The University of Denver engineering graduate student Eva Håkansson topped 216 MPH (347 km/h) with her home-built electric motorcycle “KillaJoule” at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials at Bonneville Salt Flats earlier this month.
The 250 HP battery-powered electric motorcycle had a measured top speed of 216.504 MPH and did set a new official world record for electric sidecar motorcycles of 191.488 MPH over the flying mile (pending AMA certification). KillaJoule is currently the world’s fourth fastest electric motorcycle.
In addition to setting a new record, Eva won the “Fastest Sidecar Motorcycle” Prize as well as the very prestigious “Female Rider” Award. The award was created by land speed record holder Erin Hunter in 2006 to acknowledge the accomplishments of the women racers at Bonneville. It recognizes the characteristics of great racers such as competition, comraderie, enthusiasm, dedication, humility, and tenacity.
The KillaJoule competes as a “sidecar motorcycle”, which means that it has two wheels in line and one wheel off-set. It drives only on the rear wheel and steers with the front wheel. The very fastest record ever set with an internal combustion engine for this type vehicle is 219 mph (352 km/h). Eva is now very close to exceeding this internal combustion world record using battery power. Last time a battery-powered vehicle set an overall speed record was 1899, when the electric car “La Jamais Contente” was the world’s fastest car at 62 MPH.
The KillaJoule is powered by a 375 volt, 1800 amp, 214 lb. battery pack made from 1210 cordless tool cells manufactured by A123Systems. The powerful permanent magnet AC motor is made by EVO Electric, Ltd. and the 250+ HP inverters are made by Rinehart Motion Systems. In the present configuration, the electric drive package produces 250 HP. Eva Håkansson pilots the KillaJoule and she has fabricated about 80% of the vehicle herself. Construction of this scratch-built motorcycle started 2.5 years ago, so the full potential of the vehicle has not yet been demonstrated.
[source: Eva Håkansson][wzslider height=”400″ lightbox=”true”]
