Colder weather brings the E-Spider
A Country Park in Kent has become the first in the UK where you can get behind the wheel of an off-road electric vehicle called the E-Spider. The French engineer Pascal Rambaud has made this incredible 4X4 that can handle all kinds of terrain thanks to its tilting design based on a pendulum. Rhys Griffiths from Kent online was sent to put the e-spider through its paces…
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Barely minutes into my first time behind the wheel of this rather funny-looking car, I burst out laughing, a grin spread a mile wide across my face.
I was expecting to enjoy my afternoon thrashing this nimble little off-road ride around the expanses of Betteshanger’s parkland near Deal. But I had absolutely no idea it would be this much fun.
The brainchild of Frenchman Pascal Rambaud, the SWINCAR e-Spider is designed to handle whatever you can throw at it across all kinds of terrain.
While I am chuckling maniacally to myself I am also getting a better and better feel for what this machine can do.
It’s battery-powered, with motors sending power independently to all four of its rugged wheels with just the slightest push of my thumb on the throttle.
Mike Rushton, who acquired the licence to bring the vehicles to the UK and runs the operation at Betteshanger, explains the cars are better suited to rougher, looser surfaces rather than asphalt. And he’s not wrong. Once you start to feel more confident with the handling and the power being fed to the four wheels, you’ll soon be planting it into corners on gravel tracks and feeling the whole thing go sideways as you emerge in a cloud of dust.
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Since the 4x4s first became available for the public to drive, Mike says the reaction has been universally positive from those who have given it a go.
“Anybody who’s been on it has just walked off with a massive smile on their face,” he said.
“I don’t think we’ve had a single person get off yet and go, ‘I don’t like that’. Everybody loves it.”
My hour or two spent thrashing around the countryside in the nippy little e-Spider showed me exactly why people are loving the hour-long tours Mike and his team run through the park. Our route takes us through a whole host of different landscapes, weaving through trees one moment, racing across open hills the next.
The e-Spider takes it all in its stride, full throttle and you just eat up the ground. An added bonus is you can enjoy all the thrills and spills a petrol-head could wish for, but with none of the environmental impact.
READ MORE ABOUT THE E-SPIDER HERE
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