On a mission to prove the potential of renewable energy sources in racing applications, a team of Australian engineers have set out to develop the world’s quickest and fastest electric-powered dragster, capable of running speeds and elapsed times on par with modern Top Fuel dragsters.

The TOP EV dragster will utilize a solar-charged electric motor delivering what the team, headed up by project engineer Michael Fragomeni, estimates to be in the neighborhood of 2,500 horsepower equivalency. This, they believe, will push the dragster to quarter-mile passes in under five seconds at over 300 mph. Whether that kind of power can press them toward the four-second zone is debatable, but could easily deliver five-second, 200 mph numbers akin to today’s more potent Top Dragsters.

Fragomeni and his team, which includes engineers, aerodynamicists, fabricators, and robotics experts, among others, have spent over five years developing the Top EV dragster, known as ‘Arc’d Up’, in an effort to disprove the theory that only internal combustion, supercharged, nitro-burning dragsters can deliver earth-rotating numbers.

Fragomeni, along with his role as project manager and lead engineer, will also pilot the dragster, with an initial goal of breaking the existing electric vehicle land speed record — with intentions of doing so not on a several-mile course, but on a quarter-mile drag strip.

We’ll have more information on this project as details become available.

Photos credit: Top EV Racing