Can the idea of “green motorsport” actually work? Yes, according to Dr Kerry Kirwan at the University of Warwick, who led the research team that designed and built the world’s first “wholly sustainable” Formula 3 racing car.
The £500,000 car is made from woven flax, recycled carbon-fibre panels from aircraft, recycled resin and carrot pulp for the steering wheel.
The car’s chassis was salvaged from a scrapped vehicle, as was the two-litre BMW diesel engine that powers it and is capable of delivering 230bhp.
The steering wheel was made in Scotland by a firm called CelluComp, which specialises in the use of carrot fibre for making fishing rods and other products.
The material, known as Curran, was invented by a pair of Scottish scientists – Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale – and is capable of substituting for the glass-fibre found in everything from fishing rods to car parts. CelluComp is based at Burntisland, in Fife.
The car runs on biofuel made from chocolate and animal fats and is lubricated with plant oils.
But it’s not just an apparently environmentally more responsible car in terms of build – it is also fast.
It has a top speed quoted as 135mph, can achieve 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds and is turbocharged to give it more torque.
Having got the seal of approval from drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Adam Carroll, as well as F1 team boss Ross Brawn, the car was scheduled to make its first competitive debut in the Formula 3 Championship final at Brands Hatch on October 17.
However, the Warwick team’s hope of proving that high-performance, competitive cars can be built from sustainable materials was not quite realised as the car was, ultimately, not allowed to race.
However, it successfully did a number of high-speed circuits.
A spokesman for Warwick University told Energy: “It was able to do practice-time laps and made times that would have placed it in the second rank on the grid.
“However, despite being race ready and raring to go on the track, the track would not let it race at the very last moment as it had set a requirement that every other driver in the championship had to agree, and every single one did agree, bar one driver who could not be reached in time.”
According to Kirwan, whose co-developers were Steve Maggs and James Meredith, the idea behind the project is to show that “being sustainable and green can be incredibly sexy, fun and fast”.
He goes on to say that even though people’s perception of motorsport is that it’s wasteful, this project is “aiming to show ways for the future, for people to race and be green”.
A video of the car in action can be found at IMPACT! World. The website also features a variety of other films and case studies highlighting the impact of science and research technology in the UK.