Environmentally Friendly Formula 3 Car Unveiled

A team of design engineers has created an environmentally friendly Formula 3 car – speed trials of which are set to take place this month.

Known as ecoF3, the racing car is the product of the WorldFirst team, based at Warwick University in the UK. 

EcoF3 incorporates organic food materials into its construction - its steering wheel being manufactured from carrots, its driver’s seat from soybeans and its body frame, from potatoes.  Its biodiesel engine, meanwhile, can be fed vegetable oil and chocolate.

In a statement released to coincide with the car’s May 5th unveiling, WorldFirst representative Dr Kerry Kirwan explained its eco-components in more detail.

“Components made from plants form the mainstay of the car’s make up, including a race specification steering wheel derived from carrots and other root vegetables, a flax fibre and soybean oil foam racing seat, a woven flax fibre bib, plant oil based lubricants and a biodiesel engine configured to run on fuel derived from waste chocolate and vegetable oil”, he said.

“It also incorporates a radiator coated in a ground-breaking emission destroying catalyst.”

Renewable and Sustainable Materials

The car’s development came about in reaction to the ever-spiralling costs associated with operating world-class, high-octane racing car teams.  The philosophy attached to it was concerned with highlighting to the racing industry to what extent it was possible to implement renewable and sustainable materials into a practical racing vehicle, and one that, on paper, should be capable of achieving up to 145 miles an hour. 

Those responsible for the car’s creation, including Dr Kirwan, now foresee similar technology being implemented into the highly competitive world of Formula One racing.

“We hope the Formula 1 teams will see that an environmentally friendly car is not necessarily a slow car”, a spokesman for the team commented.

“We expect our new materials to be used by the Formula 1 cars of the future.”

For the moment, through, the car’s engine makes it ineligible to compete.

“It’s been very exciting working on the project and important for our team to develop a working example of a truly ‘Green’ motor racing car”, James Meridith, EcoF3 Project Manager stated.

“The WorldFirst project expels the myth that performance needs to be compromised when developing the sustainable motor vehicles of the future”.

WorldFirst Formula 3 Racing Car image copyright of and provided courtesy of the University of Warwick