Student built electric car sets new land speed record
An electric car designed and built by engineering students at Brigham Young University (BYU) has set a new world land speed record for its weight class, averaging 155.8mph over its two required qualifying runs
The record set by the 'Electric Blue' streamliner at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah marks the end of a seven year quest by more than 130 students at the university, as well as retired associate professor Perry Carter, who led the team.
"This is a wonderful closure to 31 years of teaching at BYU and many projects," Prof Carter commented. "But this is the one that takes the cake. I'm done."
Carter attributed the success of the streamliner to its aerodynamic carbon based body, enclosed wheels and 880 lithium ion batteries.
"Very few people get the chance to work with carbon fiber projects, especially something this big," said Kristin Heuer, a senior manufacturing engineering technology student at the university. "It's not something you can do with just a couple of people, so it taught me a lot about problem solving and working efficiently as a team. I feel tremendously lucky."
The BYU team's record setting attempt can be seen in the video below.
