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A Triumph Daytona 675 powered by bioethanol fuel today reached an
astonishing track speed of 158.7 mph at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground!
The biofuel used for this groundbreaking initiative was produced from
windfall apples by A-level students from a local school.
Devised by Rupert Paul, contributing
editor of Bike magazine, “Project Fast Fruit” aimed to convert and run a
high performance vehicle on biofuel using only basic equipment. As such,
the fuel was produced in a Chemistry Lab as part of an A-level project
by students from the Prince William School in Oundle, Northamptonshire.
Triumph Motorcycles, the iconic British
motorcycle manufacturer, initially entered into the scheme some four
months ago by providing its world leading Daytona 675 model as the test
bike. Today’s successful final run was the result of four months of hard
work – the school having fermented and distilled around 6,000 crushed
apples while Bike magazine modified the Daytona’s engine to run on
bioethanol.
Surprisingly little modification was
required – just a remap of the fuel injection system. The engine was
then tested thoroughly using commercially available E85 (85% ethanol)
with very encouraging results. The project then moved to the next phase,
with testing and optimization of the engine using the fuel produced by
the students before undertaking today’s run at Bruntingthorpe.
Rupert Paul of Bike magazine commented,
“We believe that achieving a speed 158.7mph sets a record for a
production bike on home-brewed fuel. Biofuel is a buzzword at the
moment, with the Government setting a target for all petrol and diesel
to contain a minimum 5% biofuel by 2010. Although they are still
questionable from an environmental point of view, biofuels are here to
stay, and this experiment was all about exploring how much power we
could extract from them – as well as having some fun.”
Andrea Friggi, PR & Communications
Manager at Triumph Motorcycles commented,
“At the moment all Triumph motorcycles are designed for optimum
performance with non-ethanol fuel but are compatible with E10 (10%
ethanol). We’re currently investigating making all models compatible
with E25 fuel so while this is a fun experiment it does have a serious
side and we’re looking forward to reviewing the results.”
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