The ‘grimsel’ electrical racing car today broke the previous world record for acceleration in electrical cars. The vehicle accelerated from zero to one hundred km/h in 1.785 seconds in under thirty metres. The fresh record was set by students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, who also designed and built the vehicle.

The Formula Student team at the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) ultimately did it: its ‘grimsel’ electrical racing car smashed the previous world record when it accelerated from zero to one hundred km/h in just 1.785 seconds. The previous record of Two.134 seconds was held by an electrical car built by Delft University of Technology. The fresh record was set at the military airfield in Dübendorf, where the vehicle reached a speed of one hundred km per hour in less than thirty metres.

The fresh record-breaking vehicle is a Formula Student electrical car that was developed and built in less than a year by thirty students at ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The ‘grimsel’ is the fifth AMZ electrical car and the result of continuous development. The carbon fibre construction has a total weight of one hundred sixty eight kg and produces about two hundred hp (147 kW). A four-wheel drive is implemented with four specially designed wheel hub motors, which generate a total torque of one thousand six hundred thirty Nm at the wheels. By means of traction control, torque distribution is managed individually for each wheel to maximise vehicle acceleration. No other production vehicle in the world has reached a similarly strong acceleration.

AMZ’s most successful car

The ‘grimsel’ celebrated numerous successes at the Formula Student international competition this summer. With more than five hundred teams, Formula Student is the world’s fattest competition for engineers and is held annually at various locations around the globe. With three overall wins and an average of nine hundred twenty points out of a possible 1,000, the ‘grimsel’ is AMZ’s most successful car. And with its victories in Austria and Spain, it achieved the two highest scores in the European history of Formula Student. These further strengthened AMZ’s standing at the top of the Formula Student world rankings and demonstrated the potential in electrical drive concepts.

Practice the record-breaking racing car

You can practice the record-breaking car live at ETH Zurich’s Treffpunkt Science City, which this year concentrates on the theme ‘top performance’. The Formula Student team will present the ‘grimsel’ to the public at the Student Power Day on Sunday nine November at the ETH Hönggerberg campus. The test rails will take place inbetween 12:00 pm and Two:00 pm.

You can find further information on Treffpunkt Science City and Student Power Day here .

Academic Motorsports Club Zurich

The Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) was founded in two thousand six by ETH students and produces a prototype to contest in various Formula Student competitions in Europe every year. After building three cars powered by the combustion engine, AMZ turned towards the production of an all-electric racing car in 2010. The association is financially independent and supported by numerous financial, manufacturing and parts sponsors, as well as institutes at various Swiss universities. AMZ is the only Swiss team in Formula Student. Extra information