Those pesky Swiss, so smug with their chocolate and francs and Sepp Blatters and 0-100 km/h acceleration records. They needed to be taken down a peg. And if the Porsche 959 and Mercedes-Benz 600 Grosser taught us anything, it’s that when the Swabians need to remind the world who’s boss when it comes to engineering, Stuttgart will gleefully and precisely rise to the occasion.
In this case, a group of students from the University of Stuttgart put together a Formula SAE-looking machine with four electric motors cranking out 134 horsepower. Weighing in at 342 pounds, the vehicle has a power-to-weight ratio akin to a supersport motorcycle. But your garden-variety sportbikes these days are hitting 60 somewhere between two-and-a-half and three seconds. These German kids hit 62 mph in 1.779. Buh.
The previous 0-100 km/h record was held by students from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. And to be fair to the Swiss, the Germans only broke their record by .006 seconds. Still, a record’s a record, and Stuttgart expects Guinness certification within a couple of weeks. ETH Zürich’s car looked like a runty Pikes Peak racer, with a couple of big shovels bolted ahead of the wheel and a honkin’ wing over the rear wheels. The Germans, in contrast, took a little torpedo with a roll bar and a 6.62 kWh battery and sunk ‘em. As Americans, we do feel obligated to point out that a Top Fuel dragster will hit 100 miles per hour in under a second. After all, there’s Stuttgart, and then there’s Swamp Rat. [h/t Jalopnik]
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