This weekend, a highly tuned electric car will attempt to break the European EV quarter mile record at Northamptonshire’s Santa Pod Raceway.
But what’s the car that’ll be taking on the challenge? A converted muscle car with massive rear wheels, perhaps? Or even a Tesla? Well, in fact, it’s something a little different…
You see, familiar face from the telly, Jonny Smith, has been quietly working away with the help of Sunderland-based tuner Hyperdrive to create this cute-but-bonkers Enfield 8000.
You may or may not be familiar with this particular model of car (in fact, we’re going to bet you probably haven’t), but as a brief re-cap, it’s a small electric-powered city car which was something of a flop when released back in the Seventies in an attempt to attract drivers away from conventional cars during the oil crisis of the time. Only 120 were ever made.
Hyperdrive has had its work cut out getting Jonny’s car, dubbed the Flux Capacitor, ready to hopefully smash its way into the record books this weekend. Originally, the car’s 8bhp, 120-amp engine could propel the car anywhere between 35 and 55 miles with a top speed of 40 miles per hour. With the car now running two series-mounted, nine-inch DC Current Racing motors, Jonny can expect up to 120 miles per hour from his teeny Enfield!
With the quarter mile record currently standing at 11.5 seconds, and Jonny already performing an 11.7 run today during testing, we’re hoping that history will be re-written as the weekend takes shape…
Aiming to one day make the Flux Capacitor Europe’s fastest road-legal EV (it already has its roadworthiness certificate), we’ll be keeping a close eye on this one!
Check out flux-capacitor.co.uk for the full fascinating story.
Pic: Jonny Smith (twitter.com/carpervert)
