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Zero to 100 kmph is the standard test for how fast a car accelerates.
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The Brits call it 0-60 mph.
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An everyday road car with a bit of power can do that in six or seven seconds.
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A Formula 1 car, about two seconds.
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As I record this, the fastest accelerating road-legal car in the world is the Rimac Nivera, which can go from zero to 100 kmph in 1.85 seconds.
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This is Mieten, built by a team from ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.
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And it hits 100 kmph in under a second.
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This car is the current holder of the world record in acceleration from zero to 100 kmph for electric vehicles.
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For the world record project, we brought together a team of alumni and current team members.
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Some are students, some are recent graduates.
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We took a car that was fully designed by students, we modified it.
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That also allowed some of the members that are still students to do research and make a master thesis.
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And I'm about to get in it and do that.
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But there is quite a history of floppy-haired British presenters getting into high-speed vehicles and ending up in hospitals, so I've got a lot of safety briefing to do first.
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To build a car that can go this fast, you really need to go down to the first principles of physics.
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You need to be able to put enough force into the ground in a very short amount of time.
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Just pure grip reaches its limits at around 1.5 seconds approximately.
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To get more force into the ground, we use a self-developed system which we call power ground effect.
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We suck the air out underneath the car from a big plate and this pulls the car to the ground to make the car accelerate faster.
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We use two fans that power up shortly before launch to pull the car down to be able to create that underpressure.
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However, for the back wheels, we need more torque.
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So for this, we developed a new generation of motors that has approximately twice the amount of torque.
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Each of the motors has approximately the same power as a small hatchback.
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Everything is custom, self-designed, so it's quite expensive.
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The main source of parts is from our sponsors, from the industry.
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We also get a lot of support from the university.
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Our mission is not to build race cars, it is to build up engineers.
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At world record pace, a lightweight driver in here pulls 3.8 G's peak acceleration.
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I'm going to add about 30 more kilos of weight, so I'm not going to quite hit that pace, but it's going to be close.
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It's almost as fast as the catapult that launches fighter jets from aircraft carriers.
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It's faster than any rollercoaster launch, apart from one in Japan that's currently closed because it kept shattering people's bones.
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There are cars which take off faster than Mitten here, but they're top-fueled dragsters running on nitromethane, loud enough to cause hearing damage and not suitable for anything other than going in a straight line for a few seconds.
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And yes, I will just be going in a straight line for a few seconds, but in theory, I could go round an actual racetrack.
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Electrically, the main danger is high voltage.
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There are emergency buttons, push that button to turn off the car.
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If there is, for example, a fire in the car, the driver has to be able to get out quickly.
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It's something you have to train just to be quick enough.
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That was 6.6.
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You have to be able to exit the car within five seconds.
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Go!
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Clear!
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4.6.
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That'll do.
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Yay!
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It's absolutely difficult to describe because it's only a second.
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It's a really surreal experience because you don't really believe it just happened.
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You go into acceleration mode, roll to the start, initiate power ground effect, which will sock you to the floor.
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PG active.
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Floor clearance active.
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Oh boy.
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Hold down.
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You will have to pull on the buttons behind the steering wheel and then push throttle.
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And then when you release, there is a split second where nothing happens, but then you will get launched.
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Flux throttle.
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Holy!
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What?
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After you have reached 100 kmh, the car will shut down and then you can slowly go on the What?
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No!
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What?
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No! No!
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No!
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No! That was the longest second of my life.
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Was that really only like one and a bit seconds?
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That felt like five.
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That felt like five seconds.
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Pretty much dead on 1.4 seconds. 1.4?
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I mean it's your round of applause folks, congratulations, that's a heck of a thing.
