After officials barred Nissan from trying to set a speed record for a vehicle going up the Goodwood hill backwards last year over safety fears due to the lack of substantial testing, Nissan was finally given the opportunity at this year’s event.
The only change made to the Leaf was the disabling of the regular model’s electronic speed limiter in reverse, which in theory enabled the pure-electric model to be driven backwards as fast as it could go forwards.
Professional stunt driver Terry Grant completed the first official run on Friday achieving a time of 2 minutes and 3 seconds but he went on to smash his own record on Saturday and Sunday, shaving 26 seconds off and covered the 1.16 mile (1.87 kilometers) track in 1m 37.02s at an average speed of 55 mph (88.5 km/h).
Along with the regular Leaf, Nissan also raced a Leaf NISMO RC and a 540hp GT-R GT1 racer up the hill – albeit in the correct direction…
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