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İyun 10, 2008

The Fastest Green Track Car

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

You may remember Kevin and Michelle from One Lap of America, where they placed third overall. And as promised, they made it out to Buttonwillow to compete in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. Their little E85-powered WCM Ultralite was well suited to the course, and impressed everyone on Saturday during their trial runs. They broke part of the rear suspension in the afternoon, and were up all night welding. Then Kevin cracked an oil pan during the first session on Sunday, but he managed to get that fixed quickly and got right back out there for the second session. His times steadily improved throughout the day, and he ended up placing third in Independent JV, which also earned him the trophy for our fastest green track car. Congrats guys! More pics after the jump.

E85-powered WCM Ultralite

E85-powered WCM Ultralite

E85-powered WCM Ultralite

E85-powered WCM Ultralite

E85-powered WCM Ultralite

Comments

Kevin
Jun 15, 2008 at 8:20 pm

I love thinking people !

Casey, Sugur cane is 9 to 1 conversion ratio, switch grass is looking like it is going to have 32 to 1 … Now that makes it a little more on the money, plus it will grow almost any where.

Turbo Diesel, We can get nearly 500 ft lbs of torque out of the motor, but it just does not spool up fast enough… But we have not given up yet.

Electric 7, Its funny that you mention this because I talked to the ebox guy about this. It would make a great track car.. but we do events like the One Lap of America,,,, 4000 miles 18 track events.
Not possable with an electric powered car.
Then again there is that big factor $
Thanks for your thoughts.. If you have more please email me at Kevin@organicracing.com

Cheers
K

casey
Jun 11, 2008 at 2:16 pm

considering it takes 20-25% more E85 to get the same combustion as gas, I think you are doing very well with e85 @ 35mpg. I am familiar with switchgrass. It seems to be better than even sugar kane. After looking into your car more, I understand the theme better. I assumed it all centered around polution produced in corolation to the fuel. I didnt consider the effects of polution to produce the car.

Good Work.

I’m suprised a small turbo deisel like what can be found in many VW’s wouldnt be fast enough. Maybe add a hybrid drive to it and gear the living daylights out of it. All torque, no HP. I doubt you could fit all that on that platform though. Not to mention the cost would be crazy.

Maybe consider teaming up with the Ebox guys and go all electric. I wonder if that could be competitive??? Again there is a $$ issue.

Kevin
Jun 10, 2008 at 9:33 pm

Hey Casey,

As with anything E-85 is not perfect. Corn is the worst thing to make this fuel with. There are several new technologies and new ways
of converting things like switch grass to fuel. We researched this for over a year before making the jump. The thing is we have to move from where we are to a new and better place. If we don’t at least try something new there will be no change. I you notice there we only 2 cars that even bothered to show up and try and make a difference.
We have been working on a diesel motor that would run on WSVO. But
it is still to slow to be competitive. We have spent over $20K of our
own money trying to be as green as we can. I wish it was as easy as so many people think it is. :) I have folks come up to us all the time and say you should do this or that it is so much better… I always smile and ask if they have done this or that or if they would be willing to help us do this or that.. :) So many great ideas but so few folks to help make it happen. If you have any ideas that you
think can helps us be more green and still be reasonably competitive
I would love to here from you. If we all put our heads to gather I am sure we can change the out come.

Cheers
Kevin
kevin@organicracing.com

Rob
Jun 10, 2008 at 6:36 pm

Casey, yes E85 has been largely discredited recently (but to be fair to Kevin and Michelle, this has happened since the car was originally conceived and built). Kevin and Michelle also buy carbon offsets for the car (which you may also dispute/question). But the car is also very light and gets very good gas mileage–they claim they average 35 mpg with it. Plus they built it mostly from used parts and recycled materials. Stay tuned for a breakdown of how it scored in the green category vs. the xBox.

casey
Jun 10, 2008 at 6:04 pm

Do you really consider E85 as a green fuel? Do some reserch!

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