An electric racing car developed by students at ETH Zurich and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts on Monday set a world record for acceleration, the universities announced.
The “grimsel” car sped from zero to 100 kilometres an hour in just 1.785 seconds, at a military airport in Dübendorf in the canton of Zurich, smashing the the previous record.
The previous record of 2.13 seconds was set by Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Operated by a student team from the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ), The grimsel car, reached a speed of 100 km/h in less than 30 metres, ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, said in a news release.
Thirty students from the two swiss universities developed and built the racing car in less than a year.
The carbon fibre constructed vehicle has a total weight of 168 kg and is powered by four AMZ M4 wheel hub motors that produce about 200 hp (147 kW). The in house developed synchronous motors produce 37kW each at a weight of 3.4kg. The planetary gearbox which is integrated into the upright transmits the torque to accumulated 1630Nm at the wheels. Using traction control and torque vectoring the torque is individually controlled, increasing the agility of the vehicle.
AMZ was founded in 2006 ivy ETH students and produces a prototype racing car to compete in various student formula competitions in Europe every year.
