OSU ELECTRIC RACER HITS 300 MPH BUT BREAKS BEFORE SETTING RECORD

Published: Saturday, August 21, 200

By Mike Lafferty

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Ohio State University broke the 300-mph barrier for electric cars this week in Utah, but its quest for a record came to a screeching halt yesterday in a tangle of red tape.

U.S. Customs inspectors held up parts needed to repair the Buckeye Bullet just long enough to kill the school's chances to complete a required second run on the 7-mile course at Bonneville Salt Flats.

The experimental battery-powered car averaged 308.317 mph in a run Monday, blitzing the national speed record of 257 mph that it set in October.

Speed records are an average of two runs within 24 hours.

The Bullet's differential broke Monday after its first run, killing plans for a second run on Tuesday.

The team is not too disappointed, however.

"It's the fastest electrically powered car in history,'' said driver Roger Schroer, of Zanesfield. "We put that big number up.''

The car -- 32 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall -- is at the top of an elite heap of experimental vehicles.

"We can go faster. The exit speed (on Monday) was 315 mph. That's important because the vehicle was still accelerating,'' said mechanical engineering professor Giorgio Rizzoni, adviser to the Bullet's team of undergraduate students.

"I think we can top out with this car at 320 or 325.''

Parts from England were held up in Memphis, Tenn. When they failed to arrive yesterday morning, Rizzoni threw in the towel.

Records can be attempted only during particular periods, called speed weeks. Ohio State simply ran out of time.

The team will return in October to Bonneville to attempt to break the world speed record for electrically powered cars.

In international competition, cars must make two runs within one hour.

The current world record is 245 mph.

"Now that we went 300 mph, we want the record. We want to get our act together and make the car a little more reliable,'' said Isaac Harper, a mechanical engineering major from Louisville, Ohio.

The 3,000-pound car is several hundred pounds lighter than when it raced last year, Rizzoni said, thanks to a switch to plastic-encased batteries.

It's fueled by 1,000 pounds of nickel-hydride batteries similar to those used in hybrid electric cars now on the market.

"Of course,'' Rizzoni said, "we go faster.''

mlafferty@dispatch.com

Illustration: Photo appeared in newspaper, not in the archive.

Photo caption: PHELPS DODGE CORP.
Because parts were delayed by U.S. Customs, the Buckeye Bullet battery-powered racer -- seen here in 2002 -- couldn't complete a second run this week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah

Reprinted here by permission from The Columbus Dispatch

Thank you Columbus Dispatch!!  Go Bucks!!