Just like his colleagues of the TV-programme Top Gear, racing car driver Ruben Baeten loves the smell of benzine and burnt rubber, and his heart beats faster when hearing roaring exhausts. Nevertheless, he was grinning from ear to ear when he got out of the race car of Team Forze after an extensive test run – it’s an electric car running on hydrogen.
Baeten was invited on behalf of online magazine Top Gear to look into the latest trends in the field of sustainable racing. “For us, it is always interesting to see what universities are doing and what the next generation of engineers is doing.”
After the test drive, Baeten described a great experience. “If the technology has already reached this level, then it will definitely find a solution for a more environmentally friendly form of the car racing sport. It feels right.”
Sustainable racing
“People are realising more and more that we have to get away from fossil fuels,” said Daan Treurniet. As chief engineer of Team Forze, he hopes to demonstrate to the general public that hydrogen can play an important role in a more sustainable form of the sport.
“This car is in principle electric, but instead of using a large battery pack to store the energy, we’re using tanks of hydrogen,” explained Treurniet about how this race car works. “The hydrogen is converted into electric energy, which we then use to drive the car.”
Are you curious about what the car sounds like? TU Delft TV, a collaboration between Science Centre and Delta, prepared a short documentary about Team Forze:
TU Delft TV / TU Delft TV is a collaboration between Delta and the Science Centre. The crew consists of TU Delft students.
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