A company from County Durham is hoping to lead the way in its drive to develop the first biodiesel engine to power a leading race car.
Scott Racing Ltd is aiming to fit its first prototype race engine to run on 100 per cent biodiesel engine into a car competing in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – with the current plan being to have a car running partly on the fuel running in the series during the coming season before running on 100 per cent biodiesel in 2008.
One NorthEast has backed the project with a £62,000 DTI Grant for Research and Development and Scott Racing is now keen to exploit a gap in the market as motor sport strives to boost its green credentials by adopting cleaner and more environmentally friendly fuels than petrol.
“Most of the existing cars run on petrol with a few on bioethanol - no-one has yet run a fully-biodiesel powered car, as technically it is very challenging,” company managing director and former Formula Ford 1600 driver Tim Scott said. “The British Touring Car Championship has led the way with regards to cleaner fuels, they are crying out for someone to bring in a biodiesel car and they are very supportive of our development.
“I'm passionate about motor sport and I think we can make a diesel car competitive in the short term and gradually ramp up the percentage of biodiesel in the fuel to make a competitive biodiesel touring car next year.
“The Research and Development Grant from One NorthEast has massively increased the potential of this project and enabled us to be far more innovative.”
Race teams will typically pay £200,000 for the design and build of a production engine to race specification, with each new engine after that costing up to £30,000 – teams using up to four race engines per car, per year.
Scott has enlisted the help of Dr Rob Dominy – director of the Centre for Automotive Research at Durham University – to lead project research and development and Ian Dixon – a former world championship cyclist - to manage company marketing.
“It is very likely that
Formula One as well as other championships will turn increasingly to green fuels and look at energy saving technology,” Dixon said. “This is the right time for this project; the environment is high on everyone's agenda, so people are much more aware and we believe we have the capability to deliver a competitive biodiesel engine.”
