Veggie Racing at a whole new level!
Here at the Maryland Science Center, we love our veggie races. Veggie racing is one of the most popular events during our annual Backyard Science Weekend in August. With a little styrofoam, wheels and the veggie of your choice, you have yourself an instant veggie mobile!
Team WorldFirst has stepped it up a notch and has created the first Formula-3 car (with a top speed of 145mph) made almost entirely of vegetables.
The steering wheel is made of carrots, the bodywork crafted from potatoes, and it has a soybean seat. In addition, all lubrication is provided by plant-based oils and greases. It also includes a biodiesel power plant, which can operate off chocolate extracts or vegetable oil.
The car is not legal in the Formula-3 racing circuit due to its chocolate-based fuel. However, the team’s project manager, James Meredith, has other goals in mind for the vehicle. He said:
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. The WorldFirst project expels the myth that performance needs to be compromised when developing the sustainable motor vehicles of the future.
The vehicle is not made out of raw vegetables. Instead, their fibers and chemicals are broken down and reformed into usable compounds.
The process is not new. It’s similar to the way George Washington Carver used peanuts to create a vivid form of blue paint — by mixing a certain type of peanut extract with sulfuric acid. And in the 1920s, Henry Ford built prototype car components (dashboards, doors, passenger compartments, etc.) out of hemp-derived plastics.
Forget drinking a glass of milk at the end of the race, I’m gunning for the gear knob, which is reportedly made out of cherries. Yummy!
geek.com/daily telegraph.com
