Electric super car triumph for Imperial team as epic journey reaches end of the road

The Racing Green Endurance team celebrates successful 26,000 km journey across the Americas <em>- News</em>

Wednesday 17 November 2010
By Colin Smith

A team from Imperial College London celebrated the end of their 26,000 kilometre journey yesterday after driving their all-electric supercar down the length of the Americas.

A team of Imperial undergraduates, postgraduates and alumni drove their all-electric Radical SRZero supercar from Alaska, down the Pan-American Highway, finishing at Ushuaia in Argentina, the world’s most southerly city. They passed through 14 countries in 140 days. The team used the journey to show that electric vehicles have outstanding performance and that they are a viable low-carbon alternative to combustion engine vehicles.

At the bottom of the article, view some highlights of the Racing Green Endurance team's journey down the Pan-American Highway.

Alexander Schey, Racing Green Endurance Project Manager and Bachelor of Engineering undergraduate at Imperial College London, says:

“We wanted to have a car that was exciting to look at, so that when people saw it driving along they wanted to find out more about it. It worked perfectly. At every stop we were surrounded by people from all different backgrounds – from curious businessmen in San Francisco to a 200 strong crowd of onlookers including local farmers at the Guatemalan border – it is a great way to begin a conversation and to tell everybody more about electric vehicles. They were all surprised when we told them that it could run for over 500 kilometres on around $5 of electricity.”

Before the start of the journey, the team spent nine months designing, integrating and installing different components into the electric supercar, which was donated by the vehicle manufacturer Radical. The team spent a long time during the upgrade ensuring the electric motor and batteries and delicate electrical components were able to withstand the harsh environments along the route, including searing heat, sub zero temperatures, tropical deluges, high altitudes and rough mountainous terrain along the Andes and the Rocky Mountains.

“Driving the open-top car at night with tropical rainstorms pounding away at an already disintegrating road was certainly a challenge,” says Andy Hadland, team member and recent graduate from the MSc in Sustainable Futures at the College. “It was slightly nerve racking knowing that you were sitting on 550 Volts. But the waterproofing measures worked and the car survived.”

Other obstacles along the journey included being stranded for several hours near the dangerous Mexican border region after a shock absorber had snapped. In South America, the team had to drive the SR8 on some of the most dangerous parts of the Pan-American Highway, traversing the Andes twice, at heights of over 3000 metres, while avoiding potholes. They also had to travel across the parched high Atacama Desert and negotiate dangerous gravel roads along the Tierra del Fuego on the coast of Argentina.

An important aspect of the project involved raising awareness about low carbon vehicle technologies and how they could help to mitigate the effects of climate change. The team devoted half of their journey speaking to communities and local and national media. They also spoke to thousands of students.

“Whenever we stopped in a city we tried to get the message out there,” says Clemens Lorf, Racing Green Endurance team member and Imperial graduate. “It was a core feature of the project to get students excited about careers in science and technology. If we are to tackle the challenges facing us in the 21st century such as climate change, then we need students to be excited about pursuing these careers.”

Sir Keith O’Nions, Rector of Imperial College London, concludes: “I am absolutely delighted that the Racing Green Endurance team has completed its momentous journey along the Pan-American Highway. They overcame a range of financial, technical and environmental obstacles to make this project a success, exemplifying the type of can-do attitude that we admire here at the College. However, this project was never just about getting from one end of the highway to the other. It was also about demonstrating to communities along the way the effectiveness of low-carbon vehicle technologies, which the team has done in spades. Well done!”

The Racing Green Endurance project runs alongside the wider Imperial Racing Green initiative (IRG), which is training students to become the engineers who will develop the next generation of zero emission vehicles. The IRG project is an initiative of the Energy Futures Lab, which is the College's hub for interdisciplinary energy research.