For the first time a hydrogen race car
entered the annual Formula Student
competition held in the UK. Built by
the Forze hydrogen racing team of the
Dutch Delft University of Technology,
the Forze V race car is equipped with
a hydrogen fuel cell which powers two
electric motors.
The Formula Student (FS) challenge
invites teams from universities across
the world to build a car and race
them against each other at the
Silverstone race circuit. FS started in
1998 and aims to inspire young
engineers to go through the full cycle
of building a single-seat racing car,
including business plan, design,
presentation and -of course- building
and competing.
In 2008 Class 1A was introduced, a
special category apart from Class 1,
dedicated to low carbon emission
cars.
However, the Forze V team decided to
race their car- which only exhaust is
pure water- against its Class 1 gas-
guzzling brethren. They came in 29th
of 103 contestants.
Alistair Wardrope, a judge of the FS
races said that the Forze V ‘beat many
gasoline powered race cars on a level
playing field. Internal combustion
engines have been developed for over
a hundred years. The significance of
the achievement lies in Delft Forzes’
skill in adopting a new technology to
compete against a well developed
technology.’
The car weighs 280kg (617lbs) and is
powered by a 18kW hydrogen fuel
cell. Its top speed is 120km/h
(75mph) and accelerates from 0 to
96km/h (0-60mph) in less than 5
seconds. On a full tank of 600 grams
of gaseous hydrogen the car can race
for an hour. Its only exhaust product:
three liters of water (0.8 gal).
The Delft Force V team hopes their car
will convince people that fuel cells are
the long term solution for sustainable
mobility.
Source: Formulazero.tudelft.nlW
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