Bolt From the Blue

Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 10:54

	By Robin Whitlock Follow @RobinWhitlock66

Who says that electric cars can’t travel at a decent speed?

 This might not be something that Jeremy Clarkson would be too pleased to see, but an electric car has just set a new world land speed record for electric vehicles.

The world-beating run was performed by an electric car in the E1 (under 1,100 lbs/499 kg) class, constructed by students at Brigham Young University (BYU), Utah, led by retired professor Perry Carter. 

The vehicle, called Electric Blue, managed to achieve a top speed of 155.8 mph (250.7 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, a speed that was averaged over two successive qualifying runs with one of those reaching a speed of 175 mph (281.6 km/h).

The Electric Blue is a streamlined vehicle with enclosed wheels powered by electricity from lithium ion phosphate batteries. It stands just one inch above the ground and has an extremely wide turning circle which means that the only safe places in which it can run are locations such as the salt flats.

During its run on the flats last year, the vehicle flipped and rolled damaging the vehicle but thankfully not the driver. This is quite understandable given that it’s shaped rather like a bullet, with an extremely narrow chassis made out of carbon-fibre. It was developed partly after modelling tests in a wind tunnel programme on a computer. The vehicle was driven by Jim Burkdoll, President of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association and its speed was certified by the Southern California Timing Association aka Bonneville Nations Inc.

The Electric Blue has set a new world record rather than breaking an existing one because there haven’t actually been any previously certified speed runs for lightweight E1 class vehicles.

Part of the reason for this is that previous electric vehicles have carried heavy batteries and engineering and so this led to problems developing a speedy vehicle conformant to the appropriate weight restriction.  This therefore is the first time that a lightweight electric vehicle has been constructed.

Despite this electric vehicles have previously reached speeds of up to 130 mph during unofficial attempts to set a record. The current achievement leaves the Tesla Roadster (which achieved 125 mph (201 kmh)) far behind and is just short of the record set by the Riches/Nelson E-Race electric motorcycle (176.43 mph (283.9 kmh).

A total of 130 BYU students have worked on this project, many of them majors in manufacturing engineering technology and mechanical engineering. Most of them were unpaid volunteers.

Professor Carter was understandably pleased with the achievement. “This is a wonderful closure to 31 years of teaching at BYU” he said “this is the one that takes the cake. I’m done.” Jeff Baxter, a former student and current business graduate who returned to witness the record being broken said “This is like Christmas morning, but like five Christmas mornings or even seven Christmas mornings.”