Students plan record-breaking zero emission 'supercar' journey along world's longest road

(PhysOrg.com) -- Imperial College London students who are planning a record-breaking journey across the Americas have been showcasing their electric 'supercar' in the College's foyer this month.

Undergraduates and postgraduates from the Faculty of Engineering are transforming one of the world’s fastest petrol powered racing cars, which is called the Radical SR8, into a high performance electric vehicle.

The Racing Green Endurance team is aiming to be the first in the world to drive an electric vehicle the full length of the Pan American Highway - from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic tundra in far north Alaska. The Pan American Highway is 26,000 km long, making it the longest road on the planet, and the team hopes to race across it in May 2010.

The students want to dispel the negative public perception of electric vehicles as slow unattractive cars with a limited range by demonstrating that electric cars can be ‘sexy’ and have outstanding performance capabilities.

Transforming the supercar

The students are carrying out a range of modifications to make the SR8 supercar as energy efficient as possible. They are installing regenerative braking, which recovers and recycles energy from braking, and energy dense batteries, which can store more energy than many other batteries on the market. This means that the car needs fewer batteries, which makes it lighter and more energy efficient.

The Imperial spin-out company EVO Electric has also supplied Racing Green Endurance with two powerful electric motors. One of the major advantages of EVO Electric’s motors is that they don’t need a traditional gearbox. This saves on valuable space, making the car lighter and more energy efficient.

The central control unit (CCU), which is the computerised ‘brain’ that controls all aspects of the car’s performance also has a unique feature. The team can re-program the CCU to change how the car performs. For instance, the team can re-program the SR8 from being an endurance car that is energy efficient over long distances, into a high speed race car that is energy efficient in motor racing scenarios. This makes the vehicle more versatile and means that the team can always maximise the performance of the vehicle in driving different styles.

Vital statistics

When the electric conversion is complete, the SR8 should have a top speed of 190 kilometres per hour, accelerate from zero to 100 kilometres per hour in seven seconds. The vehicle weighs 1100 kilograms and has a typical highway range of 390 kilometres before it needs re-charging, which is a process that lasts for eight hours.

Energy Futures Lab

The Racing Green Endurance project is an initiative of the Energy Futures Lab (EFL), which is the College’s hub for interdisciplinary energy research. The Racing Green Endurance project sits alongside other EFL initiatives including Imperial Racing Green, which is developing the next generation of fuel cell/electric vehicles.

Provided by Imperial College London