The Electric Race Car

WatchMojo presents the Racing Endurance Project team's trip to the Autosport International auto show.

The Electric Race Car Mick Hyde: Firstly, it’s eight o’clock at the Autosport International. For about an hour before the show opens. We’re taking the covers off all the cars, cars from our electric car. So, we’re waiting for our launch trip to half past nine. Male: We’re going to be busy today. We’ve invited a lot of people. Mick Hyde: My name is Mick Hyde. I'm one of the co-founders of Radical. This is Alex from Imperial College London and his team of guys. They came to see me about the beginning of last year, and this is the result of it. Unlike all our other cars, we’ve broken the golden rule and left with the body work off so you can see the technology. Alexander Schey: We have 400 horsepower of electrical power which when you compare it to a combustion engine, it’s far more than you’d normally expect as you get full torque and full power from the word goal, which means you have fantastic acceleration and fantastic top speeds. Perhaps all the sound of a raving engine but it will still be extremely exciting to drive. Andy Hadland: It’s been pretty much a year to the day since we’ve started the project and to have it here who’s staring anew, getting a load of interest from people, its’ just fantastic. Alexander Schey: The team was sponsored Lord Drayson, he is the Science Minister for the U.K. government. He’s also a very good spokesperson for the race industry, and he’s a racer himself. In fact, he owns the Radical. Lord Paul Drayson: You're expecting the top speed of the car to be what? Alexander Schey: In its current configuration about 110 miles an hour, 180 or so kilometers an hour. When we came back from our Pan-American trip, we’re going to reconfigure the car, rewind the mode just to have a much higher top speed versus your 160 miles an hour with the acceleration of sort of 3.5 seconds or 60 miles an hour. Right now, the acceleration is about six to seven seconds because we’re expecting a range on the racing all the bonus. Lord Paul Drayson: When is this going to be going out for the first testing? Alexander Schey: A couple of week’s time. The Tesla managed to do the whole M25 on one charge. We want to do the whole of the M25 twice on one charge without suffering as publicity but to show, demonstrate electric vehicles. Lord Paul Drayson: Well I think it’s greater that Imperial College one of our best universities has generated team of engineers to actually do this because this is the future, and it’s important that the hard performance cars of the future. I was astounded by not greed, the technology design allows us to do it, and you're showing that that’s possible. Alexander Schey: Absolutely. Lord Paul Drayson: We should invest a lot. Alexander Schey: Thank you very much. Lord Paul Drayson: Really, well done. Alexander Schey: Well hopefully, I’ll take you driving when it’s ready. Lord Paul Drayson: It’ll be great to come and do the testing, and then drive it from Imperial to number ten or something like that. You have to give me that. Alexander Schey: Absolutely. We’re no good, we’ll think about that. Lord Paul Drayson: Good job! Alexander Schey: Thank you very much. Aran Kankiwala Getting that kind of guy in the car is so good for our image. That’s what we’re trying to portray that like public can get involved and like their education inside the project is so important. Male: First of all, tell us why you’ve come up with this project. Alexander Schey: Well traditionally, there’s this notion about electric cars that they are very slow, boring to drive. So what we want to do is change that perception or help change that perception by taking it to the complete utter extreme and show that electric cars can look like this, very cool, very sexy and fast and fun to drive. Male: Why they’d decided to go basically to the most extreme conditions you could think of? Alexander Schey: Well, the extreme conditions, the Pan-American highway is a challenge for any car. But, more importantly, it’s the kind of drive that people do. Even though the average journey is maybe 30 miles a day, people still expect to be able to go and drive that car to Birmingham or to Manchester to 200 miles or 300 miles on the go. Male: To do that mileage in Argentina, it will be a challenge. The roads are not very good in this area. There are signs saying, you enter at your own risk. The petrol stations, which you don’t need, are far away. Toby Schulz: We’ve got to need a lot of luck obviously but its still part of the game. Male: Good luck! Toby Schulz: That’s what that folks, really hit those remote places and improve that the EV can do it. The massive —that’s our mission after all, isn’t it?