Wednesday 2nd October 2013

Dutch students take EV acceleration record

'Faster than a Veyron' actually applies here. To 62mph at least...

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When you think about it, electric vehicles are perfectly designed for quick acceleration. Instant torque, no awkward balancing of clutch and throttle, not a single gearchange at all in fact.

Combine all those attributes with an extremely low kerbweight and the recipe is there for something that won't be left standing at any traffic light grand prix. This is exactly what a bunch of Dutch students have done, and created the fastest accelerating EV in the world.

All from the Delft University of Technology, their single-seater is the DUT12 that won the 2012 Formula Student competition. Weighing just 145kg and with four in-wheel electric motors making 135hp, it boasts a ludicrous power-to-weight ratio of 931hp per tonne. With the electric motors providing 4WD, it was going to be pretty quick.

And so it proved. The previous EV 0-62 record was 2.68 seconds, but the boys and girls from Delft recorded a 2.15 second sprint. Two point one seconds! It looks just as crazy on the video, the car just arriving at a point in the distance before you've realised. This isn't a silent EV either, whirring away furiously as it launches.

So congratulations to all involved. Wonder who'll go sub-two?

 

[Source: Carscoops]

 

[MentalRental]

Well done. That sounds awesome

[Fireblade69]

Nice. If it was built for 0-100kph acceleration, why the downforce wings?

[Some Gump]

Fireblade69 said:

Nice. If it was built for 0-100kph acceleration, why the downforce wings?

Vis shows the car sans aero. I think it's been used for multiple events.

[mrmr96]

Some Gump said:

Fireblade69 said:

Nice. If it was built for 0-100kph acceleration, why the downforce wings?

Vis shows the car sans aero. I think it's been used for multiple events.

Indeed. The video explains it was built to compete in Formula Student which I think is a mixed discipline.
They took the wings off for the acceleration record attempt.

[Ruaraidh_Gamma]

It's their entry for the International Formula Student Competition and there is an autotest aspect to this competition hence the wings.

I've judged this particular vehicle amongst the other cars over the last few years at FSUK @ Silverstone and it's spectacularly impressive. The 4wd is used particularly well to add as much brake energy as possible back into the battery. They had some issues this year and didn't finish quite so well but the overall winner (from Zurich) was also a 4WD EV and these cars really are very impressive with the top teams gathering large amounts of sponsorship from industry to really give the Students a great chance to push the boundaries.

Well worth a look if a you get a chance.

http://www.formulastudent.com/

Edited by Ruaraidh_Gamma on Wednesday 2nd October 10:31

[Bill]

Does that win the prize for shortest drag strip ever? And least assuming record attempt.

Brilliant

[scubadude]

Brilliant effort and have to applaud the performance, that thing looks like it could do 0-60-0 in a McDonalds drive-thru!

[CraigyMc]

Bill said:

Does that win the prize for shortest drag strip ever? And least assuming record attempt.

Brilliant

I was thinking "they don't really need a runway... they could probably have done it in a smallish car park"

C

[arkenphel]

Did they choose a girl cos of her smaller frame?

[cliffie]

Fantastic and well done to all involved.

[loudlashadjuster]

There's a longer video with more shots of the launch, including slo-mo, and some close-ups of the oily whirry bits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eO_X0FNoqs

Interesting that the rear is driven though a 'box of some kind, prsumably powered by a single motor, whereas the front appears to have discrete motors in the hubs.

Lucky students, they'll graduate at just about the right time to capitalise hugely on the stuff they learn doing this.

[Engineer1]

arkenphel said:

Did they choose a girl cos of her smaller frame?

Probably from seeing the guys at COventry and at Birmingham Universities Formula Student is about reading the rules then re-reading them to ensure you are within spec, I think one car I say had no rear diff so mounted the two rear wheels so close together they where effectively one wheel, but just far enough apart to count as 2 wheels on one axel.

[Ruaraidh_Gamma]

No it still has two rear motors, just that the two reduction geartrains are in a common housing. The diff is then done electronically which also means full torque vectoring is on offer.

This is actually their 2012 car. The 2013 car has 4 in wheel motors.

[corden]

Holy moly that's rapid! The onboard shot is blistering.

[PATTERNPART]

Torque Vectoring! Dirty! Wouldn't that car make an unbeatable hillclimber? Two pedals and a steering wheel - even I could post a decent time in that!

[RacerMike]

I had a fairly lengthy conversation with them about this car at last years event. Truly stunning pieces of engineering, and what they're doing with dynamic controllers is right up there with what we're doing in industry. Their electronics guy programmed his own yaw controller to give torque vectoring and a degree of stability control.

Having watched it compete, it both looks immensely fast and sounds incredible. Well worth a visit next year for anyone interested.

[Turbobanana]

I doubt the PWR would be as, err... "competitive" with me in it.

[AnotherClarkey]

arkenphel said:

Did they choose a girl cos of her smaller frame?

Or maybe she was the best driver?

[CraigyMc]

AnotherClarkey said:

arkenphel said:

Did they choose a girl cos of her smaller frame?

Or maybe she was the best driver?

Her name is Marly Kuijpers, she's the smallest member of the team.

The record is a little bit odd by the way - the track was covered in sugar water before the run, so it's not comparable with a typical 0-60 or 0-62 run in terms of conditions.

Doesn't take anything away from their achievements though, bloody great effort by about 80 people.

The thing also has pretty decent traction control as you can see

C

Edited by CraigyMc on Wednesday 2nd October 12:23

[DonkeyApple]

arkenphel said:

Did they choose a girl cos of her smaller frame?

Or more experience riding electrical equipment.