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The Wrightspeed SR-71

By Ed on May 27th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
The Wrightspeed SR-71

Picture of Wrightspeed SR-71 electric car

When I first saw the Tesla Roadster, I wanted one.  The Lotus styling, the Ferrari-like speed, the George Clooney - like social awareness….  It looked like the perfect sports car.  Of course Tesla has had their share of issues, and to get on the list you have to plunk down $100k and wait your turn, which could be upwards of a year.

But I knew the Tesla was only the beginning.  The fact that an electric car is capable of acceleration that most fossil-fueled vehicles can only dream of, means that we are going to see some incredible performance coming from fairly inexpensive cars in the near future.  I really think that within 10 years we will see some amazing cars for under $40 that can do 0 - 60 in under 5 seconds.

Adding to that theory is the Wrightspeed SR-71, the newest model from Wrightspeed, Inc. The SR-71 can supposedly go from 0 - 60 MPH in 2.5 seconds!  I can only imagine how much fun this thing is to drive.  The video below shows the Wrightspeed SR-71 easily besting a Ferrari 360 Spyder and Porsche Carrera GT, both of which cost over twice as much as the SR-71.

Wrightspeed says they may have a street-legal version SR-71 in 36 months. 3 years is a long time to wait, but obviously they are not the only horse coming out of the gate.  I expect to see a lot of great new companies trying to take advantage of the lack of innovation from the big automakers and release great cars.

I like the formula that Tesla capitalized on; build a small sports car that’s not cheap, and is very fast.  Targeting the Porsche buyers of the country is a great start to getting rid of our fossil fuel dependency.  But I’m also interested to see how Whitestar does.

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One Response to “The Wrightspeed SR-71”

  1. while the street legal version of the sr-71 is released, the wrightspeed is already on the street:
    here around the streets of SanFrancisco
    http://www.clubofpioneers.com/blog/video-the-x1-by-wrightspeed—a-test-drive-with-ian-wright-battery-bev-electric-car-ian-wright-wrightspeed-x1/27/stories/631/

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