You are reading that headline correctly: a group of students from ETH Zurich and the University of Lucerne have built a car that will hit 100kph from a standstill in less than a second. 0.956sec, to be precise. Yikes!
Work began on the car (called mythen, FYI) in September last year, with the students constructing every element of it as part of the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ).
Wielding four electric motors it belts out 322hp, but what’ll really blow your mind is that it weighs just 140kg. Which puts the power-to-weight ratio somewhere in the region of 2,300hp per ton. Stratospheric, in other words.
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There’s ground effect tech at play too, with a vacuum system sucking the single-seater onto the ground much like the McLaren F1 and Gordon Murray’s forthcoming T.50. Apparently, the end result is a doubling of the contact force.
Having lost the record to the University of Stuttgart’s 1.46sec benchmark last year, the group was keen to get it back… and its sub-second run in Dubendorf - which you can watch in its very brief entirety—is one heck of a retort. All done in the space of 12.3 meters as well. Has anyone checked the 0-100-0kph record in the meantime?
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“You do feel a few nerves,” said driver Kate Maggetti, describing what it’s like behind the wheel of mythen. “It probably also has to do with respect. You really notice that your heart is pounding away. But you’ve just got to do it and see it through. Then everything’s better again, and then it’s fun too.
“It’s like being on a roller coaster with a really, really fast start. You feel the tension and a kick.”
Meanwhile AMZ’s head of motor Yann Bernard added: “Working on the project in addition to my studies was very intense. But even so, it was a lot of fun working with other students to continually produce new solutions and put into practice what we learned in class. And, of course, it is an absolutely unique experience to be involved in a world record.”
Yep, this one’s been confirmed by Guinness World Records. Sorry Tesla Model S Plaid, you’re officially old news.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
