If you wonder who is pushing the world of electric vehicle racing and who will influence generations to come, two names clearly stand out: Drayson Racing Technologies and Lightning Motorcycle.
The loudest voices are not always the pushers and leaders of the bleeding edge technology. Both Drayson Racing Technologies and Lightning Motorcycle are not current household names (yet), but their race successes make them the undisputed leaders in the world of electric vehicle racing.
First time racing the electric Lola this year.
Drayson Racing runs its World Electric Land Speed Record-breaking Drayson B12/69 EV for the first time this year at Silverstone, UK. Their winter test program aims to test new motor cooling and traction control settings. The extremely wet track is well suited for an electric motor’s massive torque and wheelspin data.
Drayson B12/69 Hyper EV test at Rockingham race circuit from Drayson Racing on Vimeo.
With reduced aerodynamic drag and power, test driver Jonny Cocker recorded the same lap time around the Silverstone National Circuit he achieved before Christmas. The rain prevented the B12 from reaching its top speed of 220mph, but the results of the duty cycle of the powerful electric motors and cooling are very promising for the next world record.
According to Graham Moore, Drayson Racing Chief Engineer: “Since our successful World Electric Land Speed Record attempt at Elvington last year, the B12 has been completely stripped and all the systems and motors checked. We came to Silverstone to primarily test a number of new parts that we’ve manufactured that will assist with motor cooling. We had six options that we want to try back-to-back, and despite the atrocious weather we did manage to test many of the options and gain a significant amount of important new data. We also did some work on the traction control, hence a different downforce level. We wanted to get more wheelspin data, so the wet weather provided us with the perfect conditions.”
According to race driver Jonny Cocker: “Every time we run the B12 we find a big chunk of information, and every test session is a big learning experience. We were at Silverstone just before Christmas in very similar conditions, and then we ran the B12 in full downforce specification and with full power. This time we ran with reduced aerodynamic and power and achieved exactly the same lap time, which illustrates the developments that are continuously being made to the car. Silverstone in February, heavy rain blowing in sideways and two degrees Centigrade made driving quite exciting, yet we achieved pretty much everything we set out to do. We’ve gathered all the data we needed, and this latest engineering exercise has been well worthwhile.”
Lightning Motorcycle set for commercial release.
As far as Lightening Motorcycle, the company is off to a fantastic year with the final phase of what Richard Hatfield CEO and owner of the company promised us last year, the commercial version of the electric motorcycle that won last year’s Pike Peak overall motorcycle race. But wait! It gets even better since the commercial version of the race electric motorcycle will be even more powerful than the original.
We’ll have much more on the final details of the electric motorcycle, but needless to say, we are wildly enthusiastic about their first commercial electric motorcycle from Lightning Motorcycle. The best recipes take time to perfect, and Lightening Motorcycles is the best chef around. In the meantime, we look forward to both companies pushing the EV racing envelop.
