CAD diagram shows a yellow box which is the motor.
Electric cars may be more popular with vote-chasing politicians than car enthusiasts but that may all be about to change thanks to a new one make electric series.
A competition has been launched to design the body for the world’s first one-make electric vehicle race series, that will be fitted to a prototype rolling chassis developed by Midlands-based Westfield Sportscars in collaboration with Silverstone-based Delta Motorsport and Birmingham City University’s Technology Innovation Centre.
The design is intended to incorporate the rolling chassis and the resulting competition car will form the basis of Westfield’s forthcoming single-make Electric Race Car series.
Design students from universities, further education colleges and senior streams of secondary schools have all been invited to design the body.
Westfield is predicting a sub five seconds 0-60mph for the car and the latest lithium ion batteries provide the capability to complete a typical fifteen lap club race, whilst maintaining a total vehicle weight of under 600kg.
The competition is being run in conjunction with TIC’s technology partner, PTC,a US-based world-leading provider of new product development software.
Students will be provided with data showing the packaging envelope for the body and detail such as pick-up points .
The competition will be launched on press day at Autosport International, which incorporates the PistonHeads Show, on the Niche Vehicle Network Stand No. 6230 at the NEC on January 10th.
In addition to the opportunity for the winning design to be developed into a pre-production prototype which will be displayed at Autosport 2009, other prizes include the opportunity to visit Westfield Sportscars premises in the West Midlands.
Westfield and TIC will also be organising a track day for the winners.
Dr. Paul Faithfull, Technical Director at Westfield Sportscars Ltd., said: ‘Westfield has chosen Autosport to launch the electric race car design competition because of the huge amount of visitors to this international show.
‘It will give us access to the great design talents of students across the globe, bringing new concepts to complement our performance enhancing technology.’