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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

Note to Eds: Starting to see "word-soup" here; please look over closely, and thanks! --Bytram

About this time last year, we reported Tesla’s New ‘Ludicrous Mode’ Will Get You from 0-60 in Under 3 Seconds [soylentnews.org]. The Tesla P90D reportedly completed the quarter mile in just 10.9 seconds [engadget.com]. Some owners have reported [tesla.com] difficulty in attaining that result, but still it's a wonderful display of using the latest and greatest technology around. Besides, it will certainly out-accelerate almost anything else you'd find on the road today.

Jonny Smith, on the other hand, had other ideas and turned an ungainly-looking, forty-plus year old vehicle into the world's fastest street-legal electric car [arstechnica.com]:

Smith a British automotive journalist, took an old Enfield 8000 electric city car (built in small numbers in the 1970s) and transformed it into something a lot wilder. Out went the array of 12v batteries and 8hp (6kW) electric motor, to be replaced by an altogether more potent powertrain. And on July 16, Smith and the Flux Capacitor entered the record books as the world's fastest street-legal EV, running the quarter-mile in 9.87 seconds.

When last we checked in [arstechnica.com] with Smith, the Flux Capacitor was only Europe's fastest street-legal EV, with a sub-11 second, 1/4-mile time under its (bright orange) belt. Since then, the existing 144-cell Hyperdrive Innovation lithium-ion battery pack has been supplemented by an extra 44 cells located in the trunk. That upgrade has boosted the car from 370v to 400v, and together with lower gearing on the differential, the times at Santa Pod Raceway in the UK began to fall.

From Smith's web site [flux-capacitor.co.uk]:

Here [photobucket.com] ...is the pathetic little piece of crumpled paper which we have been working hard – with the invaluable help of Current Racing – for over 3 years to achieve. These are the runs we ran this weekend. The pair of 10.24s were backed up within 5 mins of one another to clinch a world record quickest EV. Then came the 10.1, followed later that day with the breaking well into the 9 bracket. The lower gear and added power shrunk our crucial 60ft time down, while pushing the RPM limit on the motors made the car sound quite different from the driving seat.

Here is a video [youtube.com] of the record-breaking run.

At the end of the quarter-mile the numbers show: 9.869 seconds at 121.73 mph (~200 kph).

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