The fastest electric vehicles on earth: A history of electric land speed racing and of the Venturi Buckeye Bullet program

For more than two decades the Buckeye Bullet landspeed racing team at The Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research has pushed the absolute limits of electric vehicle racing. From batteries to hydrogen fuel cells, the team holds every national and international speed record in the unlimited weight class, with top speeds well into the 300 MPH range. The mission of the team is to push the automotive technologies of tomorrow to their maximum performance limits, while training the next generation of automotive engineering leaders in a new and exciting way. With this mission in mind the team is currently developing the ultimate landspeed electric vehicle, the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 3. The VBB3 is powered by more than 2.5 megawatts of the latest generation of lithium ion batteries, cutting edge IPM motors and variable frequency drives. For the first time since the Jamais Contente in 1899, an electric vehicle has been designed with the intent of directly competing with its fossil fueled counterparts. The team hopes to push the electric landspeed record over 400 MPH and eventually set the ultimate wheel driven record in excess of 450 MPH. This paper illustrates the model based design of the vehicle architecture, vehicle packaging and aerodynamic design strategy, selection of a battery technology and development of the pack, integration of the electric powertrain, and the testing results to date. The paper concludes with an overview of the work to be carried out in 2015 as the team prepares for 400 MPH world record attempts.