New record and honours for Eva

Kiwi electric streamliner motorcycle racer Eva Hakansson has set an Australian land speed record above 200mph (321km/h).

She earned a “red hat” from Dry Lakes Racers Australia (DLRA) at Lake Gairdner in South Australia for that, and the “Fastest Lady of the Lake” trophy for hitting 236.546mph (380.6km/h) during Speed Week on March 4-8.

So she will have plenty to talk about as a guest speaker at the Electric Vehicle Expo in Melbourne on March 16.

Hakansson of Auckland, New Zealand, says she could have gone much faster in her electric racer Killajoule but for a crosswind pushing her to the left of the 12-mile (19.3km) track, risking running over the last set of functioning timing equipment (the rest were taken out by an electrical storm).

“I made an executive decision at mile four that 236mph was fast enough for this time and I aborted the run. Keeping the shiny side up is always my number one priority,” Hakansson says.

The DLRA this year introduced a change from one pass records to two-run average speed records which have to be set over the same mile.

Hakansson says that meant a significantly slower time than her fastest measured mile. The result was a new Australian record at 216.199mph (347.938km/h) instead of something in the 226mph (363km/h) range, she says.

“But, it is still a record and I am happy as a clam.”

The Killajoule team also tested Hakansson’s “KiWieel” racing wheel being developed with the University of Auckland where she lectures in mechanical engineering.

The solid non-pneumatic wheel designed to avoid high-speed shredding worked well when tested on all three wheel positions (including the stabilising wing).

Adding the KiWieel to the rear for a last test run provided some dramas though.

“The traction forward was great and it accelerated like it was on its rubber tyre, but the lateral stability was quite poor, so I was sliding back and forth like a pig on ice,” Hakannson says.

“I aborted the run at 100mph, went back to the pits, and things were to get even more interesting.”

Half the rear aluminium fender was missing and was found rolled up on the track with the KiWieel’s rubber nubs’ tracks showing on the inside.

Hakannson says that had she run over it with the normal pneumatic tyre it would likely have been cut open and blown up, sending Killajoule airborne or sliding on its side.

“This clearly shows the increased safety of the non-pneumatic tyres, and definitely crowned this week’s experience.”

The nine-year-old Killajoule has now been retired from racing and work will start on its successor Green Envy which will have KiWieels, Hakansson says.

Depending on fundraising, she hopes to return to Speed Week with the new electric motorcycle next year, adding that the overall motorcycle record is waiting to be beaten by an electric vehicle.

Killajoule is likely to be kept for display.