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800bhp turns electric runabout into record breaker
I FIND that the best things in life make no sense whatsoever.
Like people who devote their lives to building model villages out of toothpicks, or memorising Pi to 407 decimal places.
Or Jonny Smith’s Enfield electric drag racer.
Jonny, of Fifth Gear fame, showed me his (un-modified) comic Enfield 8000 electric car when he moved to his new house a few years ago.
To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention. He was blathering on about an electric world record attempt but my mind was drifting. It reminded me of a tragic Greeves Invacar. Jonny’s Dodge Charger was much more interesting.
But he’s only gone and done it. This microscopic yellow peril has just broken the record for the fastest streetlegal electric vehicle over the quarter mile at Santa Pod raceway. He did it in just 9.8697 seconds. It wasn’t blather after all. Jonny’s Enfield – dubbed the Flux Capacitor (it’s sponsored by Adrian Flux insurance, y’see) – has the electrical equivalent of 800bhp and a face-flattening 1,600Nm of torque.
Bearing in mind the wheelbase of this car is a piddling 1.7metres and all that power is fed to the rear wheels via a six-inch propshaft through a modified nine-inch Ford axle, that’s quite a big ask.
The car also has to be street legal (this involves a 26-mile drive through Northamptonshire during the race weekend), so wheelie bars and slick tyres are a no-no.
“It’s like a baby Aston Martin really,” said Smith with obvious irony.
“It’s all hand-beaten alloy panelling with a tube steel, space frame chassis. This level of build quality is probably why the Enfield wasn’t a sales success.
“Back during the oil crisis in the early ’70s they were £3,000 when a Mini was about a third of that price. The firm sold 120 cars, this one of mine is chassis number three.” The original car had a top speed of around 40mph. Jonny’s is slightly quicker. It can reach 100mph in under six seconds from a standing start. Try to picture what that must feel like. That’s some furiosity, right there.
Using 188 military grade lithium batteries (“they cost £20,000 and took me a year to source as you need a military licence to buy them”), the power reserves are impressive.
The two motors, mounted in what used to be the gearbox tunnel, are capable of handling 2,000amps in 10-second bursts.
A liquid-cooled solid state controller mounted under the passenger seat meters out the power accordingly.
“Touch two things together that shouldn’t be touched together and you’ll stop living,” added Smith.
“All our tools are insulated and I work on the car sitting on my late nan’s pouffe to stop myself being an earth connector.
“But the nice thing is you’ve always got clean hands. EV’s aren’t they’re clean things to handle.
“I started this project because I was keen to try to stop people being sceptical about electric vehicles and to show they have a character and personality of their own.
“To be honest most cars feel slow in comparison to this. The power and acceleration is just instant, with peak torque available the moment the motors start turning.
“It’s surprisingly stable, too – amazing considering how short it is and the fact we’re running no aero on it at all.”
The project has taken nearly four years and swallowed the thick end of forty grand. But the results, I’m sure you’ll agree, are pretty impressive. A world record in a British built electric car.
But if you think £40k is a lot of money, the Enfield’s 9.86 second quarter mile time is on a par with a Porsche 918 Spyder and that, folks, is a million pound motor vehicle. oily,