The vegetable racing car that runs on chocolate


May 05 2009
Here's a green motorsport vision with a difference: a racing car built from vegetables and running on waste chocolate.
Conceived and constructed by experts at Warwick University, the WorldFirst Formula 3 car takes environmentalism to extreme new levels.

• GALLERY: The vegetable racing car that runs on chocolate
  

If you excuse the vegetable, uh, garnish, the WorldFirst doesn't look all that unusual in the photographs. As a Formula 3 design it appears exactly like the miniature F1 car it is trying to be. The differences come at root - haha - level. This car isn't quite as simple as it seems.
Take the steering wheel. It's a composite material, made from carrots, and other root vegetables. The wing mirrors are made out of potato starch. Flax fibre finds its way into the seat shell, the bib, and the wing endplates. The seat foam is derived from soybean oil and recycled polyester.



Air cleaning radiators and biodiesel


The bodywork sidepods are a combination of glass fibre and resin produced from recycled plastic bottles. There's more recycled plastic in the wiring loom, along with recycled aluminium. Recycled carbon fibre is used for the engine cover and damper hatch. Meanwhile the brakes are deliberately not carbon composite for eco purposes.
Soon the brake pads will be constructed from cashew nut shells - an innovation cribbed from the WorldFirst's Warwick predecessor, EcoOne (a small Formula Student single seater that also featured potato tyres and hemp bodywork). Apparently even the WorldFirst's livery is recyclable. And the radiators actually clean the air as it moves.
That's because these are coated with a special catalyst that converts ozone to oxygen. Under the hood, the 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine has been recalibrated by Scott Racing to run on biodiesel - incorporating waste chocolate and vegetables - and all its lubrication is based on plant oils. It's a comprehensive piece of work.
As for performance - cornering speeds are up to 125mph...



Meet the team


The team behind the project are all based at Warwick University, encompassing the Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre and Warwick Manufacturing Group. Project Manager is James Meredith, assisted by Dr Kerry Kirwan, Dr Steve Maggs, Steve Lambert and Ben Wood - who also project managed EcoOne. Best of luck to them.
You might, however, be wondering what the point is. WorldFirst is simply an attempt to prove there's more to green motoring thinking than adjusting the engine technology - as seems to be the case with most of the eco road cars currently available. This project shows sustainability can be far more widespread.
"It's been very exciting working on the project and important for our team to develop a working example of a truly 'Green' motor racing car," comments Meredith. "The WorldFirst project expels the myth that performance needs to be compromised when developing the sustainable motor vehicles of the future"
Right on.


Discuss...

It's still diesel though, so it still partly runs on pure cancer.

But yeah, coolio.

I hope I won't live till this

this is bull, diesel, even bio diesel is still dirtier than petrol, they think that diesel will be better but come on, a diesel F3 series? no thanks.

Putting aside the whole fuel thing, I think that car looks fantastic.

This whole wall of text and it's completely useless... The only thing that matters: how much more expensive is it to do it their way? That truely makes or brakes the car, not what they chopped up to make it...

Not that racing with that is realistic, but you gotta be impressed,

so the starving children in africa can eat this car then?

real productive use of agricultural land, wankers.

it's gonna suck, tracks are gonna smell like a farm instead of gas and rubber!

Quote from evilgeek :

so the starving children in africa can eat this car then?

real productive use of agricultural land, wankers.

HAHAHHAH nice one

All the old shitbox cars over 10 years old have to be taken off the road first before anyone ever thinks about green racing cars.

or better still make power plants that run on carrots rather than dirty old coal.

Window dressing to lure stupid sponsors, and we all no how well that worked for Honda..

It'll be interesting to race the car in the wet, store it, and come back days later to a fresh produce aisle.

Everything manufactured on planet Earth is based on natural materials.

Quote from evilgeek :

so the starving children in africa can eat this car then?

real productive use of agricultural land, wankers.

That's what I was thinking.

Quote from trebor901 :

this is bull, diesel, even bio diesel is still dirtier than petrol, ......

How is bio diesel dirtier than petrol?