Ohio State's Venturi Buckeye Bullet team debuts newest electric supercar in Utah

In just a few days, a team of students and faculty from The Ohio State University will be on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats to race its latest streamline electric vehicle, the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 3 (VBB-3). Currently holding the record for world’s fastest electric vehicle, the team aims to eclipse its own record of 307.6 miles per hour (495 kilometers per hour) set in 2010.

Although the planned debut of the VBB-3 will was slated for Speedweek, August 9-15 in Wendover, Utah, rain forced the cancellation of the 100th anniversary racing event sanctioned by Southern California Timing Association. The VBB-3 team has remained on site and has been able to complete safety inspections and system tests on the vehicle.

Weather permitting, this week’s inspections and system tests will be followed by four days of international record attempts—August 18-21—to be certified by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. More stringent than the Speedweek competition, these international events require vehicles to complete two runs of the course in opposite directions, while only allowing one hour to service the vehicle and recharge the batteries.

The electric streamliner has been designed and built by undergraduate and graduate students over the past four years at the university’s Center for Automotive Research in partnership with Monaco-based electric vehicle manufacturer, Venturi Automobiles. It is propelled by two custom electric motors developed in conjunction with Venturi Automobiles, and is powered by nearly three megawatts of lithium ion batteries produced by A123 Systems.

“After years of developing the vehicle and simulating the systems in computer based design, it is quite exciting to finally get to roll up our sleeves and get to work building and racing the vehicle,” said team leader David Cooke.

The VBB-3 will be piloted by Roger Schroer, veteran team driver from the Transportation Research Center, an automotive proving ground in East Liberty, Ohio.

The team has set numerous speed records during the past decade. In 2004 Buckeye Bullet 1, which ran on nickel metal hydride batteries, set a national land speed record with an average time of 315 miles per hour (506.9 kilometers per hour). Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2, the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell-powered land speed electric vehicle, set the international record of 303 miles per hour (487.6 kilometers per hour) in 2009. Then in 2010, Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5 set the record for world’s fastest electric vehicle at 307.6 miles per hour (495 kilometers per hour), powered by lithium ion batteries.