Electric car land speed record beaten by a bunch of students

Tesla Motors has proven that electric cars can go quite fast – so fast, in fact, that even petrol powered supercars find it rather tough to keep up. Of course, as we know that records are meant to be broken, so a bunch of BYU engineering students decided to spend their spare time by building an electric streamliner which maxed out at 175 mph – and since it runs on an electric motor, surely it will move around silently, so if this streamliner were to be used in tracks around the country, security had better be increased to prevent any untoward incidents.

The entire project was a seven year toil, where more than 130 students were involved to realize this dream. Dubbed the Electric Blue, this streamliner actually tore up the Bonneville Salt Flats for two runs, boasting an average speed of 155.8 mph while peaking at 175 mph. The entire body was built out of carbon fiber, while ‘fuel’ was provided by a bunch of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Hence, the world land speed record for electric cars under the 1,100 pound category has a brand new champion – although I don’t think it will ever become street legal. What about you?