Students break world record: from 0 to 100 km/h in under one second

• Students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University have set a new world record for accelerating an electrically powered vehicle.
• Their self-built electric racing car called “mythen” accelerated from a standstill to 100 km/h in just 12.3 meters in 0.956 seconds.
• The previous acceleration record in this class was 1.461 seconds, set by a team from the University of Stuttgart.

Anyone who watches this video will get an idea of ​​what it must feel like to accelerate so quickly. For exactly a year, young people worked on the “mythen” electric racer in their free time outside of regular study times. Their goal: to bring the acceleration record, previously held by students from Stuttgart, back to Switzerland.

With success, the new world record stands and has been officially confirmed by Guinness World Records, which is around a third below the previous best time. The “Akademischer Motorsportverein Zurich” (AMZ) is understandably very happy.

Working on the project parallel to my studies was very intensive. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to continually find new solutions with my colleagues and to put into practice what I had learned theoretically during my studies. And of course it is an absolutely unique experience to be involved in a world record.

Yann Bernard, engine developer

The world record racer only weighs 140 kilograms. Together with the driver Kate Maggetti, the weight added up to around 180 kilograms. In contrast, there are wheel hub electric motors developed by the team that produce a total of 240 kW (326 hp).

So that the power can be effectively transferred to the road, the team developed a type of vacuum cleaner that presses the car onto the ground. By the way: The printed circuit boards (PCB), the chassis and the battery used were also developed, tested and optimized by the students themselves.

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