While Goodwood is a lot shorter than that the ID . R still flourished ... accelerating almost frighteningly quickly and posting a time of 43.86 seconds ... which was the fastest ever set by an electric vehicle at the festival . So how did that stack up against the petrol pacers ? Well , it was only a couple of seconds off the outright record set back in 1999 ... posted by F1 driver Nick Heidfeld in a McLaren MP4 F1 race car . Astonishing , so yeah , Volkswagen and the other builders all making things with pug-in sockets have apparently discovered the speed of light . It ’ s the aspects of longevity and maintenance that I suspect are the issues which still need to be addressed and conquered . An electric car at that pace might handle four laps at Pukekohe but there ’ s no way it could be driven from there to Taupo . But hey , one thing at a time I guess . I suspect , though , that the designers will eventually do what some Japanese auto makers did when building models with a sporting touch to them . They created exhaust systems that
would accentuate the sporting sound . Drivers , riders , like a finely tuned sound . So just how the next generation of Harley- Davidson devotees will take to the incoming line of what the Milwaukee chaps are dubbing the ‘ LiveWire ’ is anyone ’ s guess . Probably fair to say that again , time will tell as the longer such examples of motorcycling are out and about the more the embracing process will inevitably increase . While still to be convinced that the fuel that operates the lamp in my den of infamy should take over the stuff I use to run engines and poison tree stumps , I am impressed by the design of the LiveWire . It looks very , very sharp ... and very , very European . Yep , I like the look of it . And the sleek looks are unencumbered by what , in many cases today , can be bulky and often ungainly exhausting systems . But I ’ d probably bolt a four into one on one side anyway , and install air slots somewhere that created a sharp but subtle howl . Old habits die hard .