Industry News
US college launches Formula Hybrid
11th April 2007
American engineering students from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire have launched Formula Hybrid, a collegiate racecar design competition that invites teams of college and university students to design, build, and race vehicles with gasoline-electric hybrid drive trains.
The first of what is planned to be an annual Formula Hybrid competition will be held on May 1-3 at the New Hampshire International Speedway race circuit in Loudon. In addition to Dartmouth’s own team, entries have also been registered from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University of Daytona Beach, Florida; Illinois Institute of Technology; Colorado State University; Florida Institute of Technology; Yale University; McGill University; and Drexel University.
Formula Hybrid had its beginnings in 2003 when Dartmouth students began researching their first hybrid racecar with the intention of entering it in that year's Formula SAE competition. However, the Formula SAE competition rules were changed that year to disallow hybrid entries, thus inspiring the Dartmouth students to develop their own hybrid competition. Both the SAE and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are sponsors of the competition.
A requirement of the competition is that a Formula Hybrid vehicle must use at least 15 percent less gasoline than a comparable "regular" formula racecar operated under the same conditions, a goal many of the entries are expected to surpass. Another guideline involves recycling. Unlike the Formula SAE competition, Formula Hybrid teams are encouraged to incorporate used parts of other racecars rather than build everything from scratch.
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