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NEWS
UK team attempt EV land speed record
Sustainable motor racing specialist Drayson Racing Technologies to take a crack at a four-decade old recordBritish race-tech entrepreneur Lord (Paul) Drayson has announced plans to make an attempt on the world land speed record for EVs at the end of June.
The multimillionaire businessman, former science minister and Labour peer, with his Drayson Racing Technologies team will take to the runway at the RAF’s Elvington base in one of the company’s B12 69/EV electric Le-Mans prototypes, specially modified to cut drag.
The 280km/h (175mph) record for the sub-1000kg class dates back almost 40 years, set in August 1974 by Roger Hedlund at the wheel of Battery Box General Electric on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Lord Drayson explained in a statement that the longevity of the record can be put down not so much to the speeds they’re aiming at, but the engineering challenges of keeping a lightweight EV consistent at such a pace.
“[The] challenge [lies in] 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,” he said.
“It’s a tremendous technical challenge but we believe it’s about time someone moved this record on to demonstrate just how far EV technology has come.”
Drayson Racing Technologies’ B12 69/EV is a modified version of the bio-fuelled V10 car the company has raced in Le Mans. Drayson claims that electrifying its existing Lola chassis presented “a considerably tougher engineering challenge than starting with a ground-up design – particularly in packaging the drivetrain to maintain the rigidity and crash safety of the original car.”
What it’s achieved for its trouble, it says, “represents the pinnacle of what a bona fide electric racing car can achieve in terms of performance”. Modifications to the chassis and drivetrain are designed to overcome the low downforce that goes with its relative lightness. Its torque vectoring and traction control systems are calibrated to help it reach maximum speed, sustain it over a measured mile and decelerate to a safe stop, all in a stretch of just 1.86 miles – less than three kilometres.
The car uses four rear axle-mounted electric motors, rated at an aggregate 640kW. They’re powered by a high-output 20kWh battery pack, stripped back from the donor EV’s 30kWh to help rein in weight from its normal 1095kg to inside 1000kg.
Lord Drayson says the aim of the exercise is to showcase what EVs are capable of in the way of performance without extending to a highly specialised body shape purpose-designed for land speed records. “We’re also demonstrating the future potential of technologies like wireless charging in speeding the adoption of high performance EVs. It’s a great way to build up to the Formula E championship we’re competing in from 2014, and will demonstrate that Britain is at the forefront of this vital technology, which I believe represents the future of the automobile.”
Drayson’s motor racing history is not what you’d expect. It wasn’t until he was in his forties that he first stepped into a race car, and he subsequently had to fight to prove his worthiness of an FIA racing licence despite congenital blindness in one eye.
He’s gone on to race a bio-ethanol powered GT3-spec Aston Martin DBRS9 for Barwell Motorsport in the British GT Championship, along with V8 Vantage GT2 and Lola-Judd LMP1 cars at Le Mans in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
An engineer with a PhD in robotics, Drayson and his physicist wife Elspeth made their fortune from PowderJect, the vaccine company they founded in 1993 and sold a decade later. Already a major donor to the Labour Party, he entered the House of Lords in 2005, assuming the roles of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Government Spokesman for Defence to the House of Lords and Defence Minister.
In 2007 his ministerial responsibilities expanded to take in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. He took a year off in 2008 to prepare and race in Le Mans, subsequently rejoining the Brown government as Minister for Science and Innovation, where he stayed until Labour lost government in 2010.
He and his wife have since devoted their energies to Drayson Racing Technologies. Specialising in sustainable race-tech, the company was the first signatory to the FIA’s upcoming Formula E series, set to start in 2014.
Drayson B12 69/EV mechanical specs
Chassis: Carbon Lola LMP1 chassis with low-drag bodywork mods
Power: 640 kW
Mechanical: 4 axial flux motors (2 per rear wheel) with integrated transmission
Single-speed, independent drive
Stress-bearing battery and gearbox housings
Battery: 20 kWh lightweight, high-power configuration
Charging System: 20kW Qualcomm Halo wireless charging system
Control: Cosworth ECU platform with DRT control algorithms
Active Dynamics: Brake energy regeneration, torque vectoring and traction control
Multimatic dynamic suspension energy recovery dampers (DSERD)
Active Aerodynamics: Active dive planes, rear wing and gurney flap
Brakes: Front: 380mm carbon discs, 6-pot calipers and carbon pads
Rear: 355mm carbon disks, 6-pot calipers and carbon pads
Weight: Sub-1000kg without a driver
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Written byJeremy Bass
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