On tonight’s Jay Leno Show, Drew Barrymore becomes the first celebrity to get behind the wheel of a tricked-out, track-ready, all-electric Ford Focus. It’s all part of the new “Green Car Challenge” segment which pits celebrities against each other in a bid to record the fastest times. The Leno crew even built a specially-designed racetrack outside the studio to handle the vehicles.
And standard cars, these are not. From Automobilemag:
In addition to swapping out powertrains, Ford put in Recaro racing seats complete with five-point harnesses to hold the celebrities in place and installed a full roll cage to keep them safe should they manage to roll the vehicle. Ford also swapped out the rear springs to deal with the extra heft of the batteries. Incredibly, the engineers only needed six-weeks to build Leno’s electric Focus.
A roll cage? Whoa. Who want to bet the legal sign-off on this race is a few pages thick? The engineers were probably thinking something like, “Let’s say Gary Busey gets behind the wheel of this car…”
The Jay Leno Show rolls this evening at 10PM EST.
via Treehugger
About Michael dEstries
Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.View all posts by Michael dEstries →
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