Students from Delft University are working on the fastest hydrogen racing car ever. This Forze IX is more than a “study project”, because the brutal car is actually produced.
The team has already built the world’s first hydrogen race car, but is now taking it even more seriously. Forze is entering into a partnership with hydrogen car manufacturer Hyundai. Together they build the fastest hydrogen race car ever.
The Forze IX is powered by an electric motor, which gets its energy from hydrogen. The maximum power of the race car is 805 hp in boost (for a few seconds). These horsepower, combined with a weight of only 1,500 kilograms, ensure a zero-to-hundred sprint of less than 3 seconds and a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour.
The students will be assisted during the new project by engineers from Hyundai, but they also have some experience with hydrogen cars themselves.
Not their first hydrocar
The team started in 2008. The students made the very first hydrogen kart ever with the Forze I. It wasn’t until the Forza IV that the team got off the kart and turned it into a race car. In 2015 the students produced the Forze VI. It drove over the Nürburgring Nordschleife in less than 11 minutes and took the title “fastest hydrogen racing car”.
Since 2017 – with the arrival of the VII – the design of the hydrogen car has been thoroughly revised. The design has since resembled a Le Mans car. It remains to be seen whether the hydrogen will also achieve comparable performance. The team expects to have the car finished in 2022.
Emission-Free Racing
Despite the many revolutionary technologies implemented within the Forze IX, the basic principle of the hydrogen car remains the same. During racing, hydrogen from the tanks is combined with oxygen from the air in the fuel cell. There, a chemical reaction takes place where electricity is generated, with which the electric motors are powered. The only emission from this process is water. It is comparable to electric driving, although there is a big difference: instead of waiting for charging, you can just refuel the hydrogen tank, and the race car is ready to hit the track within a few minutes. With this design the team expects to make a big leap in the world of green racing. Therefore, they will put in all of their efforts to make sure the Forze IX will be able to complete its first laps in the summer of 2021.
