electrical current flows through
the coil, it experiences a force and
moves. The direction of the current
must be reversed every half turn, otherwise the coil comes to a halt
again, and therefore would stop.
Inside an internal combustion
engine block, Oxygen and fuel
ignite to force down a piston,
which then propels the crankshaft.
The magnets essentially do the
same; however, the crankshaft then
leads to a spline which exits the
back of the motor’s case. A drive
shaft is connected from the motor’s
differential and leads to the rear axle
, which is a limited slip diff concept,
(it’s a direct drive build by Sadev).
All 1368bhp is transferred onto the
road by sticky Hankook R18 slick
tyres with BBS magnesium alloys.
The Drive eO has two battery packs
on board which contain 2646
individually tested and machined
lithium ion cells, delivering 720v
DC and 49Wh of energy. They wind
up in a hermetically sealed and
isolated aluminium containers weighing 345Kg. The battery pack is capable of a full discharge in less than eight minutes, with no need of any liquid cooling, allowing for some weight savings.
Like any electric vehicle, DC must be converted to AC, so Drive eO has designed its own Inverter. There are six controllers which are all laid together and have to be water cooled to avoid overheating.
The team were able to exploit weight and packaging by having a simple DP chassis. On either side of the driver, lay the battery packs, with the dielectric cooled motors behind and in front of the roll cage.
The chassis is constructed from steel tubes, which are coated in Carbon Fibre
panels, with a one piece aluminium floor.
For the suspension, the car has double wishbones all round with rocker arm actuation at all four corners of the car. The uprights are aluminium with coil over dampers and springs.
AP racing supply the brakes which are a hydraulic circuit with a one-piece alloy brake calliper. The bulkhead of the PP03 is very tidy. Brake cooling utilizes a simple pipe guiding cool air to the pads and discs.
At the rear, the sub-frame is quite tidy as well, with orange voltage cables for better performance and an efficient layout of its water cooling pipes for the inverter.
On the aerodynamics, there are some innovative ideas, which show the team haven’t spent all their time on the
mechanical side. There is a front mounted wing which is the double element which is adjustable by 1800mm. Two simple aerofoils in a set of endplates which pass a clean (Non-turbulent) flow over the car, also offers a downforce benefit on the front wheels.
The team opted for a high angle of attack on the aerofoils as more downforce was generated. They also decided on two aerofoils as the effect and performance gain is even great than one larger airfoil.
Behind the front wheels, there are two ducts on the leading edge of the bodywork and on the inner section making up the bonnet. These are helping set up the flow for the rear wing. Drive eO spent countless hours in CFD designing the aero for the car
and created these ducts to help low management. The team wanted clean, less turbulent air flow to the rear wing which was somewhat compromised by the
exposed roll cage.
The rear wing is a double main plane concept which is adjustable by 2000mm. The massive rear wing provided plenty of stability and traction for Rhys as he tackled the hill climb.
The car is both brilliant and simple.
With just under one year in construction and design, Drive e0 and Rhys’ accomplishment of smashing the record was well deserved.