Breaking records with Drayson Racing

Former science minister Lord Drayson has broken the world land speed record for an electric car…and a team from Ferno was there to witness it.
The Labour peer, who runs his own motor racing team, Drayson Racing, reached a speed of 204.185 miles per hour behind the wheel of his prototype B12/69 electric vehicle.
The new record, which was set at the Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, beat the previous fastest speed set by an electric car by almost 29mph.
Lord Drayson, who was science minister from 2008 until the 2010 general election, said: “I’m delighted we’ve beaten the record and can show the world electric vehicles can be fast and reliable.
"It is not the outright speed of 204mph that is most impressive about this record, but the engineering challenge of accelerating a 1000kg electric vehicle on a short runway over a measured mile.
"This is a true celebration of Britain's leading position within the burgeoning electric vehicle industry and I'm delighted to be at the forefront of this electric revolution.”
Lord Drayson has been conducting tests on his vehicle, which is a converted B10 Le Mans Prototype car, at Elvington Airfield to demonstrate the technology.
He added that he hoped to set further records this week as they conduct further tests, including the acceleration record.
So what’s this got to do with Ferno? Good question.
Well, when you decide to go very fast in a car even on an airfield, accidents can happen and without the emergency services on standby ready to jump into action, lives can be lost. So Ferno’s latest innovation – created especially for the motor sports new product development team – was at Elvington in case the worst happened.
Our new Spinal Protection Extraction Device (SPED) pictured above was developed with Dr Hajinder Chaggar one of the FIAs Chief Medical Officers to create a pre-hospital extrication and spinal immobilisation solution for motorsport.
Specially designed to access restricted areas like the cockpit of a racing car the SPED is designed to quickly and safety extract and recover a driver from a vehicle after an accident.
We think drivers like Lord Drayson, who risk their lives to bring us motorsport entertainment, need to have the very best equipment and protocols in place to ensure no further injury or trauma takes place if an accident happens.
We hope in the future the Ferno SPED’s development will ensure a safer means of extrication for all – watch this space.
The Ferno team had a great time at the record-breaking event and like in most cases we did not see our products in use, thankfully.
See more pictures on our Facebook page.