Pioneering and unique British bio diesel sportscar project to debut at
one of the world's top sportscar events
Environmentally inspired British racing team, ECO Racing is to race its
production engined bio diesel sports prototype race car in the upcoming
12 Hours of Sebring, one of the world motorsport's most prestigious and
demanding events.
The ECO Racing #10 Radical LMP1 sports prototype will be driven by
experienced sportscar stars, Ben Collins and Harri Toivonen, together
with historic sportscar racer, Simon Wright.
The Team has been created by pioneering race engineer, Ian Dawson and is
dedicated to developing, using and showcasing environmentally efficient
technologies through elite international motorsport.
In 2004 Dawson raced the first ever bio diesel sportscar at Le Mans, two
full years ahead of the debut of Audi's diesel racer and three years
ahead of fellow diesel powered rival Peugeot.
Since that time, Dawson has continued to develop the production road
car based V10 engine, creating a partnership with D1 Oils to use the
Jatropha based bio diesel fuel. All test bed and on track testing has
been undertaken using Jatropha bio diesel. The Jatropha curcas tree is
a drought resistant inedible oilseed plant which makes use of otherwise
unusable land and has no impact upon the foodchain.
Ian Dawson "The environment and climate change is dominating the news
and views of the population, yet our lifestyles continue to demand the
very best that science and technology can provide. The challenge is to
become smarter and more efficient as we pursue our dreams."
"Elite motorsport can play a vital role in the development of energy
efficient solutions in materials, electronics, energy storage and fuel
technology."
The 12 Hours of Sebring gets underway on Saturday 15 March at 1505 GMT
(1005 EST) and will be televised live in the UK.
-credit: eco
