This video of a hyper-modified VW Beetle with two electric motors and 1200 ft-lb of torque racing to an 11.24 second quarter-mile victory over a Tesla Roadster has everything — except engine noise.
The Black Current III is the work of two European brothers named Olly and Sam Young, who started the project when six years ago when they dropped a milk truck motor they'd found into a VW Beetle. Now the car claims the title of Fastest Zero Emissons car in Europe thanks to two electric fork truck motors, 60 Odyssey PC680 12V batteries and a Zilla 2K motor controller all delivering 1200 lb-ft of torque to the ground.
This video demonstrates the car's capabilities. A 0-to-60 MPH time around 3.0 seconds and a quarter-mile run of 11.24 seconds at 114 MPH is high-dollar sports car territory. It handily outpaces the Tesla Roadster doing the same run, and it's easy to point and laugh but it's only fair to point out the Bug is a custom built drag racer complete with a full roll cage, tubbed rear end and virtually no creature comfort. The Tesla will go a hundred miles, has an interior fit for tiny human use and probably doesn't have the lingering stench of patchouli. Still, these guys pulled off a faster electric car without venture capital, fancy private jets, or teams of engineers.
For their next evolution of the car, the boys plan on chucking the hefty lead-acid 12V batteries in favor of much lighter lithium ion batteries. Better, stronger, lighter; they have the technology, they can make it faster! [HVWC via PistonHeads]