Mean and green: Drayson Racing’s Lola electric racecar breaks the 333 kph mark

By Stephen Edelstein October 18, 2013

drayson racing sets electric car speed record ev — Mean and very green indeed, the Lola B12 69/E just broke the 333 kph mark. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Drayson Racing is a band of overachievers.

Back in June, Drayson’s Lola B12 69/E electric racecar set a land speed record of 204.2 mph for electric cars weighing under 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) at Royal Air Force Elvington in Yorkshire, England. It shattered the previous EV speed record of 175 mph, set by the General Electric Battery Box in 1974.

However, they weren’t quite finished.

According to a statement from the team, the car was still accelerating when it reached the end of the track at Elvington. It still had more to give.

Team owner, and former British science minister, Lord Drayson decided to take the electric Lola to the Bonneville Salt Flats to see what it could really do. Unfortunately, the typically dry lakebed was flooded, so Drayson had to return to Elvington for another go.

Drayson Racing managed to marginally increase its record, hitting 205.139 mph over a mile. The car also set the record over one kilometer, hitting 333.271 kph. Both records still need to be ratified by the FIA and MSA sanctioning bodies.

The top speed achieved by Drayson also set a record for the fastest wheel-driven vehicle in Britain.

Finally, Drayson set a record for an electric car in the standing quarter mile, doing the deed in 9.742 seconds.

You need a very special car to set multiple speed records, and that’s exactly what the Drayson Lola B12 69/E is.

Converted from a Le Mans prototype, this lean green machine packs 850 horsepower (640 kilowatts), courtesy of four YASA-750 axial flux motors.

Will another team of EV speed freaks pick up the gauntlet thrown down by Drayson? Or will Lord Drayson decide the records he’s accumulated so far aren’t good enough, and decide to have another go?

Topics

Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Here’s how Lucid plans to merge into the EV mainstream

Lucid midsize SUV preview.

Lucid has released a dark preview image of a yet-unnamed electric crossover that will be positioned in one of the most competitive segments of the EV market. The model will be positioned below the Gravity as the brand's entry-level offering, and it will cost approximately $50,000.

Posted on X (formerly Twitter), the image shows the outline of a crossover with fluid lines. It doesn't look like a copy of an existing Lucid model but the design seemingly incorporates a handful of familiar styling cues, including an upright front end and an arch-shaped piece of trim on the roof.

Cars

The best level 2 home EV chargers

ChargePoint Home EV charger plugged into car.

When you brought home your shiny new electric vehicle, it came with a home charging cord. But that was likely a Level 1 charger, which can only add 2 or 3 miles of range per hour. Upgrading to a Level 2 home EV charger can triple that speed — or more — plus provide you with a multitude of options to help lower your electricity bill and extend your car battery life.

In other words, it's now easy to keep your car topped up without ever having to drive to a DC fast charging station unless you're on a road-trip — ensuring that in day-to-day use, your car will stay fully charged, basically all the time.

Cars

The state of solid-state batteries: We may be on the cusp of an EV revolution

Factorial solid-state battery

Electric vehicles may have become a whole lot more popular over the past five years or so, but that’s despite some issues they still face regarding things like limited range and slow charging speeds. The result of these issues is that plenty of buyers are unsure about whether an EV might be for them. But there’s one technology that has been hailed as a savior for all of the EV issues related to batteries, and that’s solid-state battery tech.

This technology has been so hyped for so long that, at this point in time, it seems not only almost mythical, but as if we might never actually see it in the real world. So, what’s the state of solid-state batteries right now, and how far are we from finally seeing them and reaping their rewards? Here’s a look.
What are solid-state batteries?
What is a solid-state battery in the first place? Solid-state batteries keep the fundamentals of traditional battery design, offering an anode and a cathode with a porous separator in the middle, and a substance through which electrons flow from one side to the other. This, in turn, creates a circuit. But while a conventional battery is built with a liquid electrolyte solution on the inside, a solid-state battery instead makes the separator between the anode and the cathode the electrolyte itself.