Guy Martin: The World's Fastest Electric Car? (2021) - full transcript
Join self confessed petrol-head Guy Martin as he learns about the alternative to the internal combustion engine, Electric. In this TV special, Guy learns about the advantages of electric transport and the different varieties that exist from bicycles, cars and vans up to buses. Guy also learns some of the disadvantages from range anxiety and with the help of the Leicestershire Fire Brigade, how to deal with a fire. The ultimate aim is to produce a record breaking electrified retro road car that is suitable for the Drag strip, with Guy behind the steering wheel.
We're not gonna get
bored of looking at that, are we?
Eh? I'd look at that
until we run out of light.
Super-charged V8, this. Right?
We've been mucking about with these
for thick end of 100 years,
internal combustion,
round and roundy bits,
up and downy bits.
Running on...dinosaur juice.
But the thing is, right...
..come 2030, nine years down the
line, right,
the government are banning the sale
of new petrol and diesel cars.
For centuries, humanity has been
quilting our planet
in a toxic
tea cosy of greenhouse gases.
That means no more of these.
We're putting our foot to the
accelerator in a carbon friendly
way, of course,
with a ten-point plan
for a green industrial revolution.
They want us to go down the electric
road, which I'm not for it,
but I'm not against it.
So I need to do a bit more learning.
Press the button.
The best way to do a bit of learning
is find a bit of a challenge,
have a go at a race, right?
Current electric car,
quarter mile drag race record.
I think it's possible
to go and beat that.
Go on, go on, go on, keep going.
So that's gonna keep the job
interesting.
And along the way
of building this car
and mucking about with this car,
we'll do a load of learning,
and hopefully, by the end of the
day, we'll have come to the
conclusion whether electric
vehicles are the future.
Hey, I don't know.
I don't know.
But we'll find out.
Britain's biggest petrol head
is actually an electric vehicle
early adopter.
Just like that.
Fascinated by transport technology,
Guy bought a so-called EV
of his own, but after 10,000 miles
in a Honda E,
girlfriend Sharon
remains unconvinced.
Why am I not starting it?
You got the keys?
No.
Might help, might it?
SHE CHUCKLES
Why am I driving this car, Guy?
Why did you buy this car?
You ask that. You don't like it,
do you? No.
Just think it looks cool.
I don't know anyone else with
an electric car.
No, because they've all got bloody
sense, Guy, that's why.
Because this road's not
ready for them.
Sharon's issue is that this city
car only has a maximum
range of 137 miles.
I've got complete range anxiety.
You can't go anywhere in this car
without feeling anxious all the time
about running out of electricity.
Even... Have you ever run out of
electricity? Yes, I have, Guy. When?
You know I have. When? When?
Yeah, but you didn't...
you didn't run out, did you?
No, look, you're gonna be smug about
it now because you got it home,
but, you got it home with 5% and
I had a kid in the back of the car.
That child has got range anxiety.
She sits in the back and go, "Mummy,
have we got enough electricity?"
She's three years of age.
While Sharon is
concerned about range,
Guy is focused on speed and
researching his drag race record.
Are you coming?
All right, let's see what it's
got this time, eh?
In 2016, car journalist, Jonny
Smith, modified a battery car
from the '70s to set a new
road-legal electric quarter mile
record of 9.86 seconds.
Wow.
There she is.
What are you thinking?
Well, that's what
we've gotta beat, an Enfield 8000.
Yeah, they made like 120 of 'em.
Half of 'em were sold to the
electric board down south.
Original power output was
eight horsepower -
this, at the time of the record,
was 800.
I can build something in me shed
but I don't know a right
load about electrics.
I think it's all about big motor,
big battery.
What else is there?
We need an expert!
You'll get electrocuted -
be careful, you daft bugger.
We're in Wales.
We know a man who knows a man
in Powys, builds electric cars.
Using Tesla technology.
This mid-Wales workshop
reengineers the fastest motors
and batteries available to
fit inside classic vehicles.
The man behind it all is
Richard Morgan.
I started committing the first
car for a customer five years ago,
at home, and now we've got a waiting
list of about a year and a half.
Is that right?
That's Dev Patel's car.
You know Dev Patel
from Slumdog Millionaire?
I know the name.
I know the name.
No matter what the vehicle,
every electric conversion has one
thing in common - speed.
Oh, so this will be faster than the
race car? Oh, no question.
No question? I'm not a tree hugging
hippy that's saving the planet.
No, no. But you wanna go fast.
That's just a by-product of the fact
that I wanna go faster and an
electric is where it's at
if you wanna go faster nowadays.
Honestly.
You wanna see the batteries?
Yeah, please. Yeah? Please.
See how... Yeah, don't touch
anything cos it's gonna be all
live batteries. So that's probably
enough power in there
to run a small
home for a day.
So that's one house, two, three,
four...there's enough power in
here to run a small village.
How much,
how much per pack are we looking at?
On average, they're about a grand
each module.
They're not cheap. Not yet.
A typical conversion
uses 16 of the £1000 batteries.
This is essentially an old bus
that's got 450 horsepower.
450. It's a handful.
And if you floor it...
WHOOSHING
Even for a petrol head like Guy,
it doesn't take long for the
electric vehicle experience
to become very persuasive.
There is absolutely no penalty
to pay is there?
There's no, no, penalty. So we're
overtaking these cars now as if
we're in a modern
BMW Five Series. Yeah.
Without any drama, and believe me
I've got my foot, literally,
just a little bit on the
accelerator. If I booted it...
We'd be going into the scenery!
Convinced this could be
a beautiful relationship,
Guy makes his proposal.
We've sort of got this
bit of an idea,
and we think you're
the man to help us.
Right. Right? Fastest quarter mile
in a road-legal electric car.
A road-legal electric car?
Road-legal electric car.
Right.
You're the man to make this happen.
First of all we need a car.
Yeah.
Have you got a car?
So you want me to...
We're leaving this in your hands.
Everything to me? Car, the lot?
What do you think?
My Beetle's quick.
Right!
It's a bloody beautiful Beetle
that he adapted about five year ago,
put a Tesla system in the back
of this Beetle
and he just uses it
as his daily driver.
Who's driving it? Are you driving
it or am I driving it?
Well, I...I always like to drive,
you know. Good.
I always like to have a go.
So if we're gonna do it, there's
a number of things we're gonna
have to do.
We're gonna have to get more power,
we're gonna have to put
it on a diet.
Yeah. It needs more grip,
aerodynamics, maybe.
So there's four things we need
isn't there? Yeah.
I think the first thing we need to
do is see how heavy it is.
There we go, magic number -
what's it gonna be?
Bloody hell, right.
Oh, that's not so bad.
By that, the toolbox was out,
and we was ripping it to bits.
Who was the Formula One man to say
the most important thing to add
is to add lightness?
Was that Colin Chapman?
There you go.
If we can get it to a wind tunnel
that'd be awesome.
Well, I know a man that can get us
in there.
It's not cheap,
just move the decimal place
and then you're on TV.
Every inch of this 1972 Beetle
1303 is examined.
Keep her going, keep her going.
Better out than in.
Right, so we've got six.
Yeah, 1.5. Yeah.
52.5.
That's, that's enough, innit?
Wouldn't want that on your toes.
The project racks up its first
success - a near 5% weight saving.
Not bad for half an hour's work.
Half an hour's work
and not a single penny spent.
We like that.
But if Guy wants this 50-year-old
car to be a record breaker,
next, he'll have to learn
what makes an EV fast.
You ready?
Sh...
Guy Martin is exploring
the new world of electric cars...
It's not new, as I've been telling
you boys for a long time.
..which has a surprising history
that's more than 120 years old.
Here we go.
The very first land speed records
were set in electric vehicles.
In 1899, Camille Jenatzy
entered the history books
with his speed machine,
La Jamais Contente.
"Jammy Jon-tont",
he was from Belgium.
62mph.
First man to do 100km/h
in an electric vehicle,
well, in any vehicle.
Yeah, ended up getting shot
by his mates
pretending to be a pig
out on a hunting expedition.
At the start of the 20th century,
battery-powered vehicles were fast,
smooth and everywhere.
Yeah, so here we've got
New York City.
Every third car was
an electric vehicle,
really, because, you know,
internal combustion was in
sort of its infancy.
There was smoking, there was
bloody hand-cranking starting,
running like a bag of spanners,
and it's shaking about.
Yeah, so there's not many positives
for going down internal combustion,
until early 1900s.
Here we go - we're in Texas, right?
And what have we got?
We've found oil,
and we're swimming in the stuff.
A barrel of oil
was three cents a barrel.
And then Henry Ford got on to this.
"Oh, right, yeah, I tell you what,
"we've got cheap fuel.
If we can make a car, cheap car,
"then we're on the money."
This is when the Model T came out.
They were $850, a Model T,
when they first came out.
Ten years down the line, when he'd
refined the production line method,
he was turning them out
for $300 a car,
a tenth of the cost of the
equivalent electric vehicle.
So it's a no-brainer. Would we say
it was the final nail in the coffin,
the straw that broke
the camel's back?
I don't know if we'd use either
of those, but, anyway,
whatever it was, that was
the death of the electric car.
From that point on,
electric power was only
used for specialist applications,
like early-morning milk rounds
where quietness was important...
Off to deliver his milk.
You know what I'm saying!
Eh?
..or on the moon where the
lack of atmosphere makes
internal combustion impossible.
That's the Lunar Rover. I heard ages
ago it had a Sierra back axle in it.
Ten million dollars apiece.
Through all of this, electric
has never really gone mainstream
until this man came along.
Right? Elon Musk.
We all know the name, don't we?
South African.
Bloody clever bloke.
He's taken a software writer's
approach to building cars
rather than, yeah,
a conventional car manufacturer's
approach to building cars.
The car company where Musk calls
himself Techno King is Tesla.
The first car came out in 2008.
By halfway through 2020, right,
they're the most valuable
car company in the world.
If I'm driving to Grimsby, you'd be
doing well not to see a Tesla.
What's he doing there?
What is he doing?
What's he...? Anyway...
This is Elon Musk, eh?
And this gets everyone talking,
like, look, we're sat here
talking about it.
That just creates massive
interest in Tesla,
and what does that do
to the share price?
Through the bloody roof.
So, yeah, he's taken a very
different approach to making
and selling cars, and at this point
in time it seems to be working.
One in ten UK car sales
are now pure electric.
And Tesla tops the sales charts.
And as Guy heads back
to EV expert Richard Morgan's
mid-Wales workshop...
Looks the part, though, don't he?
..it's Tesla technology that will
play a crucial role in the attempt
on the quarter-mile record
for a street-legal electric car.
This is what's gonna
be in the Volkswagen Beetle.
So that's the battery
that goes in the front,
that's the battery that
goes in the back.
And that there is the motor.
Anyway we're gonna get it running,
we're gonna wire it up
and get it going.
Martin's here to keep an eye on me,
cos everything's disconnected,
but it's to save me
blowing Wales off the map,
cos that could be easily done.
95% of British mechanics aren't
qualified to work on EVs.
Guy is one of them.
So, the circuit is checked to see
if it is live before
he's allowed to touch anything.
We're on? Yeah.
Yeah, no, nothing.
0.000. Nothing, zero.
Perfectly safe.
Making one of the world's most
sophisticated electric motors work
is little different
to wiring a plug.
That's it, perfect.
Thick latex gloves will insulate
Guy against electrocution,
while he inserts
the three connectors
that will make the system live.
That way? Other way.
That way. That's it.
Perfect. All done?
We are now live,
so we've got 400 volts on here.
Once the control box is connected...
Perfect. ..the workbench Tesla
is ready to be driven.
So, connection on.
Press the start button.
Shall I leave the gloves on?
Yes, please.
Right, are we gonna go for it?
You ready?
Here we go.
Give it some more.
Go right the way up if you want.
It's not gonna jump off the bench?
No.
That'll do.
Perfect.
Go again? You can go again.
600 horsepower is being
generated by 500 kilos of batteries,
and the most basic of wiring.
Perfect. Instant enough.
What sort of faff would we have had
to do if we wanted
to get that same horsepower out
of an internal combustion engine?
Far simpler, innit?
In fact, electric motors
are so simple
that you can build one in a van.
Are you ready? Are you ready?
All you need are paperclips
and a fundamental of physics.
Right, you saw me wind the coil up,
and what we're gonna do here,
we're gonna put an electrical
current through that,
and then you create a magnetic
field - as simple as that.
The magnetic field that
we've created in this coil
gets attracted to that magnet there,
and then the other side of the coil
will be repelled,
so it'll attract, repel,
attract, repel,
which creates rotational motion,
which turns a motor,
which can move your car.
Sort of as simple as that.
I think that might be
a goer, you know. Come on.
All that's left to do is
connect a battery to the circuit.
Hold your breath, boys.
Look at that.
Look at that!
Attract, repel, attract, repel.
Home-brewed motor.
It was Michael Faraday
who discovered this fundamental
of electromotive force -
a 200-year-old formula
that can power
just about anything
in the modern world.
Right, you've lined up
some day today, boy.
I'll give you that.
We have got a load
of electric vehicles.
Some of 'em are prototype and
some of 'em are already out there.
We're just gonna have a go
and get a bit of a feel,
whether it's a digger, a bus,
a push-bike, a van or a car.
Right, I'm not gonna go arse
over tit going down here.
Are you ready? Let's get cracking.
What am I gonna go in first?
I was never cool enough
to go on the back seat.
This is the Equipmake EBus.
Designed by a former Formula 1
engineer,
its motor has few moving parts,
so it's easier to
maintain than a diesel.
Bit tight, this one, boys.
Bit tighter, bit tighter.
Ooh.
Use all the kerb. I paid my entry
fee. It's all there for using.
We're not messing about, boys. This
is the fastest bus in the world.
Yeah, take the limiter off,
it will do 100mph,
but they knew I was gonna be
driving it,
so they've left the limiter on.
Rightly so, I'll tell you,
cos it'd be over that bank
upside down in that field!
Like all electric vehicles,
the EBus has no tailpipe emissions.
A recent study suggested swapping
diesel buses for electric ones
in a city like York
would save £5 million in health
costs in the first year alone.
I'd much rather walk through
a city centre with electric buses
rather than diesel buses.
Yeah, why wouldn't you?
Why wouldn't you?
Fantastic.
And it survived without one issue.
The brakes didn't fade.
THUD
That was a cone we got.
Look, there's the battery. It's
still saying it's next door to full.
90%.
So if I'm murdering it, that's gonna
last a lifetime, in't it?
That's gonna last a lifetime.
Beautiful. Beautiful.
So, electric can handle
mass transportation.
But what about something
more specialised?
This is a £116,000
electric Porsche.
Now, I've gotta get this right.
The Porsche man did say,
"You need to say the name right."
He said,
"Oh, it's a 'Porsch-eh Tie-khan'."
Not in Lincolnshire, mate.
It has 680 horsepower
and a 160mph top speed.
The range is 240 miles -
at least that's what they're saying.
Hm, we'll see. We'll see.
Not with a dickhead like me
behind the wheel, I can tell you.
All it takes to understand
this car...
Are we all right? Can we go?
..is one firm press of the pedal.
WHOOSH
Shhhhh!
That's fast.
That's fast. That's fast, boys.
That's fast.
That's fast.
That's fast!
I don't get tongue-tied
very often. That's fast.
130,
140,
145.
Hoo-hoo!
That is fast!
Oh, that is...
Hoo-hoo! How many times
have I said that now?
And compared to
its petrol equivalent,
a Taycan should go at least twice as
far for every pound spent on fuel.
I'm blown away.
What a piece of kit.
The next vehicle Guy tests
will show that EVs might be fast,
but they aren't foolproof.
CRASH
So far,
Guy Martin's shown that buses
and sports cars have an
electric future.
But what about every tradesman's
workhorse, the van?
Right, I'm only allowed to do one
minute on each vehicle
but I think we could have half
hour on that, couldn't we?
What a piece that looks, don't it?
This is the Morris JE Van.
Can we have a look inside?
Looks can be deceiving, can't they?
Oh, feel that quality.
Bloody hell, look at that.
Look at the carbon
fibre on the dash.
That's beautiful, innit?
It went as lovely as it looked.
And didn't it look a peach.
Beautiful.
I like the thinking, get a
200 mile range on it,
and it's a city delivery van.
That's what it's gonna be.
You get two euro pallets
in the back which is a bonus,
with a tonne payload.
What more do we want?
Have to have a word with 'em
about the cup holders.
I've only got a couple
of cup holders.
This is £60,000.
It's a lot of money for a van.
Yeah, but get its sign written up,
treat it as a piece of advertising
and you can just about justify it.
Industry experts predict that within
five years,
EVs will have reached price parity
with their petrol and diesel
equivalents.
Hey up, boy, it's a cool thing,
it's a statement, innit?
it's very much a statement.
Electricity will play
a part in commercial vehicles,
but what of Guy's personal passion,
the bicycle?
This 60 miles per hour
ebike costs £20,000
and has been bought by people
like Simon Cowell.
This is what he said,
this is what Simon Cowell said.
"Some good advice, if you're buying
an electric trail bike
"read the manual before you ride it
first time.
"I have broken part of my back,
"thank you to everyone
for your kind messages."
So Simon Cowell has spannered
himself by riding one of these.
Give her a whirl.
I'll get me skidlid on just in case.
I've put my overalls on,
just in case.
What could possibly go wrong?
Ready for action, boss.
Luckily, unlike
the multimillionaire music mogul,
Guy's very experienced with high
performance two-wheeled machinery.
BLEEP! BLEEP!
Bugger, sorry about that, boys.
They said, "Oh, it will lift
the wheel in third,"
and I thought, "Well, I know what
I'm doing, mate.
"Don't you worry about that.
I can take it."
So anyway, I sets off in like first,
I just think, "Flick it to 3."
Opens her up, boof,
straight off the back.
Oh, it's not dickhead-proof then,
is it? Obviously not.
Come on, couple of laps.
A characteristic of all electric
vehicles is that they provide
instant torque from very low revs.
Just so different to anything else
I've ever ridden.
Needs a bit of time
to get used to it.
I can see where Simon Cowell
was going wrong.
If I was to sit on its back wheel,
it's supposed to wheelie.
Once I spent an hour on it,
it all felt a bit more normal.
I loved it, I loved it, I was trying
to get as near to you as I could.
Smoked you in a couple of places,
didn't I?
That is a rocket ship.
As Guy's final vehicle will prove,
there's nothing electricity
can't power.
Yeah, if I've gotta pick one thing
to drive all day, boy,
I'm in this. She's mint.
This is a little electric digger.
They've used 800 kilos of lead acid
battery so you've got that
mounted as low as possible,
so it's really stable on inclines.
And you can plough in to stuff
and it's not gonna spin its wheels.
I'd have still been in there now,
boys.
Are you not jealous watching me
do this?
Just moving? What, to do what
with it? No, just moving it, mate.
It's the best thing in the world!
Yeah, I was more than impressed with
its capability,
and then we got out,
and it did its party trick.
Where it's remote controlled, you
can control it from the phone.
That's just a phone.
That's just a phone,
Bluetooth to that.
You can run hydraulics off this,
you can run a pecker on it,
you know like
for breaking concrete up,
you can run a road sweeper on it.
You could put fork truck
tines on it.
A universal tool.
Once you've got used to that,
that's the future.
So in every role that we've been
testing today,
electric has come up trumps.
What fun we have had double checking
that electricity is the future.
What, what fun we've had!
But the next stage of preparing
the Beetle
for its drag strip record attempt
is nothing to do with fun.
Richard and Guy need to seriously
consider the fact
that this Beetle could be
a death trap.
Oh, my biggest fear of running
this on the drag strip is a Beetle
was never designed to go 130-odd
miles an hour.
These things are fairly likely
to flip over
when the wind gets under 'em at high
speed. They're not designed
to be doing much more than
100 miles an hour.
All right?
All right at the front.
So we're coming here just
to confirm to ourselves
that she's not gonna take off.
Straight back. Straight back.
Straight back.
Straight back, straight back,
sound job.
It makes me a little bit
more nervous
that somebody like Guy Martin
is driving it.
I don't wanna be the man that
killed Guy Martin.
I mean, to be honest, if I end on me
roof at 120 mile an hour,
I'm not that bothered,
but obviously the risk assessment,
it wouldn't go down so well,
would it?
What would the paperwork be?
Onerous.
Onerous.
I don't know what that means.
Anyway, there'd be a right
load of paperwork,
it'd be coming out
your lugholes, man.
The team are in Nuneaton,
and the world's oldest
automotive wind tunnel.
The Beetle is sat on load cells
just like posh bathroom scales.
Right, when we get those fans up
and running,
it'll pull the air over the car
and we will know if the car's
gonna take off because the load
will decrease on the load cells.
But before they test the car...
Come on, Dave, wake her up, man.
..Guy tests the tunnel.
Give her some welly,
let's have the full force.
250 kilowatts a piece them,
one megawatt.
Let's see if I'm gonna end up in
them fans. I don't think so.
What do you think?
That was a breeze.
The test programme can begin,
under the watchful eye of aero
engineer, Kevin Chow.
It's moved about a bit.
Nothing's flown off it yet,
the mirrors are still on it.
I'd call that a win.
The live data from the wind tunnel's
scales reveals the worst.
Go on Kevin, what's it telling you?
It's telling me that it
needs a bit of work. Right.
At 130 miles per hour, an invisible
force of 200 kilograms
is trying to pull the car
off the road.
120 of that's on the rear,
79 of it's on the front.
It's not the most desirable
characteristic of the car.
So you're saying it makes a good
aeroplane but not a good car?
Yeah, yeah,
that's one way of putting it, yeah.
Put smoke over it,
see what it looks like.
The smoke trail shows how air
interacts with the car
and reveals where the problem is.
You can really see that the
smoke attaches itself like glue
to the rear window
and boot area,
and that's what we wanna try
and avoid, yeah?
Yeah, cos basically as the air flows
over the back of the vehicle,
the act of pulling that
air down also imparts an equal
and opposite force on the vehicle,
sort of like pulling it up,
so that's where all of the rear
lift is coming from.
So in order to reduce the rear lift
what we need to do is that
we actually need to separate the air
so that it doesn't stay attached
over the rear of the vehicle.
The team sets to work
improvising a spoiler,
so-called because it should spoil
the air flowing over
the back of the car.
Yeah, it's not the finished product
but it'll just point us
in the right direction, it'll just
give us a bit of a, a bit of a cue.
That's not gonna
fall off in a breeze.
They also try to reduce
lift by fitting a front spoiler.
So this goes above, like that.
So the way that works is that you're
essentially reducing
the amount of air that goes
underneath the car,
so instead of going under, it
basically goes
sideways around the vehicle.
Right. Let's get some numbers again.
Sound job.
Right, strike her up again.
The target figure here is something
less than 200 kilograms of lift.
What's the damage?
What's the damage?
Oh!
Well, there you go.
The spoilers seem to work.
The lift that was 200 kilograms
at the start of the day
is reduced to just over 100
by the end.
It's a lot. It's ama...
That's a bloody lot.
Happy with that, mate.
I think the main conclusion
from today is we know it's not
gonna flip on to its roof at 140-odd
miles an hour.
Pretty much, yeah.
Your insurers are happy.
You're happy.
Job's a peach.
Right, go on, how we looking, boys?
And girls.
Guy's back in his shed,
and back to basics...
Camera's in place. Microphone.
..to discover more
about the science of batteries.
What do I say? Check, check,
one, two.
So what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna do a bit of an experiment
to show you how a battery works.
They are all small pouches
of chemical reactions
discovered by a science
genius in 1799.
Alexandra Volta.
He was a man that sussed
the voltage job out.
Right, what we've got here, we've
got a tattie, right,
and we need two dissimilar metals.
I've got one of your nan's posh,
that's not mine,
one of your nan's posh
silver spoons.
You got that?
Can I see that you can see me?
We've got here, we've just got
a nail which is a zinc nail.
Have you got that? We're gonna stick
that in the tattie, right.
And there we've got your nan's
silver spoon.
Right? How we looking?
What we've here is a battery.
I'm gonna put
the negative on the nail,
and the positive
on the silver spoon.
Look, 1.1 volts.
Out of a tattie.
Yeah, so what we've got here
is an electron flow,
and what the zinc is doing
is giving away its electrons,
and the silver spoon is a greedy
bugger and it's receiving 'em...
It wants 'em all. Right.
It wants 'em all.
The tattie, because it's acidic,
allows the chemical reaction
to take place.
That makes that become a battery.
If we put something
in between those, it'll power it.
So whether it's a light bulb,
a calculator, an electric motor,
anything in between there,
it will power it.
Obviously we're not gonna get
a lot of power out of that,
but we can do sums.
With a second cell for a bit more
voltage,
and some hot wiring skills...
Hang on, don't rush me.
..Guy's potato battery...
Hang on, can you see this?
..can power a calculator.
Bloody hell, man.
Go on, give me some complicated
mathematics
to put in to the calculator.
1 + 1
= 2.
Ho-ho-ho-ho!
This principle of two metals
and an electrolyte is the same
principle that underpins every
battery in every electric vehicle.
Let's have a look.
But there is a potential downside
to the chemical recipe
that makes a battery.
A risk that concerns many
consumers...
..fire.
A number of high profile incidents
from around the world
have seen cars burst in to flames.
The electric car's battery
components were left burning
and exploding in the street.
Guy's going to find out
if this is a risk he might face
during his record attempt.
Two jobs today, job number one.
How easy is it to set light
to an electric car?
Job number two, how easy is it
to put out
an electric car that's on fire?
The Horiba Mira Test Centre
in Leicestershire brutally tests
batteries to destruction.
Today, a new battery will be
subjected to the worst case
scenario, a short circuit caused by
the cells being ruptured
during a high speed collision
on a motorway, or drag strip.
How we looking?
Are we ready for action?
We've got a relay, I'm gonna control
that with this little switch.
That's gonna swing the big breaker
in there which is then
gonna join those two wires together
which then should hopefully
set light to the battery.
And if it gets out of hand,
we've got these boys.
So, let's see what happens.
I'll get the visor down.
Are you ready? Three, two, one.
Ooh, she's away boys.
Let me pull that down.
Instant. Instant.
But aside from some charred cables,
the battery has not burst
in to flames.
These latest cells have multiple
fuses designed to stop overloads
from reaching the battery.
Plan B, come on, stand back.
Even using a metal plate to
short-circuit as many terminals
as possible doesn't make the battery
catch fire.
These things aren't easy to blow up.
There's only one thing left to try.
Apply an external heat source.
But again, this latest design
of battery pack remains intact.
Tell you what, this stuff is flame
resistant as well.
Sound, if that'd been
a tank of petrol we'd have had her
blazing a long time ago.
The kitchen sink's been at it, yeah.
They're safe as houses.
It's time to up the ante
and make an entire
electric car burn.
Guy Martin's about to find out
what happens
when an electric car catches fire.
This early EV has been loaded
with older battery packs
that lack the safety fuses
of more recent designs.
Excuse me
if I've got holes in me socks.
Guy himself has to
take his PPE to the ultimate level.
Now, shake your head,
got a nice tight seal so
there's no air coming out.
No... OK.
Time to short circuit
an electric car.
Press the button.
LOUD SQUEAK
Did you see them leads move?
Over 4,000 amps.
We have smoke.
The short-circuit has made
the batteries overheat,
Triggering an escalating
chain of chemical reactions
which give off even more heat.
It's called thermal runaway.
Oh, come on! She's away, boys!
Right...
She's away now, mate.
After a few minutes, the car
approaches 650 degrees...
BLEEP hell.
..and components explode.
Bloody hell, she's going now.
Guy, here on the right, is going
to help the Fire Service test
a new method of extinguishing car
fires with a giant blanket.
It's took a bit of dragging over,
that blanket.
Yeah, yeah.
I had a bit of pressure on.
By the looks of it,
that's put it out.
By the looks of it.
It would normally be left like this
for at least 24 hours.
Underneath it's still hot enough
to combust
if presented with more oxygen.
Yeah, we'll pull it off, erm...
See what happens, see what happens.
BLEEP!
There it goes.
This time, Guy gets to experience
the conventional way
of putting out a car fire.
The only way to put that out
is to get the temperature down,
to stop the reaction taking place,
so you need to smother it in water.
The plumes of smoke
contain hydrogen cyanide
and mask which parts
of the car are still on fire.
GUY SHOUTS OUT
Being covered in smoke,
it's all right
because that breathing apparatus
is mint, you don't feel anything.
She's sparking, lad, she's sparking.
I weren't scared,
I weren't scared.
It takes six minutes
to extinguish the fire...
What do you think, Bob?
We're pretty much there, Guy.
..and bring the temperature down.
But despite being doused
in 1,800 litres of water,
the batteries continue to fizz
and spit.
Look at that,
them batteries bubbling.
That'll be alight again tonight.
Right?
Crackers.
Although it may look like the fire
is out,
an exothermic reaction -
one that gives out heat -
continues in the batteries.
They've been known to light up again
two weeks after the fire.
What's going to happen?
Yeah, it's going to light up
in the workshop
or parked up next to another car
in a breaker's yard somewhere,
and take everything else with it.
So, that's why the only way to deal
with these properly
is to dump 'em in a skip of water.
It's a technique that's already
being used in Germany,
where rescue services are trialling
watertight shipping containers.
The experts at Mira
conclude that electric cars
are no more dangerous
than petrol cars.
They're just dangerous
in a different way.
Back at the workshop,
the 50-year-old Beetle
has been subjected to a thorough
upgrade programme
by Guy and the team.
Wider tyres, bigger wings.
Normally it takes years to perfect
a record breaker,
but with a limited budget, the team
are restricted to
fitting in work between other jobs.
You still working on the lorries
or not? Yeah, yeah.
Never stopped, really, that.
But with an EV,
the biggest hot-rod gains can be
made in just a few minutes.
Today it's all about power.
It's all about power.
We've come to find it.
When James Watt first converted
a torque measurement
into the concept of horsepower
as a way of marketing
his new steam engines,
he had little idea that it would
still be the benchmark
used by every petrol head
250 years later.
Horsepower and torque -
what's the difference?
You could soon make it sound dead
complicated, but I sort of just
use the simple terms, right?
I just use the simple terms.
The torque is
how hard I'm pushing you.
Like, I'm pushing the sound dog,
how hard I'm shoving you.
And the horsepower
is how fast I'm doing it a minute.
That's a thousand quid's worth
of microphone, that!
It's a thousand quid's
worth of microphone!
Can you see that? Just how fast
those torque events are happening.
In terms of the Beetle, torque is
the force that will launch it
off the line, and power is
what will carry it to the finish.
The team want as much of both
as possible
and have come to the rolling road
of experienced supercar tuner
Ricky Elder for help.
Chris Hazell has also been
brought in to modify the motor.
By attaching a Wi-Fi router
close to the Tesla internals,
it's more akin to computer hacking
than traditional engine tuning.
All right, we're in.
I'm just listening and learning.
Right, let's see
if we can hook some power, then.
Ready? Yeah.
We're good.
Watch your fingers.
The Beetle's throttle is floored.
It spins its wheels at
the equivalent of 120mph,
while a live readout shows
the forces being generated.
9,000 rpm motor speed.
You are doing 647
Newton-metres of torque.
Which for, something that ain't
powered by rotten dinosaurs,
that ain't...
It's impressive.
..that ain't bad mate,
that ain't bad.
So that little thing
is nearly making
the same torque as
a £100,000 pound Porsche.
But you run out of revs.
Give me more revs,
I'll give you more power.
OK.
The tuning can commence.
Let me just refresh this and I'll
see if it's going to play ball.
They start by telling the motor to
use more electrical energy
by increasing the amp limit.
But it comes with a warning.
I don't want to put it up at all,
to be honest.
But I know we can push it up,
we've just never pushed it
past 1,100.
What, you've never done that before?
So, you don't know
if that would damage the invertor?
We just push it and see what
happens, at the end of the day.
They also adjust a parameter
called F slip,
which controls the three magnetic
fields that make the motor spin.
It's the point in which
you energise the magnets, right?
So, if you've got two magnets on
your table, and they're attracting,
right, you want 'em in that sweet
spot.
So you get 'em too close, they're
just going to snap together -
you don't want that.
You want 'em near enough apart
so you've got the maximum pull,
but you don't want 'em touching.
So, that's what adjusting
the F slip is,
is just getting
that distance right.
The attracting magnets, he's just
getting 'em close enough
so they're just about pulling,
but not touching.
That's when you get your maximum
power - in that window.
So, the closer we are together,
it'll pull the motor round faster.
So, you just get to that point and
it pulls the motor round faster,
so, yeah, there's a sweet spot.
There is an undeniable tension
in the room
as they prepare for the run.
Nobody knows if the new settings
could make the Beetle self destruct.
Right, you ready? Yeah.
The run is completed safely,
and the result speaks for itself.
Spinning the wheels on the dyna...!
We ended up at, like,
670 millimetres of torque,
which is, yeah, that's as much,
if not more, than anyone has ever
got out of those Tesla kits.
She almost pulled the dyna axle.
Literally going "rrr!"
Some introduction to electric cars,
eh! Eh?
It's probably pulled the back
of the cell closer to the car.
No, we're still good.
What was once a
classic family car
has been turned in to
a tyre-shredding monster.
The power of EVs is undoubted,
but what continues to plague them
is something Guy is going to
test to the extreme.
Moths are out. The moths are out.
Britain's recharging infrastructure
is constantly expanding,
with around 600 new public points
installed every month.
Am I putting it the right way? Yeah.
A bit of real-world testing.
Here we are.
Guy's going to test
the latest capability...
You see that?
..by filming a video diary...
2:58am.
..of an 1,100-mile round trip...
The new Hyundai, they've give us
this for a day or two.
..starting at his house near
Grimsby.
Going to see if I can get to
John O'Groats and back in a day.
That's the plan.
So, just charged it up to 100%.
They're saying it'll do the thick
end of 300 miles to a tankful.
Worked out I can fill up
at about three different places
on the way up there
with fast chargers.
So, we're going to give it a go.
550 miles to go.
John O'Groats, here we come.
Here we come.
Well, I hope we can get to Gretna
before we need to charge.
Manufacturers point out that
the rules governing
how a car's range is advertised
stipulate that an average of
different speeds must be used.
Constant motorway driving means Guy
won't get near
the manufacturer claim of 298 miles
from a full charge.
Quick update - 53 minutes
and 49 miles into the journey
and we've only got 69%
of the battery left.
It's not looking very promising!
HE LAUGHS
Look in the corner.
What have we got?
17% battery left,
which generally equates to 30 miles.
And we've got 50 miles to get
to our supercharger.
So, hang on,
we're 20 miles missing somewhere.
Yeah...
Yeah, we're in trouble.
And so, 155 miles after setting off,
Guy makes an unplanned pit stop
in Penrith.
Right, here we go.
Let's see how easy this is. Right...
The first charger he finds
is in a supermarket car park.
First, see if it works.
It doesn't.
Oh, BLEEP!
Luckily, the charger across the road
springs into action.
Thank you.
There we go, we're charging.
After 15 minutes,
and an update to his journey log,
Guy has enough range to get to his
original target of Gretna Green...
Go on, where is it?
Oh-ho-ho, I see it!
..and one of the latest
breed of chargers,
which are the fastest
in the country.
Yeah, so a fast charger will be
50 kilowatts,
and then you can get
a proper fast charger
which'll be 100 kilowatts.
Right...
And then you can get these Ionity
chargers, which are 350 kilowatts!
But the faster the charge,
the bigger the bill.
BLEEP! Look at the money!
Holy BLEEP! I thought it was going
to be cheaper!
70p per kilowatt hour?!
Holy BLEEP!
Excuse my language.
The electricity in a home costs
around 15p a unit,
charging out on the road
is around 30p a unit.
This is more than double.
There she goes, listen to that.
She's getting wound up.
ELECTRIC WHIRRING
Listen to it, can you hear that?
But in theory, it will charge this
car to 80% in 18 minutes.
More than enough time for breakfast.
We've had a scotch pie and a cup
of tea.
If I go out there and it's not
at...60%, 70%, summat like that,
I'm going to be disappointed.
Here we go.
Right, here's the moment of truth.
BLEEP!
I'm not joking.
That's saying 34%,
56 minutes remaining.
I am disappointed.
A check on the Zap Map app
suggests other users have
experienced slow charging with
this particular unit as well.
There we go.
In the end, charging takes one hour
and costs £40.
After 130 miles,
Guy reaches a supercharger in Perth.
And this time,
the system works as it should.
Moving on to slower A roads extends
the range to more than 200 miles.
And after a brief recharge
in Wick...
Hiya, mate, you all right?
So, where you lot tripping to?
Only to John O'Groats,
in that electric thing.
..Guy makes it to John O'Groats 12
and a half hours after setting off.
Can you drive an electric car to
John O'Groats? Yes, you can.
Is it a pain in the arse?
Yes, it is.
There she is.
Right, let's go find some electric.
The return trip was a similar story.
The bloody charge station...
doesn't work.
A failed charge at John O'Groats
left Guy in a very sticky situation.
Now turn right.
The whole 1,100-mile round
trip took 27 hours.
There she is.
And half of the ten
charge stops had issues.
It cost £204 in electricity,
and diesel would've cost around 140.
Skin of the teeth, my friends.
Skin of the teeth.
On the basis of this trip,
it would seem that electric cars
and long journeys don't always mix.
But what Guy's planned next will
play to battery power's strengths.
Guy Martin hopes the Volkswagen
Beetle he's helped tune is going
to set a new record for road-legal
electric cars on a drag strip.
Ahead of its final testing,
he shows it off at Caffeine
& Machine in Warwickshire.
We've come here to do
a bit of market research.
It's a hang-out for petrol
heads of every denomination...
Ah, Ford Transit.
..and some of Britain's biggest
car influencers.
Go on, let's have
a natter about this.
What do people committed to internal
combustion feel
about battery
power being the future of transport?
You try and make an internal
combustion engine in your own
kitchen, you're not doing it,
are you? It's dead simple.
So, hi, my name's Becky Evans, I am
28 years old, I'm a content creator.
So, my name is Khyzyl Saleem.
Online, I'm known as The Kyza,
and I'm a vehicle concept artist.
Full 3D environment,
everything here is...
Oh, my God! Look at the side pipes!
Hi, guys, I'm Shmee, hello.
YouTube car guy, living the supercar
dream, sharing my experiences
of the automotive world
through my social media platforms.
Go on, Khyzyl,
what you thinking, mate?
It's pretty mega. Yeah? Yeah.
You see. That's definitely not what
you normally have back there.
No, not 600 horsepower as well.
Yeah.
It's not very pretty to look at,
is it?
I'm sure...it does the fast thing,
but she's...
What?
It's just a big square block!
That's the battery, mate. I know.
Guy shows these petrolheads
exactly what battery power can do.
OK, here we go. Wow!
It's ridiculous!
As soon as he's putting his foot
down, just keeps pushing you back
into your seat. Like, it's not
gradual, it's like, bang!
Khyzyl had never been in
an electric car. Wow.
It's insane.
OK.
Instant speed, it's just crazy.
I love the engineering behind this.
It's very quick,
but, when are you gonna use
that on the roads?
We're gonna hopefully use it on a
drag strip, but outside of that...
Oh, well, then, in that case...
Outside of that...
..you're, you're all set.
If you want an electric car now,
the market in terms
of production models,
there are very few sports cars or
exciting cars for petrolheads.
There are very few of
these type of cars
that will grab the heart-strings
of somebody who loves what I love,
and I think this is
the future of that direction.
But how will the influencers'
old-fashioned petrol engines
compare in a back-to-back drive?
Yeah, she's pretty clean. I had
the engine out not too long ago.
Shall we wake it up?
Go on.
ENGINE PURRS
Sounds the part, don't it?
ENGINE GROWLS
Looking forward to this.
I loved the Porsche, cos it was
sort of one concourse,
teacups chucked in the back,
it was mint.
Gangster machine.
I just love it, cos it was
a usable classic.
You all right? You're all right,
that's the one.
HE IMITATES ENGINE
Cracks and bangs in gear changes and
waste gates and dump valves,
you know, all of that complication
and mechanical noise.
Mate, it is cool.
I'm impressed.
And she could wagon the beast.
She could wagon it.
It's an involved experience.
With a real smile on our face.
Just the sound...
The sounds it makes.
GUY HOOTS WITH LAUGHTER
You're right.
You're right, mate.
When you unleash it...
ENGINE ROARS
That's great.
Gets a little bit lively,
doesn't it?
There's no doubt in my mind
whatsoever
that internal
combustion will live on.
No doubt in my mind.
The problem I have when I'm driving
this car is that my cheekbones
start to ache cos I'm always
smiling so much.
Because it's just
the involvement of driving,
it's the driving experience.
That's what they want.
THEY CHUCKLE
But to drive from
point A to point B, right,
that could be done in
your electric vehicle,
you're not gonna offend anything,
and you're not gonna create the CO2.
When you wanna go out
and actually enjoy your driving,
then yeah, you wanna get
the old dinosaur out the shed
and go burn a bit of
petrol and oil. Ohh!
So, Guy, what do you think,
electric, petrol?
Petrol every day of the week.
That's not a question, mate.
It's not a question.
Do you know what I mean?
Petrol power may be more fun,
but can it still keep up?
Guy and engineer Richard
are going to find out
at the Beetle's first test day.
Just, safety first.
If worst comes to the worst
and you end up on your head...
Go on.
..just that there,
that's your safety cut-off.
Oh, yeah, I can see it.
And away you go. All right,
see you later. Cheers.
Nothing encourages ultimate
performance more than a competition.
And what better than to race
a 204 mph petrol supercar?
LAUGHTER
Richard's friend,
a petrolhead who wants to be known
only as Rob from Canada,
has brought his McLaren 570S for a
shot at the 50-year-old Volkswagen.
It's a 3.8 litre V8 twin
turbo-charged, you know,
internal combustion engine,
obviously.
I know it's posh
and I know it's fast.
It's not just fast,
it's BLOODY fast.
So we're gonna have a race,
try and put this job in to context,
just to see how the Beetle shapes
up against a well-proven hypercar.
ENGINE PURRS
I think it'll be tight.
Fingers crossed.
Ho-ho-ho!
Oh, man, it's on like Donkey Kong.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I will say, "Three, two, one, go,"
and you both go on the G
of the "go", so please stand by.
Three, two, one, go.
Go on! BLEEP!
Come on, come on, come on,
keep going!
Go on, send it!
Ho-ho-ho! Holy BLEEP! That's fast!
Oh! That was... That was tight.
That Beetle is so fast.
All right, boss? Yeah.
I kicked it, just.
Wa-ay!
The start is depressing,
because I just see you tearing off.
Making no noise.
No noise, and then I'm, like,
making all this noise and racket
and stuff like that.
As long as it's long enough, I can
catch you, but, it was amazing.
You know, if you can take a Beetle
and make it THAT quick,
the future of hot-rodding
is definitely in safe hands.
It's not just fast for a Beetle,
it is fast full stop.
Is it fast enough?
Beating internal combustion
seems easy,
but can they beat the record?
The day of Guy's record
attempt has arrived.
He's come to the home of British
drag racing,
Santa Pod in Northamptonshire.
Conditions at this famous quarter
mile strip are perfect.
But Guy arrives to the worst
possible news.
"Jay Leno tries to break
record in Tesla's new Model
"S Plaid on Jay Leno's garage."
That's a bit of the same as what
we're doing, innit?
Am I going to play the video?
Ah, there we go.
There we go.
FROM VIDEO: Hey. Are you ready to
go?
24 hours ago, NBC reported that the
record Guy must beat is no
longer 9.86 seconds.
9.247.
Wow.
He's done a 9.24?
It is now the fastest
production car you can buy,
faster than any Ferrari.
We are on the back foot, boys.
Get the kettle going.
The team hope to stack the odds
back in their favour by doing
everything they can to improve grip.
And here, that means glue.
Track prep is a very specific thing
to quarter-mile drag racing.
Oh, here they are,
they're spraying glue on.
See.
You're not going to wheel spin as
easy
because your tyres
are glued to the track.
You smell that.
Putting hairs on your chest, innit?
Each tyre is fitted with a sensor
so that their pressures can be
monitored via an app,
and engineer Brian Porteous has been
invited to make sure the tyres
are always in the optimal state.
There actually starts to be
a molecular
interaction between the tyre rubber
and the surface.
So we need to keep our eye on that
because if pressure goes up too far
that reduces your contact patch.
Scientific, isn't it?
Right, I'm going to give me
brain a rest.
I'm going to get me overalls on.
Is there a test after this?
I'll go get me overalls on.
That's a lot of science that.
It's time to make the first
run of the day.
The tyres operate at their best
between 60 and 80 degrees.
Bit more, bit more.
Hold it.
So Guy sets about warming them up.
That's got a bit of heat in them.
Traction control on, yeah.
10.8.
How did that look? Not bad. We're
into the 10, so that's a 10.8
with a 122 terminal.
So that's a good start that, mate.
Cheers, boss.
10.8 seconds is the same
quarter-mile time as the legendary
Ferrari F40 supercar.
Guy lines up for a second
go in a Beetle that is powerful
enough to rip up chunks of concrete.
But is it quick enough to
break a record?
Go on.
10.6. Happy with that.
10.6, buddy.
10.6, at 123, that. So we're going
in the right direction.
Well done, mate.
Grand job, thank you.
Cheers, boss.
The finish line speed of 123mph is
actually faster
than the original record they were
trying to beat, which means it's
the first half of the run where time
is being lost through wheel spin.
Felt right at my limit there, yeah.
OK.
Well, let's give it a little bit
more then. Yeah.
How's she looking, Brian?
She's looking all right.
Loving those burn-outs.
Preparations get serious.
We've got our eye in this morning.
Right?
I want to say this is
the money shot.
This is where we're going to go
and do it.
The sun's been on this track
most of the day now.
I mean that's probably going to be
the quickest times this afternoon.
So we'll see what happens,
but, yeah,
could do without this head wind
though.
Brian, the Michelin Man... Not the
Michelin Man, it's just a man that
works with Michelin, he didn't want
to risk picking any pebbles up
because there's slight pebbles sat
in the rubber and that is going to
slightly compromise the friction the
tyre can give for an absolute run.
So this is why we've swept all the
track... Brian swept all the track,
I didn't. But I would've done
if he'd have asked, but he didn't.
We was off having
cup of tea for dinner,
he was here sweeping the track.
He means business.
So there is nothing left to chance.
If we don't do it, we aren't doing
it.
I'm looking forward to having
a go. Come on,
let's get them primed.
Burn-outs only heat
the surface of the tyre so a fresh
set of rubber is being thoroughly
warmed in electric blankets.
Good luck, buddy.
Thanks very much.
To avoid contamination,
they won't be fitted
until the car has driven the short
distance from pits...
Just stop it there.
..to start line.
There is nothing left to do
but accelerate.
That's a 10.78 that,
so that's going the wrong way now.
Even with all the tyre
and track preparations,
the car produces so much power its
wheels still spin rather than grip.
No matter what they try...
..no matter how much sweeping...
..no matter which lane...
..no matter how many software
tweaks...
..no matter how many burn-outs...
..they can't extract any more speed
from the Beetle.
So you got a 10.9 there.
So, whether or not you think you can
go and give it a bit more beans on
the start line or you think that's
about as good as it's going to get?
There's always
room for another, isn't there,
Come on, let's have another go.
Go on, then, let's go one more time.
The stiffening head wind may be
good for clean energy production,
but it's not good for a record
attempt.
Bad wind stops play.
I'd say we're back
to 11.1 again now.
So, I think we'll call it a day.
10.6 this morning was
the best run. So, well done, mate.
We'll call it a day at 10.6.
Yeah, well done, mate. Yeah,
you've created some
piece of kit, mate.
Yeah. Hey, hey we didn't do what
we set out to, boy,
but we've had a lot of learning
along the way, so, yeah.
But I'm well impressed, mate.
Good work.
I dread to think what the R&D budget
difference is between, like,
you know, Elon Musk
and little Moggy in Wales.
Thousands versus tens of millions?
I'm not that far away, you know.
What's impressed me about electric
vehicles is, dead easy to go fast.
But not proper fast, but fast.
You know what I'm saying.
You know what I'm saying.
But dead, dead easy.
Should you buy an electric car
tomorrow? Erm, yes and no.
Yes, and no.
Well, if you're never going any
further than, for example, 50
mile from your house, then yes,
an electric car is the way to go.
Right?
But if you go out once a week
and do 100 mile, 200 mile,
300 mile, no, an electric car isn't
because we haven't got the gubbins
to keep you on the road sorted yet.
It's coming.
It's coming.
It's coming
but it's not there yet.
I think we're just seeing
a massive ramp up in development,
right? I reckon give that another
year, maybe two years,
then that's the time to buy.
Get stuck in, two years,
electric cars will be the way.
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