BYU-Developed E1 Streamliner Tops 200 MPH In Setting New Land Speed Record

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
An ultralight electric car build by engineering students at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah has shattered its own world land speed record, passing the 200 mph threshold and besting the old mark by nearly 50 mph.
According to the UPI news agency, the vehicle – an E1 streamliner named Electric Blue – achieved speeds of 204.9 mph during two qualifying runs earlier this month at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The same vehicle had previously set the previous land speed record by traveling at speeds of 155.8 mph in 2011.

“When we set the record three years ago we felt like we left a lot on the table,” BYU student and team captain, Kelly Hales, said in a statement. “On paper we thought we could get 200 mph but we never had the conditions just right – until now.”
Electric Blue, which is the result of more than 10 years of design work by over 130 BYU engineering students, accomplished the feat earlier this month in front of roughly 180 teams and their cars. The vehicle was driven by Utah Salt Flats Racing Association president Jim Burkdoll, and the record was certified by the Southern California Timing Association, according to the university.
Electric Blue is known as a streamliner because it features a long, slender design that encloses the wheels inside the body to improve aerodynamics. It competes in the E1 division, which includes cars weighing under 1,100 pounds. Other streamliners, including one built by Ohio State University students, have managed to achieve higher speeds than Electric Blue, but in far heavier vehicles requiring different weight classes.
Now that it has shattered the 200 mph barrier, the design team has said that Electric Blue will be retired, according to Macrina Cooper-White of The Huffington Post. Dr. Mike Miles, a manufacturing professor at the university who worked as an advisor on the project, said that this was “kind of the last hurrah” for the car.
“We were going to retire the car last year when head faculty advisor, Dr. Perry Carter, left for an LDS [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns and operates BYU] mission, but we petitioned for one more year,” Hales added. “Now the car will officially retire with a record we think will be unbeatable for a while.”
The vehicle was built out of lightweight carbon fiber by university students over a six-year span. They were assisted by computer programs that model wind tunnels, and aerodynamic performance and lithium iron phosphate batteries were largely responsible for the car’s success in reaching record-breaking speeds over the past four years.
BYU said that approximately half of the students who worked on the streamliner over the past 10 years were manufacturing engineering technology majors, while 40 percent were mechanical engineering majors and the rest were from a variety of other programs, including electrical engineering. Many were unpaid volunteers.
Miles took over for Dr. Carter as the project’s faculty adviser, and congratulated the former advisor and all the students who were or had been involved in the project for what he called “an amazing achievement.” Electric Blue’s fate remains unclear, according to the university. It could wind up on display in an auto racing museum, or at the university’s engineering building, but it will not be dismantled, the school noted.
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