Hydrogen might be the fuel of the future – and always will be – but that hasn't stopped Radical Sportscars and the Cranfield University from envisioning what a hydrogen racer would look like.
And it looks a lot like the Radical RXC, but for good reason.
The goal of the project was to quickly create a one-make racing series for hydrogen cars, adapting the chassis and the Ford-sourced V6 to run on that oh-so-ubiquitous element. They weren't allowed to use fuel cells, so two cylinders mounted on either side of the engine bay hold either compressed or liquid hydrogen that's fed into the Ecoboost mill.
Based on the team's modeling, the engine will put out 669 horsepower and 567 lb-ft of torque, with 6.7 kilograms of compressed hydrogen on board. But it's not all theoretical.
The team used both static and dynamic tests to validate the engine results, and also tested the chassis and bodywork to ensure they were up to snuff in the event of a crash. No, they don't plan to build it, but considering the university's Advanced Motorsport Engineering post-grad program trains students for careers in the racing industry, the idea won't be just limited to academia.