Bright sparks

The finest engineering brains in Oxford have been called on to help develop a revolutionary ‘green’ racing car which is taking to the tracks next year — the BRM Bee Four. What is more, the electric motor technology it uses is set to produce commercial spin-offs which could find their way into road-going electric cars within the next 18 months.

Reviving the BRM name, made famous in the 1950s, 60s and 70s in the world of Formula One Grand Prix racing, the new car is set to compete in the British Championship for speed hill-climbing, where drivers compete to be the fastest over a measured uphill course.

The BRM Bee Four is powered by four electric motors — one for each wheel — designed by the Electric Power Group at Oxford University, led by Dr Malcolm McCulloch and assisted by postgraduate student Will Treharne.

Meanwhile, experts at Oxford Brookes are working on the software which will control how the power is divided between the engines.

Stephen Voller, head of Bee Automobiles, the firm behind the new challenger, said: “The brains behind it is former Lotus Formula One designer Martin Ogilvie.

“He felt that it would demonstrate to the rest of the motor industry that electric cars are actually desirable. And we want to show that electric vehicle technology has the potential to outperform conventional internal combustion engines.”

The motor is a new version of a design first seen on the Morgan LIFEcar, as Dr McCulloch pointed out.

“We are adapting it to make a larger, more powerful version for the BRM Bee Four. It is called YASA, which stands for Yokeless and Segmented Armature Motor,” he said.

“Normally, motors are made with laminations but this one isn’t. We are using powder material technology to produce a much more compact and efficient unit.”

According to Dr McCulloch, the main advantage of using an electric motor is immediate full power on tap.

“It will deliver maximum torque, instantaneously, from zero to full speed, which is different to internal combustion engines: there is no gearbox and no clutch-slip.”

The rate of acceleration of the car will therefore be dictated by how efficiently its power —equivalent to around 700bhp — is transmitted via the tyres to the tarmac.

Not having a gearbox is a major plus, according to Mr Voller.

He said: “At a hill climb venue like Shelsley Walsh, the best cars go up in around 23 seconds. During this time, they have to make four or five gear changes, and each one represents time lost.”

The other significant innovation with the car is in the area of weight distribution.

“In a conventional race car you have a heavy V8 engine behind the driver. With the BRM Bee Four, the batteries are the most significant part of the weight and they are beneath the driver, so the car has perfect weight distribution.”

The use of a motor driving each wheel —effectively the same as a four-wheel drive system — is also a major advantage.

“The software can control the motors so, as you turn the wheel to take a corner, the inner motor turns slightly slower than the outer one, giving the same characteristics,” said Mr Voller.

It raises the possibility that one day there could be electric-powered Grands Prix.

“We will be able to come into the pits and exchange a battery, in the same way that cars come in to refuel now.

“There is no reason why there couldn’t be electric vehicle races over ten laps — or longer with pit stops for new battery packs — although at the moment, this is probably still a few years off,” added Mr Voller.

As is often the case in motor sport, the BRM Bee Four is being used as a guinea pig to develop technology that will benefit the rest of us in the longer term.

Mr Voller’s Reading-based company Bee Automobiles has ambitious plans for a range of road cars, starting with its Bee One model.

“We are looking to produce a Ford Fiesta-type family car by 2011, using much of the same technology as the race car, except there will be two, not four motors and they will be smaller.

“It will do 100 miles on one charge of the battery and be low-cost to run.

“Instead of a £20-£30 fuel bill, the same journey will cost about £1 in electricity. It takes less time to change the battery packs than it does to fill a car up with fuel, and if they can be recharged from a low-carbon source, such as a wind-turbine, you have a very environmentally-friendly vehicle,” he said.

“We are looking to produce it in the £8-£14,000 price band and we want to create a new British car company.”

Later, the range will be extended with a two-seat performance car capable of doing 0-60mph in under three seconds. It seems that Bee may not be the only company to benefit from these developments in electric motor technology, according to Dr McCulloch.

He said: “We are now looking at ‘productionising’ our engine so that it becomes extremely cost-effective for the large-scale auto industry, not just one-offs.

“We have funding from Isis Innovation to help develop these motors and commercialise them. They could be in a mass-manufactured car within a year to 18 months.”

o Contact: 0118 925 3292.

Web: www.beeautomobiles.com