‘Nemesis’ breaks UK electric car speed record

An electric car – based on a second-hand Lotus Exige – has broken the UK electric car speed record with a speed of 151.6mph.

We’re not entirely sure how relevant a new UK speed record for an electric car is, but let’s be parochial and report it anyway.

The ‘Nemesis’ is an electric car built round a second hand Lotus Exige, bought off eBay, by a team of engineers in a shed in Norfolk and driven by an Estate Agent from Gloucestershire. Only in England.

The team managed a speed of 151.607mph on two runs along a one mile runway to break the old electric car speed record in the UK by more than 14mph. Well done, guys.

Of course, the EV speed record for the UK pales in to insignificance compared to the 307mph clocked by a team from Ohio State University back in 2010, but then the Americans probably had vast funding and NASA in the corner to make it happen. The plucky Brits just had a shed, some batteries and a lot of gaffer tape.

But you have to wonder if it might all have been a lot easier if they’d just borrowed a Tesla Roadster for the day – also built on a Lotus – and had a play with their laptops to tweak the software in the Roadster to up its top speed a bit.

Still, that’s not half as good a story.

By Cars UK