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The History |
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Electric Racing at The Ohio State UniversityThe Smokin' Buckeye
The Buckeye Bullet (BB1)As the Formula lightning series was phased out, the team found themselves with a great deal of electric racing experience, but no venue in which to put it to use. After some brainstorming and discussions with existing program sponsors, the team decided to take electric racing to a whole new level and go for all out speed. The goal: to break the world record for top speed in an electric vehicle, 248mph. |
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Over the next two years (2000-2002) the team of undergraduate engineering students designed and built the Buckeye Bullet. The vehicle debuted on the Bonneville salt flats in October of 2002. Over the course of 2 years of racing at Bonneville and optimization back in the shop in Ohio, the Bullet worked its way up to a top speed of 321 mph. October of 2004 saw the top speeds of the bullet and the shattering of the existing records. The new national record was set at 314.958 mph and the international record at 271.737 mph. These variations are due to rule differences and averaging speed runs which you can read more about on our landspeed racing page. The Buckeye Bullet was retired after it’s October 2004 runs, but still holds the both the national and international landspeed records in the EIII class. Vehicle Info
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The Ohio State University’s involvement in electric racing
began in the Formula Lightning series. OSU campaigned their
vehicle, The Smokin Buckeye, throughout the 1990’s. The
series was a collegiate open wheel formula style race that
traveled to major racetracks around the country.
Thirty-one lead acid batteries powered the vehicle and by the
end of the series the team could do a full pit stop/battery
change in under 17 seconds. Ohio State dominated the
competition winning more than 50% of the races entered and every
national championship ever awarded. The year 2000 would
see the final running of the Smoking Buckeye.