Here is an interesting press release that came across my desk this morning. The student race team at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is raising money for their hydrogen car by “crowd funding”.
Press Release
Delft – 15-05-2013. The Forze student race team of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is developing a race car which has a top speed of 220 km/h with zero emissions. Forze has launched a campaign to actively get the public interested and involved with the new race car. In exchange for one of the donations it is even possible to ride in a hydrogen powered racecar! The new electric race car uses hydrogen as fuel and will be finished this summer. It is one of the few hydrogen powered race cars in the world and is designed to compete against combustion engine race cars to demonstrate how fast and powerful green technology can be.
Crowd funding
The team has recently started a crowd funding campaign to give the general public the chance to help support the team. Through a donation, people are able to drive the Forze V, the previous generation car. Other options are a V.I.P. treatment during one of the races, a t-shirt, or to get their name printed on the new car. “We are hoping for many donations, with this money we can obtain parts for the vehicle. In addition, we will be able to reach a large audience with our message: green technology is the future, also on the racetrack” says Michel Haak, team manager of Forze.
Hydrogen Powered Race Car
With the development of a larger race car the team shows that this technology is available for a competitive race car. A fuel cell in the car converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. This electricity is used to run two large electric motors which power the rear wheels. With this technology, the Forze VI produces no harmful gasses; the only exhaust is water. Furthermore, the car has advanced electronics which control and monitor all the systems. Interesting features are the brake cooling system and the energy storage system. The brakes are cooled with water what is produced in the fuel cell and the energy storage system makes it possible to store kinetic brake energy and is able to boost the peak power up to 190 kW.
The Team
The Forze hydrogen racing team consists of about 75 students with diverse educational backgrounds from the Delft University of Technology. The team is the very first hydrogen racing team in the world and still is one of the foremost pioneers in this field. Forze will participate in the Caterham Cup this summer where they will race against traditional gasoline powered cars. The team will also make an attempt at the world record for hydrogen powered cars on the Nurburgring’s Nordschleife track in Germany. In addition to this, the Forze team is actively giving presentations and demonstrations during events such as Rotterdam City Racing.
If you wish to support the team, it is possible via the following link