Zoomi Life

If you remember Dale Vince, the self-proclaimed King of Wind Power in the UK and founder of Ecotricity, then you’ll probably recall that he had a rather egocentric plan to build a “Wind Powered Car.”  In reality, it was an electric car concept that would be charged by power from the wind turbine grid.

I was pretty skeptical about this whole thing from the beginning.  In the end, it’s basically a rich man’s project that will never see the marketplace or any of our garages.  On the other hand, I guess that at least he’s honest about that part and isn’t trying to pretend it’s something more.

Well, the car still doesn’t have a name, though Vince says he’s leaning towards “Nemesis” now.  I prefer “Wind Powered Death Ride 2000,” but I’m probably alone in that.  Anything with “2000″ in the name is cool, though.  Even “Nemesis2000″ would rock.

This article isn’t about the car’s name, though.  It’s about the car.  The WPDR2000.

This is a Lotus Exige that they’ve been modifying to become all-electric, of course.  On his last few blog posts, Vince has talked about the WPDR2000 and how it’s coming along.  There’s also video of the first test drives.  You can watch it below.

As you’ll see in the video, there were some last minute software glitches.  I note that they’re using Apple Macs and not PCs.  I suggest they upgrade the car to Linux and save some headaches.  Just a thought.

When all was said and done, though, the car really got moving.  And by that, I mean it screamed.  In fact, that word doesn’t work either.  I’m going to go into the non-office-safe realm and say it HAULS ASS.

Sorry, can’t think of a better way to describe it.  It is moving extremely fast in the video here. Seen from inside the car, with the camera pointing at the driver (Dale Vince), you’ll see how much force is being put on him.  Looks pretty great to me.

Vince claims that the car is capable of over 100mph (which they’ve now proven) and accelerates faster than a Ferrarri V12 (no proof… yet) and will get somewhere around 150 miles per charge (untested).  Range testing and road worthiness are probably the next string of tests.  They were cut short by heavy rain.

I’ll admit that I’m jealous and I think Sebastian agrees with me on that point.  If I were a rich guy, I’d probably be spending a lot of jang on my own WPDR2000.  Only mine would be a tractor.  I think you know about me a tractors already.

Here’s the video: