The 'Little Giant' Streamliner Broke the Electric Land Speed Record at 353 Mph

A team of daredevils recently broke the electric vehicle land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, before going on to break their own record again the very next day, a report from AutoEvolution explains. 

Driver Eric Ritter first broke the record with Team Vesco and reVolt System's 444  'Little Giant' streamliner on September 30 when he reached a top speed of 322 mph (518 km/h). Only 24 hours later, he made another attempt in which he recorded a speed of 353 mph (568 km/h), a new national record for electric vehicles. 

The vehicle used to perform the record-breaking run, the 'Little Giant', features two "heavily modified" electric Tesla motors powered by 1,152 prismatic lithium-ion batteries. The team has not released any specifications on the capacity of their batteries or the power of the modified Tesla motors. The impressive 353 mph speed run can be viewed from the driver's perspective in the video below.

Team Vesco is aiming to set a new 400 mph EV land speed record

The overall land speed record hasn't been broken since October 15, 1997, when it was set by Thrust SCC at 763 mph (1,277 km/h), using the Thrust SCC supersonic car. The previous all-electric vehicle land speed record, meanwhile, was set as recently as 2016 by Ohio State University's Venturi Buckeye Bullet 3, which reached a top speed of 341 mph (549 km/h). 

Since Thrust SCC's record was set, a successor to that company, called Bloodhound LSR has been attempting to break the overall record with driver Andy Green, who was in the driver's seat for Thrust SCC's record run. Bloodhound has surpassed the 500 mph (804 km/h) barrier, though it was recently in the search for a new owner having faced economic difficulties due to the effects of COVID-19.

According to AutoEvolution, Team Vesco wants to set the electric vehicle land speed record even higher and it has set its sight on reaching the goal of 400 mph (643 km/h). Team Vesco have plenty of experience to draw from as they also set a 458 MPH (737 km/h) FIA World Land Speed Record in 2001 with the wheel-driven Turbinator II.