This 40-Year-Old Eco Car Is Now The World's Fastest Street Legal EV

Forget Ludicrous Teslas: this dinky little Enfield from the 1970s - owned and extensively modified by Fifth Gear's Jonny Smith - is way, way faster
This 40-Year-Old Eco Car Is Now The World's Fastest Street Legal EV

If you follow Fifth Gear presenter and motoring journalist Jonny Smith on Twitter, you’ll know he’s spent the last few years cooking up a stupidly fast electric vehicle, using the unlikely starting point of a 1972 Enfield 8000. The 8000 - a complete sales flop in its day - ekes out a 40 mile range and a maximum speed of 50mph from lead acid batteries, but it’s safe to say Jonny’s is a little quicker than that: at Santa Pod last weekend it ran a 9.86sec quarter-mile at 121mph, giving it the title of the world’s fastest street legal EV.

To achieve such Tesla P90D-slaying times, the car - dubbed ‘Flux Capacitor’ by Jonny - has been extensively modified. Those ancient lead acid batteries have made way for the same sort of lithium ion batteries that power a Bell SuperCobra helicopter’s miniguns, sending 400 volts to a pair of nine-inch direct drive motors from Current Racing. Quite a transformation.

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The question is, can it go any faster? We dropped Jonny a line, and he told us:

“We think there might be a little grunt left in the little ‘70s city car, predominantly because we can refurbish the motors to rev a tad higher (than 6000rpm) and also play with another diff gear. But, as it stands, I am just hugely proud to bring a forgotten piece of British EV history back from the grave. I hope, in this small way, that the term ‘EV muscle’ can now be justified.”

So yes, there could be more to come. But for now, Jonny is proud to point out that the Flux Capacitor can match a Porsche 918 Spyder on the quarter-mile. Now there’s a race we’d like to see…

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Comments

Anonymous

SHOCKingly fast.

07/19/2016 - 16:02 |
72 | 2
InjunS2K

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

INB4…aw crap, I was too late :(

07/19/2016 - 23:54 |
3 | 1
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Electrifying comment there, good sir.

07/20/2016 - 12:57 |
1 | 0
Deadpool (Cam's much sexier twin) (Official Demon Fangirl)

Little known fact, this is actually the grandfather to Top Gear Geoff, both electric vehicles and they have the same mustache.

07/19/2016 - 16:03 |
26 | 0

some say its Geoff but he it isnt, but he is geoff’s racing cousin.

07/19/2016 - 22:14 |
5 | 0
Anonymous

thats the quietest burnout I’ve ever seen

07/19/2016 - 16:09 |
20 | 0
Ezra Berg (1994 Buick Roadmaster) (1970 El Camino)

When I saw the picture of it:

07/19/2016 - 16:17 |
18 | 2
Anonymous

Hell of a…… charge…… Down the track……get it? Charge…..(ahem)

07/19/2016 - 16:44 |
8 | 1
TheStigsAmericanCousin

that pass was electrifying!

07/19/2016 - 16:50 |
8 | 2
Callum Luke Norris
07/19/2016 - 17:00 |
3 | 2
Ali Mahfooz

It says ‘Flux Capacitor’ on the sides… that could only mean one thing! 😲

07/19/2016 - 17:24 |
4 | 0
TeslaKid

TESLATESLATESLA

07/19/2016 - 17:35 |
1 | 1
TheBassman

So it doesn’t need 1.9 gigawatts to power it?

07/19/2016 - 19:02 |
0 | 0