and others, that runs on hydrogen under the label of “999”. OK, hydrogen powered car, big deal right? Well, this particular car ran at over 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats making it the fastest hydrogen powered production based car. And I do mean production based. It ran a regular Fusion body on it, not what NA$CAR considers being production based. So chalk one up for Ford on this. But notice that Roush is involved in this deal which makes me wonder if maybe Jack knows a few things that we don’t.
Since the beginning of the sport, they’ve ran leaded fuel until recently. They switched over to unleaded fuel for all three series. No sooner than NA$CAR had done that than folks were screaming for NA$CAR to switch over to E85 ethanol. I don’t have a problem with running ethanol as a race fuel. It’s been done for years in other series. My problem with the E-85 deal is that one manufacturer is trying to ram it down our throats along with using crate engines. Crate engines are another step closer to a total spec car racing series. Not to mention what this latest craze for E-85 is doing to grocery and feed prices. But I digress. The technology for an ethanol racing engine is out there. It’s proven. But because it wasn’t developed in conjunction with NA$CAR and the Royal Family of Daytona, the Beach Boy Bubbas are dragging their feet. They could’ve been using ethanol a decade ago easily. IRL’s been running ethanol. NHRA has cars that race using ethanol. Heck, they even have cars that have been running on straight alcohol for as long as I can remember. So it’s possible to run a racing engine on ethanol. If you want to pull in those fans of the “green machine” NA$CAR, since you’re chasing away a lot of others, you might want to start moving towards ethanol. Or maybe you’re looking at another fuel source.
The fans of the “green machine” are even divided on which way to go. Some say they want electric powered vehicles. Well, OK, let’s say NA$CAR does switch over to electric powered vehicles. Is there a technology out there that would allow for a battery to power a race vehicle for 400 miles at 180 mph? Is there an electric motor that could last for 500 miles of racing? Well, I can think of one battery that probably could, but you run into the problem of radioactive materials. It’s the same sort of battery that’s used on some of our unmanned galactic explorers. So since that wouldn’t be very “eco-friendly”, we need to look at more conventional type batteries. I don’t know of too many batteries that can be recharged in the course of a 13 second pit stop. So, maybe running heat races would be the way to go. Run 50 laps, pull into the pits, and then recharge the batteries. While the batteries are recharging, run a Busch heat race for 50 laps. I’m just using 50 laps as an example here. At the end of the 50 laps of Busch racing, the Cup car batteries are recharged, and then they could run another 50 laps before recharging. Then roll out the Truck series for 50 laps. Eventually, all the series run their heat races and main events, and by sunrise the next morning, we have all 3 series having completed all their heat races and racing and the fans can go home tired, but happy that they’ve seen a lot f racing action during the course of a night. Nah, not really practical.
I had thought about solar powered cars, but that would eliminate all the night races on the circuit. NA$CAR would have to be very careful on when and where they scheduled their races. Florida is known for having a lot of summertime rain. I can vouch for that having spent many a summer vacation having to be indoors because it was pouring outside. Not to mention the hurricanes that affects the eastern seaboard. And even having days of heavy overcast would throw the schedule into a tizzy. So solar powered wouldn’t exactly be a way to go unless they plan to run races in the desert southwest for most of the year.
One of the things the “green machine” keeps talking about is renewable energy in the form of wind power. A wind powered car? Well, maybe if you used sails on them, but that would be impractical. The only place they’d be able to run consistently during the year would either be Daytona Beach or Washington DC and that’s because of all the hot air that’s generated there. So that would be impractical.
Hydrogen power looks like it might have some promise. It’s renewable, which would please the “green machine”. It combust, which is something that would be needed since most of our current vehicle technology depends on combustion. You could have 13 second pit stops like we currently have. Since Ford tested hydrogen in a Fusion, that would mean NA$CAR would finally have to go to fuel injection and get away from the standard carbureted engine they’ve been using since the beginning. We’d have actual rocket scientist involved with the engineering of the engine. Technology to develop a fuel cell which could withstand hard impacts is already available thanks to the aerospace program. So a hydrogen powered racing vehicle is feasible. And it could be done sooner than an electrical powered race car.
Of course, this would mean a major cutback for the Official Fuel Supplier we currently have since they’re not really into producing hydrogen. But they could stick around as the Official Supplier of Lubricants for the different series since they’d still need lubricants for the various moving metal parts which would still be required.
One problem which would have to be addressed would be what to do with all the water that would be produced out the exhaust as a by-product of the hydrogen combustion. A water trap of some sort would need to be developed to keep the water off of the track, unless you like to see cars spinning and wrecking every lap. Or, and I know this would be a stretch, go back to using treaded tires like they had in the old days so they’d still have grip
even in the water that‘s produced. And imagine
the saving for the teams with being able to run
street tires that have actual tread on them. You
know Badyear wouldn’t be happy about that. The
teams might actually be able to race several
races on the same set of tires. And God forbid
one of King Brian’s Brand Sense clients should
lose money like they have the past couple of
years with their tire control program.
So while racing with some sort of alternative fuel
or power source is still a ways away, it may not
be as far fetched as some folks might think. Of
course, some of this depends on how much
foot-dragging is done down in Daytona and how
fast certain technologies can be developed. And all of this speculation, theory, and hypothesis
will be for nothing if one thing doesn’t change. And that’s the current leadership taking this sport in the direction it’s currently headed.
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