 
 That slab of chocolate melting in your mouth can power a car! And the
potatoes, carrots and other veggies in your shopping cart can be the
building blocks of that car. This is no futuristic dream - it is already
happening.
The place is the Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Center,
University of Warwick in England, which is testing a Formula 3 race car
powered by chocolate.
 Well, not exactly the rich milky stuff that you
pop in, but chocolate waste (or waste chocolate?) from chocolate
factories has been identified as a perfect fuel. The engine is a
modified BMW 2.0 liter turbodiesel.
While you guessed that vegetable oils could power a car, who thought
veggies could be the ‘ingredients’ for a car? The WorldFirst Formula 3
race car is built mainly from potatoes and the race-legal steering wheel
is made from carrots and other veggies.
The seat is made with
soybean-oil foam and covered with a flax fiber weave. The sides are made
from recycled plastic bottles.
Surely you cannot get any more environment-friendly than that. A
veggie car running on chocolate should be somewhat slow, right ? No. The
car will eventually be able to reach speeds of up to 230 Km/hour. Right
now, the only thing that prevents this car from actually participating
in Formula 3 events is that biodiesel engines are not allowed.
 The official line on the car is as follows: “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 fiber and soybean oil foam racing seat, a woven flax
fiber bib, plant oil based lubricants and a biodiesel engine configured
to run on fuel derived from a ground-breaking emission destroying
catalyst. “
The construction of Warwick’s F3 vehicle was sponsored by the racing
team Lola Cars along with 15 other partners. Could any of these
technologies make it to production? The potential is certainly there as
all the building blocks and the fuel are available freely. Chocolate
companies, which already thrive on advertising that harps on giving you
an ‘energy boost’ will love this.
Who knows, the day may not be far away
when you ask the pump attendant to ‘fill her up’ with chocolate.
(PDS) |
