200-plus horsepower electric racer!
American electric bike deemed too powerful for TTXGP electric race series according to creator, and will race petrol-powered bikes insteadIs this the world's most powerful and sophisticated electric superbike? According to its creators it is. The crew at American-based SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing claim the electric superbike currently outputs 194hp (145kW) and will eventually "become the world's most powerful road racing motorcycle, exceeding the power of a MotoGP bike" when they boost the power by 20 per cent.
Them's fighting words right there, but the boss SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing Chip Yates is confident his new machine can be a real contender.
"Our electric motorcycle will compete head on with real racing superbikes such as the Ducati 1198 and KTM RC8R as well as other established manufacturers, and we expect to work hard to show the world that electric technology can achieve laptime parity with gasoline superbikes.
"We're not going on track to make up the numbers; we're going out to compete in order to raise our game and catch up to these gasoline guys," added Yates.
The electric bike tips the scales at a portly 266kg in its current, but once the chassis has been tuned, Yates reckons power will be boosted up to 234hp, which will then make it the most powerful road racing motorcycle.
SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing's electric race bike was originally pencilled in for the FIM and TTXGP Championships for electric race bikes, but was excluded after a late rule change that lowered the weight limits to 250kg.
"Our bike weighs in at 266 kilograms right now", explained Yates. "Clearly, these championships are more concerned with promoting scooter development, and our bike is so much faster than the electric competition that we feel far more inclined to push our bike's unique technology platform forward in the ultimate competitive environment of gasoline bike racing.
"We have to thank WERA Motorcycle Roadracing for inviting us into their series to make history with this news," said Yates.
The SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing bike was about to make history at the time of writing (January 10, 2010, Australia standard time), by racing against conventional petrol-powered race bikes at the Auto Club Speedway in California.
Another test will be carried out on December 15 at Infineon Raceway in the US, followed by the WERA Pirelli Sportsman Series race weekend on January 9, 2011, when the race team is expected to increase the race bike's power output.
"Our scheduled power increase will make our electric superbike more powerful than a MotoGP bike and will bring us extremely close to power to weight parity with the best 1,000cc Japanese superbikes," said Yates.
"Those two facts are a simply outstanding reflection of the potential in electric power."
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