Nut shells recycled into racing car
3rd September 2009

You don't have to be nuts to bolt a racing car together from old yoghurt pots and potato peelings, but it helps.

And for researchers at Ulster University (UU) in Northern Ireland it made perfect sense to use anything that can be recycled, spun and woven into high-tech biomaterials.

In this case, cashew-nut shells and potato starch have been re-engineered by Dr Julie Soden and colleagues into a Formula 3 car capable of 130mph. Quite what car insurance bracket it will fall into is unclear.

Helped by Warwick University's Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre, the team built the car around unique bargeboards, which redirect and energise airflow behind the front wheels.

These are made from a material reinforced by high-strength flax fibres woven into a multiple-layer fabric at the Belfast campus of the UU, and have been incorporated into a full-scale demonstrator.

Running on biodiesel, it was given its first public outing by A1 Grand Prix champion racing driver Adam Carroll at this year's Goodwood's Festival of Speed.

Says Dr Soden: "It is exciting and refreshing to see an actual product coming out of the research lab.

"The next step in the process is the testing and improvement of the first design, so the initial work will be built upon to show the full potential and the scope of the research.

"While the safety critical parts are not made from sustainable materials, the racing car is evidence of the significant advances made by researchers into what is readily achievable in the sustainable composites field."

And in the event of it being crashed, it's handy to be able to tell the car insurance broker that all the bits can be recycled.

Copyright © Press Association 2009

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