If somebody doesn't make a movie based on EV West's experience at the Bonneville Salt Flats, they don't know what they're missing. The entire effort of the team, from start to finish, is the stuff of legends.
EV West is a company in California that does EV conversions as well as anything else related to battery-powered vehicles in any shape or form. What it doesn't do, however, is build vehicles capable of breaking land speed records. Well, that statement used to be true, but not since August 13.
One day earlier, the team managed to complete a run with an average speed of 217 mph (349 kph) through the flying mile. With the previous record for the SCTA 2/E class sitting at 213 mph (343 km/h), all the team needed was a return run with an average speed of at least 210 mph (338 kph) to secure the record.
Since the qualifying run had put the team into impound, they would have to wait until the next day for the all-too-important attempt. Luckily for EV West and everyone else involved, the Tesla-powered Electraliner held up and finished with an even better result: 219 mph (352 kph) for an overall average of 218.2 mph (351.15 kph), 5.2 mph (over 8 kph) more than the old record dating from all the way back to 1997.
Feeling there was more to be had from the vehicle, EV West's Michael Bream decided to give it another go before heading back home. The driver, however, decided he had had enough for one day and refused to make any more runs. However, one of the SCTA tech inspectors that showed up to put out the fire on another vehicle turned out to be a certain Jim Hoogerhyde.
Jim is the holder of the land speed record for electric motorcycles having clocked an average speed of 203.566 mph (327.6 kph) on a Lightning SB220 three years ago. That meant not only was he familiar with electric drivetrains and the Bonneville Salt Flats, but he was also eager to test the limits of the Electraliner.
Over the course of two runs, Jim used his experience to beat the record the team had set previously by a hefty margin, raising the bar for everyone who thinks about topping the 2/E class to 229.363 mph (369.12 kph). Braking the record twice during the same session (and hitting a top speed of over 240 mph/386 km/h in the process) will undoubtedly give the team the impetus it needed to attack the 3/E class, which is where the overall record for electric vehicles lies.
If that's not enough to warrant a Hollywood script, how about this? After the initial run that put the team in impound, they had to prepare for the next run that would seal the record by getting the car weighed. However, the local weigh station was closed due to the pandemic, so they had to take the Electraliner to a Flying J truck stop for an official weight certificate. You can watch the happy-ending story condensed into 15 minutes packed with excitement. Well, 12 of them are as the last three only show Michael Bream thanking everyone involved.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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