NXT Gen steps up production

The NXT Gen Cup, which races cars based on the electric Mini Cooper SE road car, has stepped up its production to 20 cars for this season, which starts at the Swedish Falkenberg track in July.

It is the first 100 per cent electric junior Touring Car cup, and the cars are bring prepared at the Lestrup Racing Team facility in Sweden.

‘We received 20 new bodyshells in October last year from the Mini plant in Oxford, UK, and we are working at full capacity to turn these into the LRT NXT1 racecars,’ says Fredrik Lestrup, co-founder of the series.

‘The development phase is focused on a wide array of areas such as battery performance under intense race conditions, tyre performance and general durability. We have put thousands of kilometres on the prototypes, work that will continue alongside the production phase, as well as during the racing season to continuously improve the cars.’

The cars are powered by a 30kWh battery with an electric, liquidcooled motor that produces around 230bhp, according to which circuit it races on. The front-wheel drive cars also feature a push-to-pass function and are said to be able to complete 20 minute races at full pace thanks to the battery development.