This post is an excerpt of an article from Popular Mechanics. You can read the full post on their website. Written by Tyghe Trimble.

At the 8 ½-mile mark, Jim Campbell is at the head of the pack, in control of the race. The two-time defending champion has every reason to be confident—he knows the course inside and out, he owns the most time-tested vehicle and he still has a few tricks to pull out, including a parasail, which on this windy day could be a potent weapon. But when he grabs his remote control to adjust the speed, Campbell, his boat and its cargo—400 pounds of lead-acid batteries—suddenly stop.

“I think my nylon gear picked up static when rubbing against the plastic hull of the canoe and my electronics died,” he says. Campbell does the only thing he can—he whips out his emergency jumpers and charges 12 volts back into both of his motors. Then he adjusts his speed, dropping from about 4 knots (4.5 mph) to just less than 3 knots (3.3 mph). The race is no longer a sure win.

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The GreenGT was designed specifically for kicking butt at the 24 hours of Le Mans.

With 400 hp and a top speed of 171 mph, the electric race car concept pushes 1,475 lb-ft of torque up to 100 mph then drops it to 590 lb-ft for high-speed traction. All this and it’s powered by two 30kW lithium-ion batteries charged by flexcell photovoltaic solar panels.

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As we’ve reported over the last few weeks, sometimes electric-powered drag racing can break boundaries in exciting new ways. The electric motorbike that rockets from 0-60mph in under a second, and a 1972 Datsun that just happens to be the world’s (second) fastest elecric car spring to mind.

Sometimes though, EV face-offs on the drag track are just well…daft. Check out this hilarious footage of the recent Alternative Fuel Race 2009 in the UK featuring electric skateboards and battery-powered dune buggies.

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History was made this past weekend at the 24 Hours of Electricross race when 10 teams, of over 50 competitors, raced for a full-24-hours-straight only stopping to change out batteries and riders.

This first ever endurance competition set two Guinness World Records: one for largest electric motorcycle race, and the other for the furthest distance traveled on an all-electric off-road motorcycle in 24 hours. In total, more than 4,000 miles were completed around the half-mile track.

Amazingly, only $100 of electricity was needed to power all ten motorcycles!

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Think a Ferrari is fast? Watch one get schooled below.

Electric cars are no joke. Yes, it’s true that many EVs are small, ungainly-looking oddities, but the other end of the spectrum—the realm of high-performance supercars—might surprise you.

After re-discovering a 1972 electric datsun that can accelerate from 0-60 in 3 seconds, we decided that an important question hadn’t really been answered yet:  how do the electric cars we’ve been hearing so much about stack up in terms of performance?

Below, we’ve listed the world’s top 10 fastest electric cars, based on the best available information (and a little creative license). Note that our criteria does not take into account a variety of important factors like charging time, availability, and cost. All cars are simply ranked by the time it takes them to get from 0-60 mph.

Most of the machines shown here are either not available or otherwise out out of the realm of possibility for most, but then again, so are most high-performance gas-powerd cars.  And that doesn’t keep us from admiring them. Please keep in mind that this post is not intended to be the final word on this topic.

Btw, if you’re interested in joining the first mailing list dedicated to bulk purchasing electric cars, check it out (you can also get cheap solar there too).

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Describing some of the future challenges that will be faced by global manufacturers such as General Motors, Bob lamented the fact that auto racing – a sport with the potential to inspire significant innovation through competition – has become so tightly regulated in order to prevent teams from gaining significant advantages, that from a manufacturer’s perspective it provides little benefit beyond pure marketing.

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A summer full of record gas prices has changed the automotive landscape forever, with changing consumer demands and buying habits forcing automakers to quickly bring more fuel-efficient vehicles to market ahead of larger, less-efficient trucks and SUVs.

These changes have also brought issues of energy conservation and environmental responsibility from the “back-burner” to the very forefront of future car design — but one question that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media is how these changes will affect car enthusiasts who usually care more about horsepower and acceleration than economy and emissions.

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The top tier car racing sport has jumped the gun by adding green stripes to plain ol’ Bridgestone tires for their upcoming race.

Formula One racing announced that cars in the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix will have green striping on their tires to represent “going green.” Currently, there is nothing green about the hyper-horsepower vehicles nor the tires themselves, but the cars do have a remodel coming in the near-future.

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Following a freeze on engine development, Formula 1 teams are going hybrid from 2009 - additional power output can only be delivered by recovering kinetic energy under braking and releasing at again under acceleration. Whilst hybrid technology is widely proven in road cars, there are challenges in implementing a system that can fulfil the ultra competitive demands of Formula 1, with teams looking to build systems capable of delivering an additional 60 horsepower whilst weighing less than 35 kilograms.

Accidents

These challenges were aptly demonstrated recently after the Red Bull Formula 1 team factory was evacuated for 2 hours as fire crews dealt with a lithium battery explosion. Following this incident, a BMW team mechanic was hospitalised having received an electric shock from the body of a BMW hybrid Formula 1 car on its return to the pits following a test run.

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And maybe hybrid technology is the key?

Today, twenty of the fastest cars on Earth will line up at the start of round 7 of the Formula 1 World Championship at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, to do battle for the biggest prize in world motor sport.

Capable of accelerating to 200 mph, and coming back to a complete standstill 12 seconds flat, a modern F1 car represents the pinnacle of automotive technology, precisely the reason that big name Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda have entered the sport as constructors in recent years.

Formula 1 has never been cheap - even the smallest teams have annual budgets in excess of $100 million to field two cars - but considering the resources available to the new Japanese teams, who are rumoured to have spent almost $2 billion between them on F1 in the past four years, one might expect a good chance of the Japanese national anthem being played when the constructors trophy is handed out this afternoon.

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The X1 prototype: Faster Than Your Average Ferrari.

Most of the time I like to profile cars we might actually get the chance to drive, but it never hurts take a look at the forefront of technology. Enter the X1 prototype, an open-canopy electric vehicle that meets somewhere between go-cart and Indy-500 race car.

Think electric vehicles can’t hack it? They don’t all look like golf carts, and they sure as hell don’t all poke around under 65 mph: The X1 was just featured in a series of Mythbusters’ tests where it beat a Ferrari in a quarter-mile race (see MythBuster: Why Electric Vehicles Beat Gas in 5 Extreme Tests).

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It’s not quite the same type of hybrid drive-train you’d see in street vehicles, but in an exciting announcement, Max Mosely of F1 has announced that all cars will become hybrid by 2013, along with other changes to the vehicles.

The hybrid system that will be phased in is known as KERS, which stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. KERS doesn’t store as much energy as a traditional hybrid system, but it only weighs 55 pounds and the limited energy storage capacity is well suited for Formula-style racing.

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Image source: Nordvik

According to AutoBlogGreen there is currently a bit of buzz surrounding the possibility that Toyota will enter a hybrid into the 2009 LeMans race. They’ve already missed the deadline if they wanted to enter a hybrid in 2008, but since they’re in it to win it, it appears that they will wait until 2009 in order to enter a vehicle with every chance of winning.

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The conclusion of our planes, trains and automobiles race across Europe. (Read Part II)

With the Green Team finally on their way towards England, the Blue Team about to miss the boat and the Red team fuming in traffic the competition is heating up.

16:40 – Red Team, M3, South of London

After almost an hour of solid traffic we’re moving again, but its slow going. The frustration of hours of endless queuing and shuffling around is now starting to take its toll. The heavy dose of air fresher that was obviously applied to the interior of my hire-car is starting to succumb to the natural odours of its previous occupant, which does nothing for my mood.

17:10 – Blue Team, Port of Calais, France

Sipping afternoon tea in the Club Lounge on P&O Ferries’ Pride of Dover as we set sail for England. I made the ferry with seconds to spare and I’m some way behind the Reds, but it’s not over yet. Time to enjoy the one hour crossing and have a break from driving.

17:34 – Green Team, Channel Tunnel

Making real progress now as the Eurostar enters the channel tunnel. In under an hour we’ll be in London and we’re catching up with the Red Team. Somewhere on the water above us the Blue team are slowly streaming across the channel whilst we speed through the tunnel – that feels good.

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With the Red Team grounded in Zürich whilst our eco-racers make their way steadily through France things are looking bleak for air travel.

11.45 - Red Team, Zürich Airport (still)

Finally I am sitting in seat 27B, sandwiched between a large gentleman and a fidgety young boy. To my mounting frustration the captain apologizes for the delay in boarding due to bad weather on the inbound flight from London this morning, and tells us that we won’t be taking off for another 45 minutes due to air traffic congestion – a common problem on this route, which will get worse as passenger numbers increase.

12.00 - Blue Team, Somewhere in Eastern France

The scenery in this part of the country is fantastic with the Autoroute representing a roller coaster, rising and falling through the hills, twisting and turning through meadows and forests with dramatic cliffs in the background. For the driving enthusiast this is a treat.

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High speed trains, jet engines, or solid German engineering? What gets you there faster, in more style and with less stress? There is only one way to find out.

Air travel is widely regarded as the bad boy of the green world, yet it is essential for many of us who must regularly travel due to work, family or other commitments. Therefore the airplane is frequently seen as the only option for international travel.

However, airlines in Europe are coming under increasing pressure from the train as a viable means of long distance travel. In France and Germany the TGV and ICE rail networks are providing stiff competition to airlines on many routes, offering reduced check-in, security and boarding formalities, fewer delays and direct connections between city centres.

Travelling at speeds in excess of 300kmh, these services are encroaching on what has until now been the plane’s primary advantage – speed. Recent upgrades to the Paris to London Eurostar service bring the journey time down to little over 2 hours, and passengers generate less than 1 tenth of the Co2 than they would travelling by air.

But just how realistic is the rail alternative in practice? And how does it stack up against that icon of the industrial age, the automobile? The only way to find out is to pit each against the other in a head to head race across the continent.

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Take, for instance, this Formula One racing car hiding underneath the Earth paint job. The average new car emits about 170 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. Honda's Earth Car will emit at least 1,500 grams per km as it speeds around the 17-race calendar this year. Not only that, but beyond encouraging people to reduce consumption, Honda isn't setting any new environmental standards for its racing fleet. No use of biofuels, no commitment to recycling, no solar panels for housing, nada. Visit their "Earth Car" site and you'll find lots of things that YOU can do to help the planet, but nothing spelled out as to what Honda is doing in return. Sure, they make hybrids and offer a link to their Environmentology site, but if you're going to put together a campaign, at least focus on some initiatives that back what you're preaching. Even offsetting every race would have been a start. Instead, we're left with a car that looks really cool buzzing by at 150mph, but fails to reflect the green image it's attempting to inspire. In place of driving, perhaps Honda should walk the walk.

Source: Crickey!

4. L1X-75: 0-60 in 3.1 Seconds

The carbon-fiber, 600hp L1X-75 is a confusing case because we’re not sure it really exists. Apparently, Popular Mechanics writers discovered it at the 2007 New York auto show, quoting pickup of 0-60 in 3.1s and a top speed of 175 mph. They even had a video to prove it, which is (sadly) no longer available.

According to Motor Authority, the car was developed as a joint venture between Hybrid Technologies Inc. and Mullen Motor Company, which makes a gasoline version ranked as the 7th fastest American production car.

But if you take a look at the Hybrid Technologies website, all you’ll find is something called the LiV RUSH, which would be knocked off this list for taking 5s to get to 60mph. Mullen Motor’s website shows a GTEV with 0-60mph acceleration time of 4.5s.

If you know what happened to this car, please let us know. Otherwise, I’m going to exercise my creative license and leave this phantom at #4.

5. AC Propulsion tzero Roadster: 0-60 mph in 3.6s

The tzero (pronounced  tee-zero) only needs 200 horsepower to rocket from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, due to a light-weight body. Built by San Dimas, CA-based AC Propulsion, the car has apparently owned both Porsche 911s and Corvettes, and even a Ferrari F355 in 1/8-mile drag race.

AC Propulsion has apparently manufactured the car since 1997, starting with lead-acid batteries and then moving to lithium-ion which extended the range from 100 to about 300 miles per charge.

Don’t expect to see this one on the street:  it’s a $220,000 prototype that probably won’t ever be more than a proof-of-concept.

6. Tesla Roadster: 0-60 mph in 3.9s

Tesla has been the darling of electric car afficionados for some time, mostly because they’ve produced a great car that is both available and, to some, affordable. Even though the Roadster’s top speed is electronically limited at 125 mph, it’s great to see it make a strong showing on this list with an acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds.

Besides the roadster, Tesla has a sedan in the works (the Model S), which just debuted last week.

Check out the 248 peak horsepower output in this video (thanks Huddler):

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7. Eliica: 0-60 mph in 4s

While it looks like something out of a bad scifi movie, the Eliica—even with 8 wheels—accelerates faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo. The Eliica (which stands for Electric Lithium-Ion Car) was built by a team at Keio University in Tokyo under the direction of the inventor, Hiroshi Shimizu.

Looks aren’t everything: the 640 hp eight-wheel drive hits 60 mph in 4 seconds and has been clocked at Italy’s Nardò High Speed Track at an impressive 230 mph. Under the right conditions, the Eliica team claims it could clear 250 mph.

Don’t expect to see this one anywhere. Price tag: $255,000 US

NEXT: 8. Rinspeed iChange: 0-60 mph in 4s:

8. Rinspeed iChange: 0-60 mph in 4s

This is another concept car we profiled recently. Debuting at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show, the Rinspeed iChange has the unique distinction of actually being able to change it’s body shape to suit passengers numbers.

More importantly, it looks pretty badass, and can accelerate from 0-62 mph in just over four seconds, with a top speed of 137 mph. For more detail: Rinspeed iChange EV Changes Shape To Suit Passenger Numbers

9. Tango: 0-60 mph in 4s

Let me cut you off: I don’t believe it either. How can something that looks like this ever be taken seriously? Commuter Cars, the manufacturer of this vehicle, claims in all seriousness that this is the ‘world’s fastest urban car’.

Statistically speaking–if you take their word for it–this is true: 0-60mph in 4s and a top speed of 120mph. I’m not sure how this thing would bank sharp turns, though the company website said the Nascar roll cage is designed for 200mph crashes.

And yes, they do exist. George Clooney has one. Check out some really low-quality video here.

And check out everything you wanted to know in this 24-minute video:

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10. Dodge Circuit EV: 0-60 in under 5s

This may be one of the more controversial cars on the list: the Dodge Circuit EV has been called little more than a re-badged Lotus toy, since it’s actually a retooled Lotus Europa. It’s also been called by our very own Jo Borras a “marketing exercise (at best) and a con (at worst).”

Whether that’s true or not, the prototype has a 268 hp electric that produces 480 lb-ft of torque and a reported top speed fo 120 mph.

The Circuit appeared at the 2009 Detroit auto show and could portend future electric models in Chrysler’s lineup (but don’t quote us on this).

Bonus: How does a High-performance Plug-in Hybrid Compare?

11. Fisker Karma: 0-60 in 5.8s

We wouldn’t feel good about keeping Fisker’s Karma, the highly-anticipated and high-performance plug-in hybrid, off the list. The Karma is really only a different beast in terms of range and recharging, since plug-in hybrids use an onboard generator to recharge their batteries.

So how does it compare? The Karma has two modes to accommodate different driving styles. It will do 0-60 in 5.8 seconds in ‘Sport Mode,’ with a top speed of 125 mph. In the more economical ‘Stealth Mode’ will hit 60mph only after 7.5 seconds and top speed of 95 mph.

That’s it! What did we forget?

Here’s the whole gallery: