Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research is a place we wish we go hang out at. They teach and train some of the best and brightest engineers for the future of the automotive industry, and they also go land speed racing. Since the late 1990s, Ohio State has fielded a series of streamliners called “The Buckeye Bullet”. They’ve run over 300mph with electric motors and hydrogen fuel cells, but now their sights are set on 400 mph and they are going back to the batteries and to some super computers to do it. 

Land Speed Racing has come a long way from the days of dudes unbolting the fenders and windshields from their ’32 Fords. While there is still lots of “eyeball aero” in play on the salt, more and more racers are using wind tunnels, and in the case of Ohio State, some high performance numbers crunchers.

OSC is the Ohio Supercomputer Center and they have teamed with the Buckeye team to run extensive and exhaustive aerodynamic simulations in order to create the optimum design for their newest streamliner. Specifically, the team is worried about shock waves forming under the car at the potential 400 mph top speeds they are looking to run. Rolling floor wind tunnels have no capacity to test a vehicle at those speeds, so all the math has to be done on the haul ass computers available at OSC. 

One of the interesting tid bits they let out in this release is that the driver is going to be placed ahead of the front wheels. They are also looking to test some air brakes, under car deflectors, and other potential innovations that would help them break the 400mph with electric power.

Those motors will be 100% cusom built pieces and will source their energy from cutting edge batteries. The car will also be constructed by the students involved in the program.

While we’re not crazy about electric vehicles, it is cool that this is a homegrown project at Ohio State and that their past track record shows the brainiacs involved in this program usually deliver the goods. Look for the car on the salt in 2012.

(Buckeye Bullet team using super computers for version 3)