Venturi has set a new land speed record with its VBB-3 electric car which realised a speed of 576km/h on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, US.

WAITING SINCE 2013, Venturi has finally been able to run its VBB-3 electric car on the salt flats in Utah to set a new electric vehicle land speed record of 576km/h (pending FIA approval).

After twice being thwarted by bad weather, Venturi owner Gildo Pastor Bellanca (this is the same Venturi as the Formula E team) was delighted to have established a new mark.

“It’s a relief because we were waiting for this result for 3 years,” he said. “Heavy rain and bad weather conditions on the Salt Flats prevented our success. VBB-3 is the most powerful electric car in the world (3000hp). We had to demonstrate that it was also the fastest. It’s done by breaking our own record achieved with the VBB-2.5 in 2010. It shows also that our partnership between students and a manufacturer can bring a lot in this new automotive industry in terms of research and development.”

Roger Schroer (from the Transportation Research Center TRC, Ohio) was behind the wheel, said: “I each time enjoyed driving the car and achieving this performance. But at those speeds you have to focus on your task not on your emotions. I know we can go further. This week the track was good. No main vehicle instability. Much better than the last days during tuning and testing. We always have to be patient and wait for the track to be ready”.