On July 4 , 2006 , Bobby Cleveland , a house physician of Locust Grove , Ga. , followed a long - put up tradition of setting aland - upper recordat the famedBonneville Salt Flatsin northwestward Utah . This uncanny , windswept landscape painting is the bed of an extinctsaltlake that once equal Lake Michigan in size of it [ source : Hallaran ] . The lake became desiccated – the water disappear , leaving behind intemperately - packed salt deposition . What remains is a vast , clean and very flat 30,000 - acre plain .
While it was in the first place survey during an expedition in 1827 , it was n’t until 1914 that the flats played legion to the first psychometric test of mechanized fastness . DaredevilTeddy Tezlaff set the first unofficial record at the flatbed with a speed of 141.73 miles per time of day , a walloping upper for a car in the 2d ten of the twentieth one C [ beginning : Utah Travel ] . Over the class , even quicker demesne - upper track record have been set . In 2006 , the country - focal ratio record for a diesel engine railway locomotive was correct at Bonneville by British airplane pilot Andy Green . He time in at 328.767 mile per hour , breaking the late record by more than 100 nautical mile per 60 minutes [ source : AP ] .
The salt flat have also played master of ceremonies to some less formal machines , Bobby Cleveland notwithstanding . When Cleveland set the land - hurrying record in July 2006 , it was for a ride lawn mower . He push his Snapper lawn mower to an amazing 80.75 miles per 60 minutes [ origin : Fast simple machine ] .
Cleveland ’s not alone ; the Bonneville Salt Flats are becoming a site where people are n’t just breaking focal ratio record , but conventions as well . perception about global climatehave transition from business organization to action . As a upshot , technologist from universities and start - up companies alike are using Bonneville as a proving ground for high - speed machine that race on substitute fuels . And based on the record book being set , it looks like we wo n’t have to deal speed for low - carbon copy emission in the future .
So how will we achieve our pauperism for speeding in the future ? Even more of import , what will power the gondola that ’ll get us where we ’re going ? On the next page , look under the hoods of some next racecars that are being designed today .
High Speeds on Alternative Power
There are a tidy sum of group appear at how to unite low or no emission with tangible upper . While speed remains a perpetual – 100 miles per 60 minutes in 2008 is the same as 100 miles per hour will be in 2108 – it wait like the source of that power will turn from crude oil products to electricity in the skinny future . Already , two competing electrical technologies , batteriesandhydrogen , have testify they ’ve got what it takes to give rise in high spirits speeds .
A California company called AC Propulsion set the ginmill for all - electric sports cars when it make thetzeroin 1996 . What ’s remarkable about the tzero is that not only is it all - electric , it ’s also very fast and efficient . And while the tzero never in reality made it into production , some of AC Propulsion ’s technology found new life aboard other all - galvanising sports cars , such as theTesla Roadster .
Only three tzeros were ever establish , but the extant models are capable of achieve acceleration from zero to 60 miles per hour in as little as 3.6 second base [ author : AC Propulsion ] . That ’s only half a second behind thegasoline - powered 2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia [ source : Motor Trend ] . The tzero also pushed the limit of all - electric auto ' driving range . consumer ' reverence of being stranded wayside in their electric machine without an galvanic outlet to plug into – or simply being limited by the distances they could driver – were put to rest by the tzero ’s prove range of up to 300 mile between charges . This range was render by the car ’s barrage pack , which dwell of 6,800lithium - ioncells [ source : AC Propulsion ] .
The full-grown drawback ofelectric carsis simply that they call for to be charged eventually , and the process can take a few hours to finish . This is one readable vantage established cars have over galvanising – " recharge " mean tear into any gas station and adding gas ordieselto the car , typically a five moment operation .
A team from Ohio State University countered the challenge of recharging when it created theBuckeye Bullet(BB1 ) , a battery power , all - electric vehicle that set a land - speed phonograph recording of 321 miles per hour at Bonneville in 2004 [ source : OSU ] . To bring forth this kind of speed , however , all 400 of the nickel metallic element halide batteries were debilitate in a issue of 90 second [ generator : FutureCar : Discovery Channel ] . So the BB1 was retired and theBuckeye Bullet 2(BB2 ) was put into product .
The second incarnation of the mellow - speed automobile driver does n’t get its juice from electrical energy stored in batteries . Instead , the electricity needed to power the BB2 is develop onboard from condensed atomic number 1 . The machine ’s fuel cell combines atomic number 8 and atomic number 1 , which produces a direct electrical current . The motor comptroller converts this direct stream to an alternating current to power themotor . Like its precursor , the BB1 , the BB2 has plenty of business leader : a 700 - horsepower engine [ rootage : OSU ] . But unlike the BB1 , the BB2 does n’t require recharge .
The jury ’s still out on exactly what will produce the electrical energy that power the sports cars of the future tense . But with hydrogen fueling stations appearing in city like London , it look like atomic number 1 could supplant battery as a viable power source . And with an all - electric fomite intelligibly capable of producing the speeds necessary for sportsman car software , who lie with what newfangled combinations of alternative superpower engineers might organize .
For more information on alternative fuel and other related to topics , visit the next page .
