OOPs!… She Did It Again! 270 MPH for Eva

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Eva Håkansson not only drives her Killajoule racing sidecar at hellacious speeds, but built it, wired the battery pack and now campaigns it with a five-person crew – including herself and her husband Bill Dube’.  Over the Labor Day weekend, she topped 240 mph in her little bullet.  Not content with only four miles per minute, she and Bill returned for even more speed on September 13. Business Insider reported, “But Håkansson and Dube knew their creation could go even faster. So last week, they returned to the Bonneville and upped the ante even more by hitting a whopping 270.224 mph. ‘The computer model showed a possible maximum speed of ~270 mph,’ Håkansson wrote in her blog. ‘For the first time ever, practice agreed with theory. We were both pleasantly surprised. It doesn’t happen very often, for sure’”   Eva headlined the blog entry, “Now it’s starting to feel fast…” A123 supplied 14 Amp-hour pouch cells for the record attempts.  Eva reports, “They are …

Joules in Her Crown

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

One of the favorite speakers at the Electric Aircraft Symposia sponsored by the CAFE Foundation, Eva Håkansson is more than just a great talker. She recently topped 216 miles per hour in KillaJoule, her streamlined electric sidecar motorcycle. She built 80 percent of the 250-horsepower vehicle herself over two and one-half years. An engineering graduate student at the University of Denver, Eva and her husband Bill Dube’ hold world records on and in their electric motorcycles. Eva managed to come within three mph of the world record internal-combustion powered for sidecars on the salt flat. She also managed a world record for the flying mile, going through the traps at 191.488 mph – the record awaiting American Motorcycle Association certification.  Overall, KillaJoule is the world’s fourth fastest electric motorcycle, and Eva is headed back to Bonneville to attempt more records. The 250 HP battery-powered motorcycle had a measured top speed of 216.504 MPH and did set a new official world …

RGE Enters Ushuaia

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

Imperial College London’s Racing Green Endurance team has ended a 70-day adventure driving the length of the Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, capitol of Argentina’s  Tierra del Fuego province, and southernmost city in the world.  The 26,000 kilometer (16,120 mile) trip had moments of mechanical difficulties and some days of struggle.  The electric supercar was stopped numerous times, sometimes for pushing speed limits, but often to satisfy  police officers’ curiosity. Alexander Schey, M Eng in mechanical engineering and instigator of the trip, reports on his final hours on the journey with his co-driver, Toby Schulz, also an M Eng. “Finally I have a few moments to write the blog I have most been looking forward to write! 2 years of really hard work, 140 days of travelling and 70 days of driving have brought us to this moment, and I hope I can communicate to you just how incredible a feeling it is to have been able …