SALT LAKE CITY — A team of Ohio State University students that set out to build the fastest electric car on the planet is heading home with a broken clutch and big grins.
The Buckeye Bullet was clocked on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats at speeds averaging 307 mph, which could set a record if it is verified by the governing body of motorsports. The current record for an electric car is 246 mph.
“We’ve been at this for 16 years now and have our newest lithium-ion-powered vehicle out,” team manager David Cooke said by cellphone from the Salt Flats, about 100 miles west of Salt Lake City. “Our vehicle was capable of going much faster.”
The effort to reach higher speeds ended after three runs Tuesday, when a clutch that connects the powerful motor to a gearbox ripped apart. The team tried to install a new clutch overnight but couldn’t get the old one off.
“Now its time to pack up our pits and head back to Ohio!” the Buckeye Bullet team said Wednesday on its blog.
The car was designed by Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research, which is refining technology for electric cars of the future.
“They have just kicked . . . every car company in the world,” said Louise Ann Moeth, an observer who has written books on racing history at Utah’s vast Salt Flats.
It wasn’t hard to beat an 11-year-old electric speed record with improvements in battery technology. The Buckeye Bullet used nearly 1,600 compact lithium-ion batteries, the kind that power laptops.
