Electrathons on the Salt Flats

Electrathons are small, efficient electric vehicles. A normal electrathon competition involves seeing how many laps an electrathon vehicle can complete in just one hour, on just 67 pounds of battery (about the weight of a truck battery). You can see more details at http://www.electrathonamerica.org/ . A spin-off sport has arisen. Electrathons now do land speed racing on the Salt Flats at World of Speed http://www.saltflats.com . They are allowed to accelerate for 1 mile (1.6 km) and then the speed is measured. 2007 was the first year electrathons were allowed to run, and one ran 89 mph (142 km/hr). You can read more about that at http://explodingdinosaurs.com .

Several electrathons ran this year. I heard secondhand that one ran 110 mph! Here are a few pictures of one of the electrathon racers. Here you can see the electrathon getting taped up. Taping over seams can add to the top speed. The race crew would ask the driver if he was OK, and then he would roll off on his run.