Image: AmadeusPhotography.com

We had the good fortune of hanging out with motorcycle visionary Michael Czysz in Oregon back in 2004 when as he lead the MotoCzysz charge to redesign and re-envision a MotoGP bike, but recent efforts have taken him in a more electrifying directions with the MotoCzysz E1pc. Given Czysz’s history you know it will be a performer, which it will have to be as the E1pc is racing the Isle of Man TT today.

The numbers are enough to make the most avid petrol-head take notice; 240 lb-ft of torque (2.5 times that of a Ducati 1198’s 97lb-ft or 131.4Nm), an oil-cooled motor generating 100 continuous horsepower, and a custom-built swap-in-seconds 12.5 kilowatt-hour lithium polymer battery with 10 times the capacity of a Toyota Prius. The quick swapping of batteries is critical to the E1pc’s success; the motor depletes the 12.5 kWh of on-board power in just 40 miles under race conditions. Still the E1pc is well ahead of the competition.

Untested the bikes first practice on the Isle of Man yesterday saw racer Mark Miller three minutes ahead of the electric competition, with a top speed of 140 mph and an average lap time of the 37.7-mile course of 94.66 mph. That’s a ways off the 131.5 MPH lap record set by the fastest gas-powered superbikes, but the progress is remarkable.

In a statement Czysz feels the bikes has more in it, “I think that the bike is capable of achieving the 100 mph lap as we still have something in reserve but it will require everything going right on race day.”

More at Popular Science.