Automotive

Aspark Owl electric supercar records blistering 1.89-second 0-62 sprint

Aspark Owl electric supercar records blistering 1.89-second 0-62 sprint
Aspark Owl: this Japanese supercapacitor car project has just recorded an absurd 1.89 second sprint time from 0-100kmh (0-62 mph)
Aspark Owl: this Japanese supercapacitor car project has just recorded an absurd 1.89 second sprint time from 0-100kmh (0-62 mph)
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Aspark Owl: frame is beyond basic
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Aspark Owl: frame is beyond basic
Aspark Owl: carbon body prototype
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Aspark Owl: carbon body prototype
Aspark Owl: sub-2 seconds to freeway speed
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Aspark Owl: sub-2 seconds to freeway speed
Aspark Owl: top speed is around 288 km/h
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Aspark Owl: top speed is around 288 km/h
Aspark Owl: won't accelerate this fast one street tires
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Aspark Owl: won't accelerate this fast one street tires
Aspark Owl: funky interior is planned
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Aspark Owl: funky interior is planned
Aspark Owl: digital dash and a steering wheel that has more buttons than a 90s stereo
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Aspark Owl: digital dash and a steering wheel that has more buttons than a 90s stereo
Aspark Owl: built for the sprint, not top speed
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Aspark Owl: built for the sprint, not top speed
Aspark Owl: batteries and supercapacitors combine to produce blistering acceleration
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Aspark Owl: batteries and supercapacitors combine to produce blistering acceleration
Aspark Owl: this Japanese supercapacitor car project has just recorded an absurd 1.89 second sprint time from 0-100kmh (0-62 mph)
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Aspark Owl: this Japanese supercapacitor car project has just recorded an absurd 1.89 second sprint time from 0-100kmh (0-62 mph)
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How much does a couple of hundredths of a second cost? Somewhere in excess of US$4 million, it would seem, as this Japanese supercapacitor supercar fractionally out-accelerates an upcoming Tesla Roadster worth less than 1/20th the price.

As EV genius Luke Workman once told us, electric vehicles have virtually limitless performance potential. "Your tire to street interface is your performance limiter," he said, and that's the first thing that came to mind when we saw the Aspark Owl blast onto the scene.

The Owl is a spartan electric sports car from Japan, and using an enhanced tire-to-street interface, it's just recorded a 1.89-second 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint.

That's a hundredth or two quicker than the purported 1.9-second 0-60 mph time on the upcoming Tesla Roadster, but to be fair, the Aspark team used hot race tires to get there.

The Owl itself looks like barely more than a drivetrain, a hastily assembled frame and a carbon fiber shell at the moment. And the test track where the feat was recorded wasn't even a test track at all. The Aspark team appears to have done it in the parking lot of an industrial estate, in pretty cramped quarters.

Aspark Owl: carbon body prototype
Aspark Owl: carbon body prototype

In a Facebook video released yesterday, the driver hits the gas, chirps off the line, hits triple digit kilometers in around 27 meters (88 ft) and then slams on the brakes to stop himself running into a vertical cliff face not much further in front of him. Watch the video here.

Still, as if we needed any more proof of how fast electric sports cars will be, a 1.89 second sprint will represent the quickest production car on the road if Aspark isn't gazumped by the time the Owl goes to production in around 2 years. And as these guys point out, acceleration is all that really counts on the road, where you'll humiliate any Lambo or Koenigsegg up to the speed limit and just have to sit there like everyone else.

The company is hoping to build 50 units, with gullwing doors, a fully digital dash, a steering wheel that has more buttons than a 90s stereo, a total weight of 850 kg (1,874 lb), a maximum power output of 320 kW (429 hp) and 764 Nm (563 lb-ft) of torque.

Aspark Owl: digital dash and a steering wheel that has more buttons than a 90s stereo
Aspark Owl: digital dash and a steering wheel that has more buttons than a 90s stereo

It'll be a 300-volt, 2,000 amp 4WD system powered by a combination of supercapacitors and batteries with an as yet unknown capacity or range. The price tag will be somewhere over US$4 million each.

Would we buy one? Heavens no. The Tesla Roadster is gonna start at $200 grand, and it'll have four seats, a huge range and will function as a very good actual automobile while only giving up a hundredth of a second or so in the sprint. In our experience, any sub-three second 0-100 time is more than enough to truly horrify most passengers. Sub-two seconds... Put it this way, make sure your mum's been drinking lots of milk before you try to show her what your Owl can do. She'll need the bone strength.

And anyway, at the rate these sprint times are coming down in the electric age, you might as well wait two years and buy something that'll get you up to freeway speed before you're finished blinking, with an on-call medical team ready to scrape your G-force-liquefied physical form out of the driver's seat so the next person can enjoy it. Why do things by halves?

Here's a cheesy CAD video for your enjoyment.

Source: Aspark

【PV】ASPARK OWL (All Date based on intial specifications)

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6 comments
6 comments
Michael Wilson
Welp, its little more than a chassis and some motors, so its little more than vaporware right now. But its cool looking, fast accelerating vaporware. I can't wait to see more. I love the styling of this vehicle. I'm not sure if this is what they were going for, but it reminds me of the old anime series gatcha-man.
Thijmen
Maybe we will see maximum acceleration speeds to be enforced additional to speed limits in the future? One might argue that accelerating too quickly could impose dangers as it might be difficult for others to grasp how a 2s to 100 car behaves.
Gizmowiz
I can see the future with EV performance cars using super powerful fan motors to supplement the maximum tire traction to get more forceful acceleration......Could shorten times by a few tenths and allow them to go airborne as well !!
BobMunck
"G-force-liquefied"
I get 1½ gees. That's not going to liquefy even a tub of Jell-O.
Martin Hone
Hardly a production car record when the thing is way off being produced. And at $4m does it even rate as 'production' ? Looking at the chassis there is going to be a lot of extra weight being added to achieve any sort of street registration. I call it BS. And where is the video of which you speak Lozenge ?
Bob
I am real curious what the consequences of wrecking an electric car will be. Shorting out batteries of several hundred volts should be quite spectacular along with the spilling of toxic chemicals. Nothing like electrocuting the passengers or the first responders who try to rescue them. I wonder how many fire departments have insulated and acid proof rescue gear?