Venturi

110 years after being the first vehicle in all categories to go faster than 60 mph (65.2 mph in April 1899), the salt flats in Bonneville, Utah, saw the “Jamais Contente’s” descendant reaching about 302 mph (487 km/h), and establishing a new world speed record for an electric drive vehicle and moreover equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell.

The Venturi Buckeye Bullet is now officially one of the few land vehicles having passed the symbolic speed of 300 mph.

September 25th, 2009, USAC (United States Auto Club) timekeepers have registered these two new world records, 302,88 mph (487,43 km/h) and 303,03 mph (487,67 km/h) (average speeds respectively calculated on 1 mile and 1 kilometer in both ways, subject to FIA homologation).

The Venturi Buckeye Bullet, nicknamed “Venturi Jamais Contente” in France, is a 750 hp electric record car developed in partnership with the Ohio State University (OSU). This is part of a 3 year program during which this Streamliner will attempt to break, in 2010 and 2011, some other records and will establish new references in the high performance electric vehicle field.

Photo credit : Barry Hathaway

About 80 years after André Citroën’s amazing adventure of “La Croisière Jaune” (the yellow cruise), Venturi will accomplish the return journey, from shanghai to Paris in electric vehicle.

Venturi Global Challenges second mission, scheduled in May 2010, is an amazing human experience. The purpose of this adventure is to establish a new distance record for electric production models and to demonstrate the reliability of Venturi’s electric vehicles.

The vehicle and its crew will have to face a very hard path which crosses the Gobi desert and the Kazak Mountains. It covers approximately 8 300 miles (14.000 km) through China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and finally France.

This mission will be presented in details on November 21st 2009 at 5pm at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

Proposed by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco after His expedition in Antarctica, this mission consists of designing a green vehicle able to operate in Antarctica’s extreme conditions.

The Princess Elisabeth Station is the first station in Antarctica to be entirely powered by renewable energies. The Venturi “Antarctica” will be used by the scientists to move on their different research sites. It is a great opportunity for Venturi to experiment this vehicle in collaboration with Alain Hubert, President of the International Polar Foundation.

This mission is also a wink to the explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton who was the first one to bring a car on the continent a century ago. At that time, the vehicle has frozen immediately.

« Antarctica » mission will be presented at the Paris Motor Show 2010 on October the 2nd.

Photo credit : International Polar Foundation