Phil aims to build UK's fastest electric drag-racing bike
Uckfield businessman Phil Edwards has set himself the challenge of breaking the UK electric bike drag-racing record.
He has set up a new company to take on the project, stripped down a standard motor bike, modified the frame to take electric motors and is now rebuilding the machine using leading- edge technology.
His aim is to take the bike to Santa Pod, home of European Drag Racing, next year and break the UK record over a standing-start quarter-mile run in the Alternative Energy Racing event.
Phil who lives in Olives Meadow, with his wife Sue and two children Ben and Lucie, said: “What most people are doing at Santa Pod at the moment is making bikes out of golf trolleys and using heavy lead oxide car batteries which don’t have a huge amount of power.
“We have gone for the most modern batteries, tiny little things, yielding a huge amount of power. We are using ex-development parts and have to be at the top end of what is currently being developed to go into the competitive field.”
The current record for the quarter-mile distance is just under 15 seconds at 95 miles an hour. Phil hopes initially to hit 12 seconds at 120 miles an hour and then with further developments get below ten seconds.
“I know someone else is trying for ten seconds so this is a serious challenge,” he said.
Ultimately Phil, who has a background in engineering and manufacturing, hopes he will be able to sell skills developed in the course of the project to other people interested in the same field.
He welcomes support from business and would be pleased to hear from companies interested in being associated with the record-breaker.
Phil is also director of Weald Business Solutions a company which helps other organisations cut costs and improve efficiency.
Read more about the electric vehicle project at http://www.Weald-EVT.co.uk and see a video, on the Uckfield News Facebook page where Phil shows the bike in the early stages of being re-built.
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