He has just set a new world speed record for an electric car – 328.6km/h – breaking a mark set by GE in 1974! His company has spent the past two years developing an electric racing car and he is acting as scientific adviser to the new Formula E racing championship. “This gives us the perfect way to showcase the performance of electric cars”, says the former UK Minister of Science and technology company founder, with a PhD in Robotics. Read More

By Leo Kelion, Technology Reporter, BBC (25 June 2013):

Drayson Racing Technologies has broken the world land speed record for a lightweight electric car.

Its Lola B12 69/EV vehicle hit a top speed of 204.2mph (328.6km/h) at a racetrack at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire.

Chief executive Lord Drayson, who was behind the wheel, said the achievement was designed to highlight electronic vehicle technology’s potential.

The previous 175mph record was set by Battery Box General Electric in 1974.

Drayson Racing is not the only electric vehicle-maker hoping to use motorsport to spur on adoption of the technology.

Last week Nissan unveiled the Zeod RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car), which can switch between electric and petrol power.

The firm intends to enter the vehicle into next year’s Le Mans 24 race saying the competition would act as a “challenging test bed” for technologies that could eventually find their way into road cars.

Recycled chassis

Drayson Racing was founded in 2007 by self-declared “car nut” Paul Drayson, who was then a minister in the Labour government.

The firm, based in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, works with others to develop more sustainable automotive technologies and uses motorsport competitions as a means to focus its efforts.

The driver, Lord Drayson, was Minister of Science in the last Labour government

In order to qualify for an attempt on the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) world electric land speed record it had to make its vehicle weigh less than 1,000kg (2,204lb) without the driver.

To do this it adapted a Le Mans Series car it had previously designed which originally had a bio-ethanol fuel engine and replaced the part with a lightweight 20 kilowatt hour battery offering 850 horsepower.

It also adapted the vehicle’s chassis, which is made out of recycled carbon fibre, to minimise air friction.

“What it, I hope, shows to people is just what the future potential of electric cars is,” Lord Drayson told the BBC shortly after his record-breaking time was confirmed.

“Obviously this is a very special racing car, but by setting this new world record here in Britain we say two things.

“One it is a pointer to the future – the technology that we developed for this car will filter down to the cars we use every day.

“And secondly it’s a message about how here in the UK we’re a world leader with this technology. We’ve led motorsport engineering, now we’re also leading with electric motorsport engineering.”

Lord Drayson and Eric Schmidt Google’s Eric Schmidt spent time with the Drayson Racing team ahead of its record-setting run

Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt spent two hours at the race track watching practice runs but was not able to stay for the record-setting drive.

“Google has a very active R&D programme with regard to electric vehicle technology so it’s great that one of the world’s leading technology companies came to our event today,” Lord Drayson added.

“It was lovely meeting him.”

Formula E

Drayson Racing’s attention will now switch to the launch of the FIA’s Formula E championship, which is due to begin in September next year.

London will host the first electric car race. Rome, Miami, Beijing and Rio de Janeiro are among the other seven locations.

A different vehicle – similar to a Formula One machine – is being developed for the firm by Singapore’s Spark and Surrey-based McLaren for the first year of the competition.

However, Drayson Racing plans to build its own machine for the 2015 competition using some of the same components used in its record breaking Lola B12 69/EV.

One analyst said such such efforts were an excellent way to promote electric cars, but questioned how many of the technologies being developed would actually find their way onto the road.

Nissan Zeod RD Nissan showed off its own “zero emission” racing car which it plans to compete with from 2014

“I think that any kind of competition-led design will have spin-offs – it might be that electric motors become more efficient,” said Paul Newton, auto analyst at IHS Global Insight.

“The problem is that making an electric car go faster is relatively straightforward.

“Making it go further and become more practical is infinitely more difficult, and that’s down to the basic physics of how batteries store energy and release it.”

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Lord Paul Grayson’s Car: Of Course the Former UK Minister of Defense Procurement Races Car

Random Celebrity Article

By Paula Wilson (3 June 2013):

It’s not enough that Lord Paul Drayson is well, a Lord.  No sirree.  Lord Paul Drayson, a former Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom, is now dead set on breaking the current top-speed record for an electric vehicle.  In fact, he wants to break the 200mph barrier.  Lord Drayson is not your average politician, however.  He earned a degree in Production Engineering from Aston University, and then went on to earn a PhD in Robotics.  Prior to his political career, he ran multiple companies, including PoderJect Pharmaceuticals, a vaccine company which he co-founded, and served as Managing Director of Justin de Blank LTD.  His political career began in 2005, when became the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister of Defence Procurement.  He went on to become the Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support.  An avid amateur racer, he subsequently stepped down in order to participate in the American Le Mans Series.  (Though there may have been some insider intrigue, as well.)  Today, he is the President of the Motorsport Industry Association, and has raced in two Le Mans 24 Hours.  Blind in one eye, he has only recently been allowed to participate in the 24 Hour race.  He also owns Drayson Racing Technology, and it is with a car created by his technology and racing team, that he will attempt to cross the 200 mile per hour mark.

Lord Drayson’s car is the Drayson B12 69/E.  The car was designed and manufactured at his company’s headquarters in Oxfordshire, England.  The electric vehicle has a 30kWh battery surrounded by a carbon fiber cell.  In addition to the battery, there are four electric motors which are paired to power each rear wheel.  The combination produces 800hp, and the car can reach 100 mph in 5 seconds.  In order for his attempt to stand in the record books, Lord Drayson’s speed must reach at least 176 miles per hour (the current record is 175 mph) on average over the course of a mile.  The only thing that could cause a hiccup, is the fact that the runway on which he will be attempting to set the record, is only just over a mile and a half long.  Come June 25th, we’ll know if his engineering team’s work has paid off.

Source: www.celebritynetworth.com

In a BBC report last year (28 August 2012) Lord Drayson had this to say about the plans for the Formula E for electric cars:

But can motorsport help to make electric cars sexy? One man who thinks so is British businessman, part time racing driver and former government minister Lord (Paul) Drayson

His company, Drayson Racing Technologies, has spent the past two years developing an electric racing car, and he is acting as scientific adviser to the new championship.

“This gives us the perfect way to showcase the performance of electric cars”, he says.

Fast but silent

Yet the idea of electric motorsport has plenty of critics. They claim that electric cars lack something which motorsport fans yearn for – noise, and plenty of it.

But according to Lord Drayson, they’re missing the point.

“What we’re trying to do is create a new racing experience. It will be a different type of car, racing through the city streets, before new audiences, in places where we haven’t raced before.”

He believes that while older fans may lament the lack of a howling exhaust note, young people simply won’t notice.

Even the most sophisticated electric racing cars have some limitations

Chris Aylett, the chief executive of the Motorsport Industry Association agrees.

“It will be a very trendy, very modern, futuristic form of racing”, he says.

“We’re not talking about appealing to the grey market with these cars. We’re looking at the 15 year old today who will be tomorrow’s car buyer”.

This isn’t the first time that motorsport has attempted to embrace environmentally-friendly technologies.

This year’s Le Mans 24 hours was won by a diesel-electric hybrid, while Formula One cars have been using energy recovery systems for the past two years. Technically, that makes them hybrids too.

But the new series is certainly a radical venture. And in order to get around some of the limitations which affect even the most sophisticated electric cars, it has had to embrace some very radical ideas.

The batteries in the new cars are expected to run down relatively quickly. So when a driver comes into the pits, he won’t just change his tyres.

He’ll change the whole car – swapping it for a new, and fully charged machine.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk