March 12, 2025 at 15:40 by Stephen Rivers Longbow is a new EV car company out of the UK that aims to launch two new sports cars. Dubbed the Speedster and the Roadster, they prioritize lightweight design above all else. Reservations are open for the Speedster starting at $110,000 and the Roadster at $84,000. Celeritas Levitatis means the Speed of Lightness and it’s the hallmark of Longbow. This new automaker out of the UK believes that it has the solution for the overweight automobiles that crowd our streets. “Weight invites complexity, blunts agility, and dulls the senses,” it says. Fixing those issues required going back to the drawing board. What it’s come up with are two new electric sports cars that weigh less than a Mazda MX-5. Meet the Speedster, an open-cockpit, windshield-free thrill machine, and the Roadster, which, somewhat counterintuitively given its name, has a fixed hardtop. The Team Behind the Cars—and the Tesla Trolling Longbow isn’t just a couple of enthusiasts in a garage with big ideas; it was actually founded by two former Tesla engineers, Daniel Davy and Mark Tapscott, along with the former CEO of an electric boat company. Their resumes include stints at Lucid Motors, BYD, Formula E, Lotus, Aston Martin, and Ariel—essentially, a greatest-hits lineup of performance and EV expertise. And then there’s the name. Longbow’s Roadster is an undeniable swipe at Tesla’s long-hyped—and even longer-delayed—Roadster, which was supposed to debut in 2020, following the unveiling of a prototype even further back in 2017. Speaking to Top Gear, Daniel Davy made it clear that the name was a deliberate jab at Tesla’s continuously-delayed Roadster II. “A lot of customers have put deposits down for a Roadster they can’t get,” Davy told the magazine. “So we thought we’d be the first electric Roadster to actually follow the Tesla Roadster. If people want to get their $250,000 deposit back for a 2020 car and put it into something better, they’ll get one sooner with us. They’re welcome to do it. Our Roadster’s going to be on the ground first.” The Specs: Light, Fast, and Purpose-Built First up is the Speedster. Devoid of a windshield or roof, the two-seater boasts an estimated range of 275 miles (WLTP). It’ll weigh just 1,973 pounds (895 kg) and rocket from 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) in 3.5 seconds. That’s on par with some very fast supercars and identical to that of a Tesla Model Y Performance (though the latter is with a rollout).