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http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/buckeye-bullet-electric-car-hits-307-m-p-h-a-possible-record/
August 27, 2010, 12:34 pm
Barry Hathaway
The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
In a plume of salt crystals, students from Ohio State University’s Center for Auto Research witnessed their electric-powered racer make history on Tuesday. The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 averaged 307.7 miles per hour in back-to-back runs on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, obliterating the previous record of 245.5 m.p.h., set in 1999.
Barry Hathaway
Roger Schroer, the Bullet 2.5’s driver, celebrates after the 307 mile per hour run.
The team is awaiting certification of its accomplishment by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body that ratifies world-record runs. A hydrogen fuel cell-powered version of the 2.5, the Buckeye Bullet 2, owns the record for its propulsion class, attaining an average speed of 302.9 m.p.h. in 2009.
To a casual E.V. enthusiast, the record might have seemed a foregone conclusion, as the 1999 mark was established by a racer running nickel-metal hydride batteries, which pack lower energy density than the lithium-ion unit powering the Buckeye Bullet 2.5. However, David Cooke, Ohio State’s team manager, noted in a telephone interview that the original Bullet also ran nickel-metal hydride batteries in 2004 when its car hit 314.9 m.p.h. (That run was rejected by the F.I.A.)
“The batteries we have now can generate way more power, though,” Mr. Cooke said.
Barry Hathaway
The team traveled to the salt flats primarily to gauge its new battery unit’s performance, designed by A123 Systems of Watertown, Mass. The 2.5’s chassis and body were repurposed from the Buckeye Bullet 2. “We knew it was a solid, extremely safe platform from our 2009 run, and we needed a test mule for the A123 pack,” he said.
Given the 2.5 was merely a test iteration of the Buckeye Bullet, there will be significant upgrades between now and the eventual Bullet 3. “We’ll have an all-new chassis and body, and we’re considering four-wheel drive,” Mr. Cooke said.
On Wednesday, the team tried to better its record but was thwarted when the 2.5’s clutch essentially imploded. “We were testing an overrunning clutch, and we had too much torque coming from the motor and it ripped apart,” Mr. Cooke said. “We tried swapping in our regular friction clutch to make another run, but it just wasn’t happening.”
Barry Hathaway
The team behind the Buckeye Bullet 2.5.
The team’s 2.5 initiative was sponsored in part by Venturi, a French electric vehicle company, which produced 25 examples of a two-seat, 300,000-euro coupe called the Fetish during the last decade. The record run in the 2.5 was piloted by Roger Schroer, a “professional tester with the Transportation Research Center in Ohio,” said Mr. Cooke.
“It says a lot to me that he was willing to jump into a car built by college students,” Mr. Cooke said. “We had an amazing level of mutual trust.”
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