The Ohio State Buckeye Bullet 2 has hit a new unofficial land speed record for fuel cell vehicles with an exit speed of 304 mph. The land speed record is still unofficial though because it has to be recognized by FIA or ASN.
The last time I had talked about the Buckeye Bullet 2 was in August 16, 2007 when the Ford 999 took the spot light by breaking the 200 mph record and got to join the 200 MPH Club at the Bonneville Salt Flats overshadowing the Buckeye Bullet 2’s 149 mph run.
However, on August 17, 2007, the Buckeye Bullet 2 also was honored to join the 200 MPH Club with its own record of 201.636 mph. The next year, in 2008, the Buckeye Bullet smashed this record at Bonneville.
According to their blog posted August 23, 2008, the Buckeye Bullet 2 achieved a top exit speed of 287 mph and a top instantaneous speed of 297 mph, just missing the 300 mph mark for which they were striving.
In 2009, the newest iteration of the Buckeye Bullet 2 uses a Ballard fuel cell coupled with a 700-horsepower custom built AC induction motor to achieve the 300+ mph. The Buckeye Bullet 2, however is still chasing the Buckeye Bullet 1 (an all electric vehicle) that set a national land speed record of 315 mph.
The Buckeye Bullet 2 isn’t finished however as it has several more runs before they call it a day. Keep your fingers crossed as this fuel cell vehicle is showing it is not only green but very, very powerful as well.
Here’s the latest video of the Buckeye Bullet 2 hydrogen fuel cell vehicle racing to a new record on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
http://blog.buckeyebullet.com/2009/09/new-video-on-youtube.html