OSU - Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
There is a lot of exciting stuff going on at The Ohio State University these days. This year the College of Engineering’s Formula Lightning team is taking on an exciting project. While the team will continue to race their formula one style electric race car, the Smokin’ Buckeye, they are also designing and building a new electric car. Racing isn’t going to be the name of the game with this one though. This car, the Buckeye Bullet, has been designed purely for speed. This summer the team will travel out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with this streamlined car to break the World Land Speed record for electric vehicles with a speed in excess of 300 mph!
The Buckeye Bullet project began in May of 2000 when the team put a simulation together to determine the feasibility of the project. The results from the simulation were quite promising but some real life testing had to be done to prove it. So the Smokin’ Buckeye was packed up and taken out to Bonneville in August 2000. Before leaving for the Salt Flats, the Smokin’ Buckeye’s parameters were plugged into the simulation and a top speed of 143 mph was predicted. The simulation proved accurate when the Smokin’ Buckeye turned in a top speed of 144 mph!
The team will begin putting the car together this quarter and they expect to have it rolling at the end of May. The years of experience the team has with the Smokin’ Buckeye along with strong partnerships with Shoemaker Industrial Solutions, Saminco Electric Traction Drives, PD Wire & Cable, and Applied Power make the team certain they will be able to break the record this year. This combined with a 600 hp motor and the capabilities of veteran driver, Craig Taylor, make OSU’s Buckeye Bullet unstoppable.
If you would like more information on the Buckeye Bullet or are interested in becoming involved with the team, please contact Jenny Layman at jenny@buckeyebullet.com or 614-688-4084.
