Eva Håkansson holds the fastest ever FIM world speed record for a female motorcycle rider at 248.721 mph (400.278 km/h), with a one-way top speed of 270 mph (434 km/h). She is a mechanical engineer and the main builder of her electric streamliner motorcycle the "KillaJoule", which also is the world's fastest electric motorcycle.
Despite an obsession with everything fast, it is not the need for speed that is Eva's main drive, as strange as it may sound. She has a mission in her life: To show that eco-friendly electric vehicles don't have to be slow, and that engineering is a great career choice for women. She also loves building stuff that has never been built before.
Eva has a PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Denver, Colorado, USA. As her day job, Eva teaches mechanical engineering, CAD, and engineering drafting at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
More about Eva
Happy Holidays!
If you haven’t received our traditional holiday card (real card, printed on real paper), it is not because you have been particularly naughty or ridden your motorcycle too fast. It…
New home for the KillaCycle at the Forney Museum in Denver, Colorado
The KillaCycle – still the world’s quickest electric motorcycle with 0-60 mph in less than 1 second – has now found a new home at the Forney Museum of Transportation…
Even bigger news: New job, new country, new bike!
Some of you knew it was coming, some of you suspected it, but I can finally let the cat out of the bag: I have been hired as a faculty…
Big news, BIG 3D print! (New sidecar cowling being 3D printed….)
New sidecar cowling for the KillaJoule. See how we did it in this 2-minute video. The giant spool of filament is from Pushplastic.Com. Printer parts were bought from IT-Works 3D.…
Flying in the air vs. Flying on the ground (a.k.a. land speed racing)
5.8 hours (yes, you count your flight time in 1/10th of hours) into my private pilot certificate training I am starting to be less terrified and enjoying it more. Today…
“Batteries Included” – KillaJoule featured on Engineering.com
Woo-hoo! KillaJoule made engineering.com! 🙂 Very nice article by Roopinder Tara. He particularly enjoyed being squeezed into the KillaJoule and having the seat belts tightened until he couldn’t breath anymore.…
3D printed sidecar cowling!
You may have seen glimpses of a giant 3D printer on my Facebook page, and someone asked where we bought it. Well, we didn’t buy it, we built it! 🙂…
Follow me on social media during the off-season!
You may have noticed that this page is not being updated much during the winter and spring. The land speed racing season is very short at Bonneville – only August…
Nominated for “Female Racer of the Year” and “Athlete of the Year” by AMA (make sure to vote!)
Update: Well, I didn’t win, but it was certainly fun being nominated. Perhaps I will have better luck next year. ————————- Wow, I am nominated by the American Motorcyclist Association…
Cory Cootware – youngest “record holder” at Bonneville?
Cory Cootware may be the youngest record holder in the history of Bonneville. At the age of 8, he drove his ethanol powered go-kart at the Utah Salt Flats Racing…