General News
Drayson electric race car takes to Goodwood hill
The Drayson Racing Technologies electric-powered prototype racing car, the B12/69EV, has taken to the Goodwood Hill in style on its first public outing.
Cosworth has provided the electronic control system for the fully electric prototype racing car. The Cosworth system is the effective 'brain' of the vehicle interpreting the signals from the throttle and brake pedals and managing the flow of electricity from the batteries to the 850bhp electric drivetrain to provide both power and braking. The system replaces the ECU found a conventional internal combustion powered vehicle and is extremely small and lightweight - approximately the size of a large matchbox, an important feature as every inch of space is at a premium on today's racing and road cars.
Thomas Buckler, Sport Business Unit Leader, Cosworth Group:
"Our team have demonstrated the full scope of Cosworth's electronic engineering capabilities in supporting Drayson Racing Technologies in the B12/69E project. Creating a control system capable of harnessing the leading edge technologies in the B12/69E has made full use of the auto-coding and rapid prototyping features of our Sigma system and provided some rewarding challenges for our application support engineers. It's been hugely pleasing to see our electronics applied to control a ground-breaking fully electric racing car and I'm sure we will see more like it in the near future. Everyone in the Cosworth team are looking forward to seeing the time that the B12/69E sets at Goodwood."
Tim Routsis, Chief Executive, Cosworth Group:
"I firmly believe that projects such as the Drayson B12/69E that seek to advance the art of the possible play a huge part in developing the foundation technologies of our future. I'm proud that Cosworth is able to apply our high performance know-how to make these projects a reality. The Drayson Racing Technologies project highlights the superb capability and value for money that the UK high performance engineering industry offers not just to motor racing but to adjacent markets including mainstream automotive manufacturers."
