Motorsport fans are familiar with Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima, the 64-year-old rally driver and hill-climb racer that conquered Pikes-Peak with his outrageous Unlimited-spec prototype racing vehicles.
On June 26, 2011, driving something that resembled a Suzuki SX4, Tajima broke the 10 minute barrier on the notorious hill-climb course. From 2012 until now, the respected racing driver switched to the electric E-Runner car class, citing concerns about climate change. But that didn’t stop him from further improving his record, managing a 9:43:90 in 2013.
At this year’s event, Mr. Tajima wants to climb even quicker the 20 kilometer course, so he teamed up with Electric vehicle manufacturer, Rimac, and created a 1.1 megawatt car that will surely help him race to the clouds even faster than before. Because in petrolhead language, that’s a power output of 1,475 horses.
Lacking both transmission and differentials elements, the car is bound to be on the relatively light-side, weighing in at 1500 KG. An aluminum tubular frame and a carbon fiber body also helps things be as light as possible. The power is instantly put on the asphalt with the help of four independent hub electric motors – one in each wheel.
The car also has a hardcore racing version of the All Wheel Torque Vectoring system, as used on the Rimac Concept_One, which decides and controls the amount of power needed for every wheel, by adjusting the power output and torque independently for each motor more than 100 times per second.
Speaking of torque, this electric monster develops 1,106 lb ft – 1,500 Nm, which together with the horsepower rating, outputs fantastic performance figures. 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) happens in just 2.2 seconds and 0 to 200km/h (124 mph) in 5.4 seconds from standstill.
There’s no doubt about it that Tajima will set a new world record this year – for electrical vehicles, at least. Of course, with such an automobile coming to his aid, we can’t help wonder if the Japanese racing driver will come close the Loeb’s record of 8:13 seconds.