Earlier on today we caught wind of a brand new electric car hitting the market just in time for the New Year. With classic sports car styling, a 0-60 time of 2.3 seconds and a price tag of $1100, it could make the perfect gift for the electric car fan that has everything.

But while the Traxxas XO-1 has a top speed of over 100 mph, is faster than a 2011 Tesla Roaster Sport to 60 mph and costs just a fraction of the price, there’s one problem.

The Traxxas XO-1 is a production radio-controlled race car. In fact, it’s the first RC car to hit 100 mph.

And we’re talking a real-world speed of 100 mph, not a scaled-down RC speed.

Powered by an 55 Watt-hour battery pack and built with the kind of engineering you’d expect in a full-size race car, Traxxas is very keen to point out that the XO-1 isn’t a toy but an extreme RC car that only professionals should drive.

In fact, Traxxas is so worried that this powerful pocket rocket could seriously hurt someone when driven by an inexperienced person that it has intentionally restricted the car to a slower top speed. To unlock it, owners have to purchase a special iOS application which turns their iPod touch or iPhone into a virtual dashboard and tuning device when docked in the specially-built trigger-style remote.

If you want to buy a Traxxas XO-1, you’ve got just under a month to save up the $1,100 before it goes on sale. That, and a month to find somewhere to safely race it, like the Texas Motor Speedway shown in the XO-1’s promotional video.

Enjoy.

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