Student-Built Electric Car passes 300 MPH Aiming for Land Speed Record

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The Venturi sponsored Buckeye Bullet, an all-electric landspeed racer built by students at Ohio State University, set a speed of 307.66 MPH in the mile this afternoon at the Bonneville Salt Flats — and they're going again.

Using a slightly modified version 2 of the streamliner, the VBB 2.5 uses the same powertrain as the previous VBB2 but with the Hydrogen Fuel Cell used to set a world record of 302.877 MPH now replaced with prismatic battery cells supplied by A123 systems.

The team aren't going public about details on the battery pack but it has been reported they are using 1600 cells and that they are prismatic. From the A123 web-site the prismatic cells are 3.3v @ 20Ah. 1600x gives approx 100 kWh.

The steel box tube framed and carbon fiber enclosed car is powered by a custom built 3 phase AC motor with a claimed 700+ horsepower (514 kw), driving the rear wheels via a  slightly modified (longer final drive ratio?) 6 speed transaxle.

The current electric powered Land Speed Record is 321.834 mph set by the same team with the original Buckeye Bullet in 2004, back then using a 400 hp (300 kw) 3 phase AC motor.

Buckeye Bullet


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