Hydrogen-powered Ford car hits 161 mph in race

DETROIT FREE PRESS

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, Utah — Two years ago, a group of Ohio State University students asked Ford Motor Co. if it was interested in building a hydrogen-fueled race car. On Aug. 12, the result of that proposal made history.

The Ford Fusion 999, a hydrogen- and electric-powered car designed to whip across the salty white desert during Bonneville Speed Week, zoomed across the infinite horizon at 161 mph.

It was the first time a hydrogen-powered car had ever competed at the salt flats, where all manner of modified, souped-up vehicles come every August to break land-speed records.

The engineers and designers of Ford’s project want to prove that a nontraditional motor can propel a car at least 200 mph.

“That’s the goal,” said Matt Zuehlk, the project leader for Ford’s 999.

By doing so, he said, the car will help change the perception that alternative-fuel cars lack muscle and grit. If it happens, company brass can thank the budding designers and engineers at OSU. They turned to Ford because the students’ electric-only cars had hit a ceiling at Bonneville.

The students figured adding hydrogen fuel cells might allow for more speed. Ford decided not only to help add hydrogen power to the Buckeye Bullet but also to model a potentially realistic version based on the Fusion.

That green-and-black design has drawn crowds since Speed Week opened Aug. 11. Its mix of slick, iconic corporate logos and futuristic setup stands out even among the streamlined rockets on wheels that blast down the salt at more than 300 mph.

In fact, several hundred spectators gathered near the start line when 999 attempted its first qualifying run. A failed cooling pump derailed that initial run, and the team of engineers and mechanics spent half the night replacing it.

With that fixed, the 999 raced toward history Aug. 12, and might have gone faster if the driver, Dearborn native Rick Byrnes, had not pulled the parachute a mile early.

“I had a brain fade,” Byrnes said.

The retired Ford engineer has been racing at Bonneville for 20 years. Almost 10 years ago he piloted a German-designed racer powered by a turbocharged Pinto engine past 200 mph, the Holy Grail for those who descend on Utah’s northeast corner at the end of every summer.

“I was just so excited to be in that car,” Byrnes said.

On Monday, having qualified with the 161 mph run, the team returned to the track to make its first run at 200 mph. But before Byrnes got even a mile, a hydrogen sensor shut down the engine.

“They have multiple safety features,” Byrnes said with a grin, “mostly for me.”

The car’s electric motor is fed by a fuel cell that generates electricity by combining oxygen and hydrogen. The technology is not new, but harnessing enough power to push that technology so fast is.

So the car was built, much like an airplane, with dozens of safety redundancies. An earlier breakdown turned out to be an aerodynamic problem.

“We are learning,” said Mujeeb Ijaz, Ford’s manager of Fuel Cell Vehicle Engineering. “It’s acting like a racecar.”

But that race car is not much different in appearance from a production line sedan available at dealers. And that’s the point, said Zuehlk: “If you look around here at the racetrack, we are the only hydrogen car. That’s a metaphor for the United States right now.”

By racing among internal combustion beasts at Bonneville, Ford hopes it is taking a step in changing that.