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Torque is cheap, as the saying goes. Wait, that’s not right. But hey, it’s close enough—at least, when you’re testing a Frankenstein of an electric car featuring a Tesla Model S drive unit, a battery from a Chevy Volt and a hacked-up Lotus Evora body on a dyno. Founder of OnPointDyno and overall crazy Canadian Sasha Anis, who you might know from his supercar=slaying Nissan 350Z, has been working on his “Blue Lightning” project since late last year, and has finally reached a point where he could get some preliminary power numbers. The results? 440 horsepower at the wheels…and an astonishing 2,992 lb.-ft. of torque.
Now, one small caveat about that insane torque figure—electric cars are notoriously tricky to measure correctly on dynos that are designed to work with internal combustion engines. All that torque is instantly available (instead of building up through the revs, as in a gas- or diesel-powered car), and the resulting traction issues can make it hard to get an accurate reading. But in this case, the dyno setup is bolted to the rear axle, so the numbers are tough to dispute. It actually maxed out the dyno, which is only designed to read up to 2,950 lb.-ft. of torque.
At any rate, Blue Lightning should seriously fly when it’s finally road-ready. In addition to his Facebook and YouTube updates, Anis also maintains a fascinating build thread over at LotusTalk.com, where he adds that they’ve only gained about 200 pounds of weight on the original Evora…while nearly doubling the power.
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