate Formula 1. We have
for many years in terms of our
motorsport engineering where we're based
in Kegllington is at the heart if you
like of motorsport valley. We also have
the technology to be at the front of
electric motorsport engineering. And
with the Formula E Championship coming
in about a year's time, we believe that
we're uh really in a a good position to
exploit all that we've learned over the
last 3 years and apply that to the
racing championship.
It it doesn't mind going 20 mph, 5 mph,
and it's very easy on the throttle as
well. The calibration is very easy.
Yeah. So you So it's very flexible. So
in terms of a car that you'd be able to
drive around town very easily, park, sit
in traffic, you know, start, stop, stop,
stop, it's absolutely perfect. Um but
then and then when you need performance
that that ability to deliver that
instantaneous push and go faster than a
Veyron is quite something.
Um I'm not bored with this conversation,
but I've got the option to drive it
again. So I'm going to go and drive it
again.
Getting in and starting the B12 isn't
the matter of the moment. In fact, it
takes time. You have to really listen
and you have to
concentrate. Wow, this is
freakish. I just pressed the button that
said high
voltage. Reminds me of that electric six
song.
Wow. Completely
silent.
Wow. This a
spaceship. Paul Lord. Well, Paul Dason
just said he has no interest in the
internal combustion engine anymore after
this thing. So, we're on wet tires that
are effectively cold and I'm on a
runway. This is freakish. It's a
spaceship.
me. That's
fast. Jeepers creepers. It's fast.
And it's
silent. Oh my
lord. Bloody lordy lordy. That's
fast. Lordy lordy lordy. That's
fast. The braking
performance. There's an honesty about
this because it's not trying to sort of
have a hybrid about it. The
performance, deary
me. on the
brakes. Oh, that wasn't
exactly. I mean that is
mindblowing. Absolutely mind-blowing.
Struggling slightly with my vision
here.
Wow. This is something entirely
new. Something entirely new.
That's just the
torque. And I'm doing 135 mph there. How
does that
work? Oh, it's the future. It's the
future. That is truly
extraordinary. Now, for those of us who
don't get to sit in beautiful racing
cars the whole time, part of the joy of
these things is how cool the cabin is.
Look at this steering wheel. Okay. Um,
it's unlike anything I've used before
because it's all about ohms and
isolation and voltage. The way it works
is this. You have three positions.
Obviously, no ignition, no nothing. You
just have P1 and P2. P1 is like the
standby. It's the first key on the
ignition. And that lights everything up
and gives you some idea of the fact that
we've got 13 volts and the other stuff
that's going on. When you put it into
P2, you then have to wait and press this
rather worrying looking red cal button
called HV enabled. That's high voltage.
So that gives us all the power. These
things then light up. And at that point,
you just put your foot on the brake,
press the neutral button, and then press
the drive button to go, come back to
neutral, and press reverse. I mean, it's
that simple. We've got nine levels of
traction control. I was on about seven.
Um, and then after that, it's just away.
You got a radio button and get on with
it. It's actually quite simple. And then
you end up with a page like that. That
speed number tends to worry you because
it's quite high and the state of charge
starts at 100 and depletes down to n. Um
that simple.
Yeah. Uh that is
mindblowing. Quite often the way that
someone like me who's a bit limited with
descriptive phrases will describe a car
talk is that it kind of picks you up and
puts you a bit further down the road.
It's instant. This picks you up and it
puts you a mile further down the road.
That's just extraordinary.
We're at
Elvington, as I said, but we need some
context, don't we? Um, you've seen how
fast I think the car feels, but you need
some context to work out just how fast
it really is. I'm in a Jaguar XFRS. It's
a conventionally very, very fast car.
I've just figured it at well under 10
seconds to 100 miles an hour. Four and a
bit to 60. So, let's see what it's like
in a straight line versus that electric
car which has, wait for it, 4,000 Newton
meters at the back wheels. So, I've got
all my systemy things off and um yeah,
we'll give it a go. Could be quite
interesting.
Well, that's ridiculous. I mean, it's
just I mean, it's so far ahead. It's not
even fair.
I mean,
I Yes, that's an electric car and it's
just done. Okay, it was a bit sluggish
off the line cuz it's traction control.
I hold it back a bit and it's actually
on
wet. But if I'm doing naugh to 100 in 10
seconds, he's doing naugh to 100 in
well, let me show you the numbers now on
the screen how that accelerates because
they are mindn numbing. Here they are.
[Music]
Is this the future of motorsport? And if
so, is it a future we should want? The
speed is truly extraordinary, but the
lack of noise and drama is a bit
worrying for me. But engineers are very,
very clever people and I suspect they'll
be able to make batteries that last a
lot longer and also make noise that we
will all enjoy.
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