Community Corner
Oceanside's Revolt Systems Powers America's Fastest Electric Car
Team Vesco's "Little Giant" became America's fastest electric vehicle on October 1 when it reached 353.87 MPH at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
OCEANSIDE, CA — Revolt Systems and Moon Buggy Engineering of Oceanside helped convert the Little Giant electric vehicle motor to take the record for the fastest in America last Friday.
Team Vesco’s “Little Giant” became America's fastest electric vehicle when it reached 353.87 MPH National Electric Vehicle Category 3 Record on October 1, while competing at the Bonneville Salt Flats’ SCTA World Finals. Team Vesco is led by Little Giant owner Rick Vesco and powered by Oceanside companies Revolt Systems owned by Eddy Borysewicz, and Moon Buggy Engineering owned by Trenton Wonsley. Team Vesco unequivocally demonstrated to motorsports and enthusiasts that innovative electric vehicle technology is here to stay.
Borysewicz, Wonsley and their talented team converted Vesco’s Little Giant 444 car using a high output electric drive system with reconfigured and enhanced Tesla based motors and 1,152 prismatic lithium-ion batteries. This is the first dual Tesla motor configuration used in a streamliner to date. “We are thrilled to partner with Team Vesco who are icons in the racing community, they represent excellence and integrity both on the track and in the pit, and today’s achievement is a testament to their trust in what our team set out to accomplish,” said Borysewicz.
Wonsley also reflected “we’re pushing the boundaries of what is really early battery technology by sourcing a unique chemistry for a peak power response. What we learned during August’s Speed Week when the electric Little Giant first debuted shaped how we redeveloped the technology to ultimately change the competition in land speed racing and produce speeds higher than both the current national and world records.”
Team Vesco’s driver Eric Ritter out of New York is an exclusive member of the 300 MPH Chapter of Bonneville’s prestigious “200 MPH Club.” The Little Giant 444’s first record with Ritter came in 2012 at 339.339 miles an hour and he has personally topped over 430 MPH on the salt flats. “The torque curve is just so unreal to drive. It stayed hooked up the whole run and with a 2 1/4-mile time at over 303 mph it was like being a test pilot on a sled rail. I never thought I would be doing record runs in a Tesla powered race car, but I am definitely hearing 400 mph calling my name and a tour with Mr. Elon at the factory,” describes Ritter.
Team Vesco is a family race team that began with Rick’s father John Vesco back in 1933. “Our whole crew delivered a state-of-the-art car that performed beyond our expectations,” Said Vesco. Members of the Vesco family have been coming out to Bonneville’s Speed Week since 1949 and have set dozens of records. Vesco continues “this is our first with an electric vehicle! It always feels great to see our dedication, experience and hundreds of labor hours result in the speeds we saw today, it doesn’t get much better than that.” Their other land speed vehicle, the Turbinator II powered by a turbine engine is the fastest wheel driven car in the world. In 2018 it reached a top speed of 503 MPH.
Conversion team members also include Drew Char, Gregg Snowden, and Jake Boldt. Sponsorship from: Greg Peek, Al Vershave (AVS Fabrication), and Nick Katrov (NDK Paragon) and Doug Courton Tier 4 solar.
