Alice Thomson Elvington Airfield will be the location for an attempt at breaking the UK electric vehicle land-speed record on the 27 September.
The foreboding-sounding Nemesis supercar was designed and built in Norfolk by green energy company Ecotricity and a team of British Motorsport engineers. It will be driven by 21 year old estate agent and racing-car driver Nick Ponting with direct hopes to break the current record for an electric vehicle of 137mph which was set by Don Wales in Surry back in 2000.
The Nemesis, a heavily-modified Lotus Exige body bought on eBay and tinkered with for two years and £400,000, claims to accelerate from 0 to 100mph is 8.5 seconds and should be capable of reaching around 200mph overall (that’s four times the speed that the Nemesis ride at Alton Towers can achieve).
This figure will most likely be lowered by science-y matters such as aerodynamic lift and weather conditions which is ironic as the Nemesis is entirely powered by wind-generated electricity from Ecotricity’s network of 53 windmills around the UK.
The founder of Ecotricity, Dale Vince, said “we built the Nemesis to smash the stereotype of electric cars as something Noddy would drive – slow, boring, not cool”. He hopes to demonstrate how “fun wind-powered cars can be” by breaking the land-speed record for an electric car, a feat which will be adjudicated by The Motor Sports Association.
Home to one of the longest runways in Britain, at 3000 metres, Elvington Airfield is just five miles south-east of the city centre. In May this year, it saw a successful bid to break the land-speed record for a three-wheeled vehicle. Keep your ion the outcome and let’s all hope for a highly-charged event!
