LONDON: A three-year project to turn a 40-year-old electric city car into a Tesla-beating dragster has climaxed with TV presenter Jonny Smith’s Flux Capacitor becoming Europe’s quickest street legal electric car.
The 1975 Enfield 8000 electric city car, capable of just 64kph when new, this weekend smashed the Tesla’s record over a quarter mile in the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod, 108km north-west of here.
With the Fifth Gear presenter at the wheel, the tiny Enfield – boosted from its original 8hp to 1000hp – silently charged through the quarter mile in 10.84 seconds at 121mph, dismantling the Tesla’s record of 11.5 seconds.
“I still cannot believe what that little car is capable of,” said Jonny. “The little paper timing slip never lies, and when it revealed a 10 second pass I was so happy I kissed my crew mate Nick Farrow on the lips.
Jonny Smith and the little runabout that could.
“This weekend the car not only clinched but blitzed the European record for a street legal electric car. Never in my dreams did I think the Enfield was capable of this kind of performance.”
Long before Tesla launched its supercar-killing model S P85 electric saloon, and prior to the Formula E race series, Jonny started restoring the rare but derelict Enfield.
He dubbed the car the Flux Capacitor with the idea of going Back to the Future of the electric car, and as a nod to the sponsor, insurance broker Adrian Flux.
Earlier in the year the car managed to run a 12-second quarter mile, then into the 11s.
But at Santa Pod this weekend the silent David was pitched against the piston-powered Goliaths. Jonny entered the highly contested Street Eliminator category, where some of the fastest cars compete, all with current MoTs, tax and running on street legal tyres.
In order to prove its road legal credentials, prior to the racing there is a mandatory 40km street cruise around the Northants countryside.
“This doesn’t sound much for normal cars, but these are vehicles treading the fine line between all-out dragsters and Sunday cruisers,” said Jonny.
“If you break down and can’t get back to the race track without outside help, you’re disqualified. Harsh, but we managed to keep our charge and complete the event.”
Qualifying with an 11.27 second quarter mile at 190kph, Jonny fitted taller axle gears to try to go even faster.
“We had two hours to recharge after the gruelling cruise before heading into race one. It wasn’t a lot of time. To be honest I was happy to have qualified at all given most of my competitors are running over 1500bhp twin turbo V8s,” said Jonny.
And then, 40 years after it was built on the Isle of Wight, the car originally designed as an electric city runabout in the midst of the 1970s oil crisis, tore up the strip in a staggering 10.84 seconds at 195kph.
Not quite 1.21 gigawatts of power, but 1900 amps and over 250 volts of electric muscle.
“This would be a serious feat for a modern supercar, let alone something 2.8 metres long that was designed for a maximum of 40 mph,” said Jonny.
“The numbers showed we’d got the thing from 0-102mph (164kph) in 6.9 seconds. When new it couldn’t even do 60. They measured performance in the brochure quoting 0-30mph in 12.5 seconds. Mind you, it had 6kW of power then. Now it’s got 600kW.
“I was racing against a 2000bhp Nissan GT-R, so I knew I’d need some miracle to win. With a 10 second quarter mile in a tiny electric car in front of thousands of spectactors, I couldn’t have been happier to lose.
“While it is a very left-field project, the attention the Flux Capacitor got over the last few days is ridiculous. We had serious dyed in the wool drag racers come over and give us respect. I think – I hope – the Flux Capacitor has gone a little way to showing people that electric cars are nothing new, and that they can be charismatic and mighty fast.”
The question now is, can it go even faster?
“Maybe,” said Jonny. “I’m just chuffed to have achieved two major hurdles. Firstly completing the mandatory 25 mile street cruise around Northamptonshire without breaking down or accepting ‘outside’ help. It was tough, I won’t lie…three days before the event me and my brother were busy getting the hazard warning lights and horn to work properly!
“Then two hours later the car ran the fastest it’s ever run and consequently became Europe’s quickest street legal electric car.”
Enfield: Background and specifications then and now
Keyword: Tesla-beating Enfield Europe’s quickest street legal electric car