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Setting out to prove that speed . . . can be sustainable, California's Sonoma Raceway
hosted some of the fastest electric vehicles in the U.S. on Friday and Kleenspeed's EV-X11
sped off with a new track record.
The Sonoma sustainability summit brought together two and four wheeled electric vehicles and
culminated with a track demonstration that proved just how fast they could go.
The EV-X11 already claims the record as the fastest electric track racing car in the world
and at Sonoma it cemented that title making it around the two and a half mile course in
1 minute 35.99 seconds - a record for an electric vehicle.
Kevin Mitz, Kevin Mitz Motorsports "It's pretty good. The same cars we run with
a gas engine, 1 liter gas engines, motorcycle engines, they are about 400 pounds lighter
than this one so we're at a disadvantage with the weight, but we're only about 3 to 4 seconds
slower on your average comparable car to this."
Kleenspeed is based in Silicon Valley and builds most of the systems in the car itself.
The EV-X11 is the latest in a line of racing cars.
Timothy Collins, President, CEO and founder of Kleenspeed Technologies
"We've been working for five years. The first car we developed we tested in secret at a
racetrack in Nevada over four years ago. Then we bought another car and then we bought this
car and we converted it. So each car had a different system and from each car we learned
about the stresses. We do have another car on the drawing board. We want to go to the
Pike Peak Hill Climb, but we need to do that with sponsorship."
Like Formula One teams, Kleenspeed is using the racing car as a testbed for technology
is hopes will be useful in more mainstream vehicles.
Timothy Collins, President, CEO and founder of Kleenspeed Technologies
"Once you develop a race car system, you can migrate those into the passenger cars, so
we actually have a passenger car coming out in October, not for sale, it's a test vehicle
with a 150 mile per hour battery pack in it and a completely new system, completely different
to this car, and it incorporates all of the technology we have developed to date."
Electric racing cars are still a new technology. In some areas they already compare favorably
with conventional gas-powered cars.
Kevin Mitz, Kevin Mitz Motorsports "The torque and the power is instantaneous
and that's what we want. When you step on the throttle, in one of these it's like stepping
on the throttle in a drag car. Just seat of the pants throttle acceleration and you have
to control the throttle pedal and the wheel spin and that's where it gets difficult."
But there's a problem: the amount of energy that can be stored in the battery means the
car is only capable of a seven or eight laps before it's out of power.
Electric passenger vehicles faced the same problem but range is finally getting to the
level acceptable to consumers. It's expected to keep improving for electric vehicles too.
Timothy Collins, President, CEO and founder of Kleenspeed Technologies
"Next year nine laps, the year after ten or eleven laps. Every year the energy density
of the lithium cells will be greater"
A variety of electric cars hit the Sonoma raceway, some faster than others.
Also on hand was the UC Berkeley Impulse Solar Vehicle. The car came in fourth place in the
2012 American Solar Challenge, hitting highway speeds on hundred-mile plus stages, but the
first hill at Sonoma proved too much. No sooner had the car disappeared from view, the safety
car was speeding after it. The Impulse was stuck halfway up the hill and had to roll
back down, it's day done.
At the Sonoma Raceway in California, this is Martyn Williams, IDG News Service.