Swiss student team AMZ Racing has shattered the 0-to-60 mph acceleration record for electric vehicles, leaving the likes of Rimac, Porsche and Tesla weeping. The Mythen WR hit the magic 60 in just 0.956 seconds, slashing the previous record by almost half a second.
The car itself weighs the same as a large human, at only 137Kg. Fitted with four motors, it can call on combined 240kW of power. The lithium polymer batteries are geared around voltage stability at high load and the hydraulic decoupled suspension works hard to ensure that every drop of the power is delivered directly to the tarmac. With pride, we can say that UK manufacturer Hoosier is the sole supplier of tyre to racing cars in this class.
Before we dig into how it was accomplished by students, there's time for one more ‘point of perspective': The Goodwood Hill Record was recently smashed by the McMurtry Spéirling electric racing car. The McMurtry can hit 60mph in 1.4 seconds. This car is much, much faster.
So how did a group of students manage to do what multi-billion dollar corporations have failed to achieve?
To answer that question, you need to back to the USA in 1905, when cars looked a lot like motorised prams. The Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) was founded to help create standards in the automotive industry and to promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge. Among the organisations key inventions were classifications for motor oils, ideas for standardising horsepower and the implementation of the VIN numbers stamped on every car in the world today. In 1980, they laid down the rules for a new racing competition, Formula SAE.
The underlying idea is truly inspiring: To push the limits of electric racing and inspire young minds to take on challenges in engineering and business. As a multidisciplinary team, they build on the foundation of previous year’s successes, to continue to be a ‘World Reference’ for EV racing in general – and autonomous racing in particular. That’s right, not only do the students create unbelievably quick sports cars for human drivers – they also compete against each other with no one in the cockpit.
One of the teams competing is AMZ. Founded in 2006 as the Academic Motorsports Club of Zurich, AMZ is continuously enriched by each year’s influx of students from Zurich’s ETH engineering university. Together, they compete in Formula Student races across Europe and they now have strong backing from BMW, EKZ energy and Thyssen Krupp among others.
AMZ was the first Swiss team to compete in Formula Student and they now have the best reputation for performance engineering – securing their permanent place in the history books with a Guinness World Record.
The team has both Active and Veteran members to help encourage a balance of innovative new ideas and the best of each previous year's achievements. Indeed, this year's world record breaking car drew inspiration from a previous design idea that competed in 2019.
All they ask is that you are a student at a Swiss university, willing to learn, to be productive and have a deep fascination with motorsports. If you tick those criteria, then you’re encouraged to join. Unsurprisingly, being in the AMZ team is now taken as a ‘huge positive ‘on any potential applicant's CV when applying for ‘jobs in the real world’ after college.
Here in the UK, there are many teams engaged with Formula Student, including university teams from Bath, Sheffield, Cardiff, Oxford Brookes, Birmingham and Portsmouth – as well as an independent team and one focused solely on a competition at Silverstone itself.
