BEV Streamliner Tops 350 Mph for U.S. Speed Record

Team Vesco and reVolt Systems engineer a salt-shaking 353.870 mph two-way average.

The battery-electric Little Giant 444 core team with driver Eric Ritter at center. (Greg Peek)

The pursuit of straight-line speed loosely known as hot-rodding is a painstaking process: assemble an enthusiastic team, tap all the expertise you can muster and convince a sponsor or three to fund the construction of a vehicle for a trip to Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. In the unlikely event everything clicks, your designated driver gambols across the groomed lakebed without spinning to smash the existing record in the class you’ve targeted.

Shaped for speed – the Vesco Little Giant 444 seen head-on. (Greg Peek)

At the 2021 World Finals event hosted by the Southern California Timing Assoc. (SCTA), Team Vesco’s veteran racers strapped on an additional challenge. Allied with reVolt Systems, they turned a cold shoulder to combustion while attacking the SCTA’s 322.231 mph (518.58 km/h) E3 electric record. On October 1, designated driver Eric Ritter, a New York City sanitation-truck mechanic, steered his 444 Little Giant streamliner straight into the record book with a 353.870 mph (569.498 km/h) two-way average, making it the fastest battery-electric vehicle (BEV) certified under U.S. national rules.

Little Giant’s belt drive power delivery being assembled on the bench. (reVolt Systems)
The Tesla traction motors are arranged in a stack behind the Little Giant’s battery pack. (reVolt Systems)

The machine is the latest in a continuum of Vesco family speed history, beginning with patriarch John Vesco in 1933 and more famously, his son Don who, during a 31-year racing career, broke two dozen car and motorcycle records at speeds ranging from 252 to 458 mph (405.5 to 737 km/h). Team Vesco now is headed by Don’s brother Rick, himself a member of the 200 MPH Club. (The author is also a member – Ed.)

Shrewd Bonneville racers know better than attempting to reinvent the wheel to go fast. The birth of the 444 Little Giant streamliner that achieved 357 mph this year (one way), was in 1957. Its shape was purposely narrow with four wheel blips covering 24-inch-wide tires and a central fuselage to house the driver followed by a long tail-fin stabilizer. In 2007, to celebrate its 50th Bonneville birthday, 444 received a thorough makeover with a more pointed nose, a longer overall length to accommodate tall drivers, a shorter canopy section to trim aerodynamic drag and internal components shifted forward to increase front-tire loading. Additional space was provided at the rear to house larger parachutes. Ritter set a 339.339 mph (546.113 km/h) record in the refreshed car in 2012.

A classic tube-frame Bonneville streamliner designed for a combustion engine, the Vesco’s Little Giant is now electric with a liquid-cooled battery pack and e-motors arranged behind the driver’s roll bar. (Dana Mariotti)

ReVolt Systems, an Oceanside, California, shop founded to convert classic American performance cars to electric propulsion, teamed with Vesco to replace 444’s IC engine with two modified AC motors from a Tesla Model S. The original gear reducers and differentials were removed from the 416-hp (310 kW) units to allow them to be mounted longitudinally in 444’s chassis with shaft drive provided to both axles. While the actual motors weren’t modified, significant software changes markedly increased their output. ReVolt’s Eddy Borysewicz prefers not to disclose the power available, but a credible estimate is 600 hp (447 kW) per motor.

Shakedown runs occurred during this year’s early August Speed Week. Powered by Tesla 18650-type cylindrical batteries, the Team Vesco 444 failed to top 300 mph (482.8 km/h), prompting a rethink and systems overhaul. Flooring the ‘throttle’ resulted in a precipitous drop in voltage between the batteries and electric motors. The team’s salvation was replacing the Tesla battery pack with 1152 prismatic-type cells purchased online. Unsure of their exact origin, Borysewicz believes they came from a Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid. To increase the replacement pack’s maximum current, the cells were reconfigured using a new form factor. Assembling more cells in parallel into longer modules required hours of tedious hand grinding.

ReVolt’s Borysewicz, Greg Peek of American Track Roadster and engineer Trenton Wonsley patiently progressed through six stages of design and development in the seven or so weeks between the SCTA’s Speed Week and World Finals events. A homemade battery testing rig employing two heat guns and a toaster oven proved that the new battery pack could deliver maximum current without melt down. On the salt flats, a Tier 4 solar trailer provided the necessary energy to recharge the battery pack.

After only four runs spread over two days, Ritter had the national record in his pocket. Unfortunately, no FIA observer was present to certify a new international electric-vehicle record. Recalling his sweep across the salt Ritter exclaimed, “What an incredible ride! The torque off the starting line is monstrous; it bolts the streamliner without hesitation and keeps pulling non-stop. Our time slips tell the story – that 400 mph (643.737 km/h) in 444 (body) is a reality, not a pipe dream.” Driveline specialist Peek added, “There’s always a choice between cheap and bulletproof. Our new National record clearly proves which alternative we exploited.”

Team Vesco’s electric 444 affirms what Camille Jenatzy, the first person to break the 100 km/h (62 mph) barrier in 1899, proposed more than a century ago: that battery-electric drive is well-suited to automotive use. And that BEVs can be just as entertaining to drive as cars powered by internal combustion.