Maybe painting it white and adding a stripe would help? It worked for Herbie!

Brilliant. I not a lover of drag racing 0 to 60 times but it does show how easily electric can go fast. I'd love to see it go round some race tracks.

If I was to own an electrified vehicle that bug would sure be the one. More Guy Martin👍🏼

If they could visually see how much air needs to be moved out the way at any speed above 60mph they would soon reconsider the body shape of the vehicle. The Beetle's drag coefficient is 0.48. Compare that to the normal 0.25 to 0.3 for even regular cars.

Hi Guy, that was awesome man, well done 👍

Obviously all wheel drive is needed. Great video!

Jonny Smiths Enfield 8000 ECC Flux-capacitor car video on the Late Brake Show, was circa 9 seconds speed, shows just how fast his car was. Nice attempt. And Jonny was using two old inline DC motors, not a Tesla motor.

What a fantastic project. I could watch hours of how it was built. If you do have footage of the build please post it!! :-) And well these days everyone is an expert some I will chime in. Bigger diameter tire and wider? Stiffer suspension on the rear and I did not see where the batteries are but just in front of the rear wheels of course and maybe just enough batteries to make a run and then swap for a charged cell? I cannot wait to see what you do with this project!

It be brilliant if you can make them longer so I can watch more 💯

Nice work Moggy!

Nearly first, I’ve been waiting for this vid, thanks mate, but if you make the Beatle 4 wheel drive, you will break the record by a clear second

The track prep after half distance will be slowing you down. It's creating much more rolling resistance at a point in the track where you won't be spinning the tyres any more.

I think the suspension is to soft and rebound need slowing down

Guy is the man! 👍🏁

KZfaq dates this video as 7 Oct 2021 but is it years old? Guy doesn't appear to be aware of the speed of a Tesla Plaid or the range Tesla and other EV manufacturers are offering. They talk of attempting a world record for an EV quarter mile without even mentioning the record to beat is 8.58 seconds for a production Rimac Nivara. If you include custom cars (like the VW in the video) the record goes to the Danish racing company 'True Cousins Racing' and their TC-X electric car that run 7.98 seconds in 2018 at the dragstrip at Mantorp Park, Sweden, piloted by Glenn Nielsen. Top speed was 274 km/h (170 mph).

Was the wafting of his hand related to the "bad wind" mentioned? Comic timing.

That thing needs more sidewall and travel to hook. Chillin' with Chet ran a low 9 in his Plaid at Rocky Mountain Race Week 2.0 a couple of weeks ago after driving 1000+ miles.

Rimac Nevera did 8.5sec 1/4 mile and Tesla Plaid does it in 9sec so what's the point of this? edit: forgot to mention, those are production cars...unmodified

I'd love to own this. Love the dubs but the E-dub just sounds perfect

Little weight just above the rear wheels and near the centre to give some grip?

Why didn't they use drag slicks if traction was the main issue?

Interesting Project .. It's very easy to build a 4 wheel drive electric car..

awesome

Great vid! Electric motors can produce 100% torque at 0rpm, which is why it is breaking traction. With the amount of power that you have in that beetle it should be taking off with not more than 20% torque ramping up to 100% in 2 or 3 seconds. Also perhaps try adding a small amount of ballast weight just forward of the rear tyres and some traction compound sprayed onto the tyres at the lights? Go watch some top RC electric drag racers balance and tune their cars and practice their throttle control off the line. Very critical at 1/10 scale. Regards, Jas. Rockhampton Queensland Australia

you should add a spoiler and all kinds of aerodynamics to get more traction like the P 1 electric car

Moving some of the battery weight back would get you off the line faster. You look to be a long way from lifting the front wheels. Chances are you can drive the motor harder with a bit of work. You want to only do that after you are moving fairly fast.

No drama no soul no noise no thanks lol give me combustion any day haha

if guy makes a video about paint drying it would still be interesting lol xx

Had respect for you once !!!!!

Tesla plaid : hold my beer 🍺

Good call on the 2 years Guy, now go and make a brew!

I do like these guys BUT they didn’t even get close to Jonny Smith’s street legal electric car record done 5 years ago of sub 10 seconds and that was done on a shoestring!

Use a softer stickier tire compound, like whats used in long rail top fuel dragsters.......more grip less spin.......

We need to get him in a Plaid

I can easy do 200 miles in my electric van over a weekend.And there were two rapid chargers with 5 miles of the b&b. Must be 50000 external 13amp socket and I find hotels and b&b don't mind to you using them. The 50miles a night is fine for sightseeing or going down to the beach.

Just a shame you couldn't get those tyres to grip. Hope to see more electric vehicle vids on here Guy !

Well done dudes! Nice work bit of Computer bleep bloops at you'll be in the 9's

Nice to see Moggy is there with him seeing as it's his car. I have seen the outcome of this already.

Going to have to get the power down and my opinion is it has to be through front wheels too? Clearly car is at the limit of what the tyres are capable of transferring? Telemetry will show there was tyre slip for probably most,if not all, of that run?

Maybe lowering tire pressures would get it to hook up. The trade off is you would lose top end speed as it creates more drag. But overall might still be faster. Need to experiment with it, maybe you did already?

4 wheel drive and slicks ,at the moment its over powering the road way to much wheel spin

Needs some slicks and a power glide 2 speed for top end.

that's a FAST car man... 👍

Legend 🇬🇧👍🏻

Cool

It's on road tires?

Road legal drag tyres, lower pressures, software that limits the torque until the tyres can catch up and then increase torque/power during the run, add more weight over the rear axle. Lots of options to try now the car is built. Well done, just goes to show that there is life left in the old Beetle still. As for EV's, they are at the same development stage as cars were 100-120 years ago. Lots of potential but limited buy cost, range and infrastructure. Governments need to be careful what they legislate as the consequences could more huge.

Try using a tire with more side wall , more flex to grip the track. Car is a beaut.

to call this an attempt at the EV world record is like turning up to an F1 race in a Nissan Micra. What exactly do they think the record is?

To go faster just turn the really big fans off in the background, must be hot to have such big fans on

Need a slick

Need to get some slicks on it, the motors too powerful for those hard tires to grip.

Apparently (3:25), they are using street radials..! Why don't they use slicks specifically designed for drag racing ...???

Bit off topic I’m at cemex in south Ferriby did I see you in dowse truck other day Guy swear it was you

Carbon free bar the tyre smooooook 👍🏻

i would've swept the track if he asked me. Salt of the earth that man

Sad that MCM's miss Daisy was in the 9's in the quarter mile yet that can't even get under 10 with all that power

Lol about giving it a year or two, I saw Guy & his family turn up to his pub in an electric Honda almost 18 months ago. Maybe he doesn't own it though 🤷🏼‍♀️

what about the batters when you need to replace them . i dont have to replace my motor after 5 years

could remove view psi from rear tyres

What actual record are they trying to break ?

Two things that'll help your traction is drag slicks and lower tire pressure

Last week I drove from the Isle of Wight to near Boston, Lincs. I stopped at Toddington services for a pasty and to let the dog have a pee. There were electric charging points there but they were all in use. Somebody else rocked up in some electric thing and had to wait until one of the charging points became free. He was still there when I left, still waiting for one of the cars to move off. I would say electric only makes sense if you travel less than 50 miles and you have the means to charge your vehicle. If you live in a flat or have to park far from your home it's no good. If too many of your neighbours have them the distribution will be inadequate - developers allow 3.5KW/h per dwelling - yer average car can charge at 3.2 KW/h but it will take a long time so most want to charge at 7.2 - can you see the problem? Then of course there is the elephant in the room - at the moment energy use at night is low so generation falls overnight. Now lets bung a couple of million cars all wanting 7.2KW/h overnight charging so they are ready for the next day's use. Dirty, polluting power stations now have to run 24/7 - hardly doing much for the environment, is it? Sure we have renewables but nowhere near enough. There are over 38 million vehicles registered for use in the UK. That's a lot of power stations and a lot of infrastructure that doesn't exist. Add in the number of power stations that have closed in recent years, the lack of gas and the loss of the coal industry and it's hard too see how electric cars can be considered the future, clever though they are.

Life lesson..."Nothing left to do but accelerate"

wait a minute how can this be the fasted electric car if the tesla plaid and the rimac beats this beetle with ease

I wouldn't use a VW bug as the donor car. Better to use a 2000-2006 Honda Insight. The first version of the Insight was an all aluminum 2-seater that weighed about 1200 lbs gutted. You can pick them up on eBay for about $3000

10 years more like

Guy, watch Bjorn Nyland’s channel and he tests all electric cars cross country, he has no issues using any car across Europe,

it just doesn't have the aerodynamics you need for this kind of challenge.

Needs four wheel drive

Make it all wheel drive

Car is spending too much time on the line. It's not gripping. Plus is the car losing energy after each run or do they charge between runs

Increase rear rebound

Plaid Tesla ask uncle Chet!

Loving all the replies from people who think Moggy and Guy are legends but that they also know what they should have done to get it quicker. 🤔

You have to be careful pushing a VW Beetle too fast. The body is somewhat aerodynamic, the faster you go the more lift it produces. In the 60's a guy put a gas turbine in a Bug and on a run down the quarter mile it left the ground at around 150 MPH. Nasty crash.

Clearly I am out of touch and side burns are well and truly back😁

I’m sticking to a 2337cc turbo engine for the next engine rather but good build.

Maybe drag slicks on a drag strip, just saying, road tires won't give the right grip

A vw beetle is quite a different beast than anything else chassis wise. You need a 15 inch rear wheel and a slick not those silly" look at me "wheels with a rubber band for a tire. Even with a slick you may only pick up a couple tenths. You are running streetable turbo vw times now right now. Good luck

Big tire , skinny’s up front and that hits a 9

All that effort to go the same speed as a stock Tesla in ludicrous mode.

Damn this beetle is slowwww

Maybe they should have a chat with Ken Block and borrow his Electric Mustang.

Using a beatle for this is just my kind of humor 😂😂👏🏻👏🏻

I regularly do more than 100 miles in my peugeot e208

4wd electric will help to reduce the whell spin

I think Guy has given electric vehicles a pretty good test, and reached a fair conclusion about their status. From my own driving experience, some people could do better on range. He's right, the infrastructure is poor.

Guys sorry to say that but you need 4WD or drag radials..then you can be in the mid 9s

Any Drag Racer would've sent that Michelin 'expert' home and swapped the car to smaller diameter wheels, Drag Radials on the rear and skinnies up front. Would've sneaked into the 9's with those change's alone.

Powered by the local powerstation, could be an incinerator, fossil fuel, wind/tide and the really clean one, nuclear, with its biodegradable rods. Energy made at huge cost and waste before it even leaves on the wires at massive voltage, loosing so much energy In heat before it even gets stepped down to 220/240 volts.

Not enough tire side wall height

I think they have a good formula. The problem i think is whith it being RWD. A tesla is AWD and really the quarter mile is all about hooking up. The trap speed is always low for elctric cars but they always manage insane 1/4 mile times. tesla = 9.6-9.7 ish. In fact the tesla is able to reach almost identical time on and off the drag strip. That tells me it is not utilizing all of its grip and could in fact run a faster quarter mile with more power. Example...tesla plaid

This must be the 10 years old video, today many EVs already can travel over 200 miles in a single charge.

Why not emptying a little the tyres??

With 300 mile range EVs on the road today and chargers around the world getting you from 0-80% in 15 or 30 minutes, eat while you charge.. I'd say they are here now, just waiting for the high battery scale to get the prices low enough for regular vehicles. That might be a few years away now, expected to first happen in 2025 with a few cars and 2030 the standard. Looking forward to it, hoping the Beetle comes back because of it.

Why a beetle though?

The new Tesla Plad is running low 9.0s, like 9.13.

So the record stays with hans =)

Int he lovely