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Lightning at the London motor show 2008

By Guy Bird and CAR reader reporter asp Motor Shows 24 July 2008 09:03 The previous GT revealed by the Lightning Car Company two years ago was a conventional 4.8 V8 petrol sports car but then the firm decided to start again from scratch and become a pure electric car brand. The result – claimed to be Britain's first all-electric sports car – was shown at London… What’s new on Lightning’s London motor show stand?The completely redesigned 2008 GT – only the windscreens are common – is a pure electric vehicle with a claimed 700bhp equivalent of power on tap. It’s a dream machine in every sense: 100 percent electric with four in-wheel motors, slick sports car styling, 0-60mph in under four seconds, a 180-mile range and claimed 10-minute recharge.

Four new electric speed records for the UK

Lord Paul Drayson has set a new World Electric Land Speed record for sub-999kg electric vehicles with an average speed of 205.139mph over the flying mile. This represents a modest 1mph increase over the previous record – which Drayson set last year in the same Drayson Racing Technologies all-electric prototype. But the ‘Lord of Speed’ (as we’ve just dubbed him) also broke four other records in the process.

Breakeryard designs 'Woman-Proof' car

Breakeryard, the UK's network of national breakers, has designed a garish pink ‘Woman-Proof' concept car with the aim of making parking easier for ‘non-confident' female drivers. In an exercise with its tongue firmly in its cheek Breakeryard has not only designed, but also commissioned some mock-ups of a car to combat problems highlighted in a survey of 1,421 female drivers. ‘Peripheral visibility' was identified as a problem by 44 percent of respondents, so the concept has a bubble-top design to combat this, which would be framed by a reinforced structure for safety purposes.