Forze

Forze
Full name	Forze Hydrogen Racing Team
Location	Delft, Netherlands 51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E / 51.999583°N 4.37639°E / 51.999583; 4.37639Coordinates: 51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E / 51.999583°N 4.37639°E / 51.999583; 4.37639
Website	www.forze-delft.nl

Forze is Delft University of Technology's Hydrogen Racing Team. It was founded in 2007 by Edgar van Os and has built 6 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The team's offices and workshops are located in the D:DREAM hall on the campus of the Delft University of Technology. In this factory hall, designed by architect Dirk Roosenburg, all the universities dream-teams are located.

Competitions

Formula Zero

The team started competing in the 2008 Formula Zero Championship, the world’s first ever hydrogen fuel cell championship. Given the importance of the upcoming Hydrogen economy and considering climate change and oil related problems, the project draws a lot of attention from international media.^[1]^[2]

The first season was limited to one event in the inner city of Rotterdam next to the famous Erasmus Bridge. The second season consisted of a European Cup and a separate Grand Prix in the city center of Torino. The third season again only had one race, held the center of The Hague. This event was organized by the Forze Team.

Formula Student

The Formula Zero competition did not prove to grow into what it promised to be during the first years. The team then continued to do something new and moved on to the Formula Student competition.

Team

Greenchoice Forze, Forze I Team Photo in front of University Library

All members of the team are students, from the first year up to final year students and come from a wide range of faculties. Most of the students involved in the project do this as an extracurricular activity, in their own spare time. Only the management is involved on a full-time basis.

Management

	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
1	Edgar van Os	Ivo Salters	Koen Lubbers	Wouter Krul	Jan Jaap Treurniet	Michel Haak	Ruiz Knöbel	Menno Dalmijn
2	Koen Legrand	Teunis Schuurman	Edwin De Kreij	Charlie van der Schoor	Andrew Hagens	Albert Mulder	Jonas Brendelberger	Nils Barfknecht
3		Leon de Poorter	Hielke Wesdorp	Mart Moerdijk	Matthijs Jansen	Ruben Burger	Remco Duba	Mart van Rijsingen
4				Bob Wittebrood	Jelle Boersma	Ruben Grandia	Martin Hartvelt	Anton Stoop
5				Pieter Danneels	Thomas Arink	Matthijs Damen	Thijs van Winden	Joost Kortleve
6				Matthijs Koornneef		Tiemen Joustra	Kevin van Giessen	Jan Bot
7						Niels van Duijkeren	Ruben Biesheuvel	Bob Ligtvoet
8						Stefan van Seggelen	Philip Coenen
9						Kevin Schreiber

Drivers

During the third season a new team member with karting experience became the third driver for the team. This Charlie van der Schoor was also more closely involved with the development of the Forze3. In season 4 the team said farewell to Martin Buitelaar as a driver. He was no longer a student and took on a full-time job outside the racing industry. For season 4 the team raced in the Formula Student (UK) competition and therefore needed more drivers to be able to compete in all the events. A selection among the team members was organised by Buitelaar where Marco van't Wout, Arie Nap and Lennert van den Boom were selected. Buitelaar also organizes the driver training from season 4 onward. For the 6th season only licensed drivers are allowed.

Driver	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013
1	Martin Buitelaar	Martin Buitelaar	Andrew Hagens	Andrew Hagens	Kevin Schreiber
2	Andrew Hagens	Andrew Hagens	Marco van't Wout	Jan Bot	Jan Bot
3		Charlie van der Schoor	Charlie van der Schoor	Charlie van der Schoor
4			Arie Nap	Arie Nap
5				Kevin Schreiber

Events

The goal of the team is to promote hydrogen technology, especially for the automotive industry. To reach this goal the team participates in different types of events.

Displaying the technology at expositions and happenings.
Giving demonstrations of the technology at automotive or sustainable technology events
Racing in city centres to promote possible futures for an environmentally friendly motorsport

Races

Greenchoice Forze on the stage after winning the world championship in 2008

Date	Race	Car	Result
23-08-2008	Formula Zero World Championship	Forze I	1st place
summer 2009	Formula Zero European Home Grand Prix	Forze II	3rd place
11-10-2009	Formula Zero GP Torino	Forze II	1st place
19-08-2010	Formula Zero GP The Hague	Forze III	1st place
17-07-2011	Formula Student UK	Forze IV	DNF
15-07-2012	Formula Student UK	Forze V	55th place

World Record

The team did several official and unofficial world record attempts to beat the FIA world land speed record for hydrogen powered fuel cell cars under 500 kg on the 1/8th mile. On the 3rd of October 2010 the team would attempt to break the world record held by the Formula Zero Mark II at 11,2 seconds. This attempt would take place on the island of Aruba on the Palo Marga International Raceway Park. No FIA officials where present making this an unofficial attempt. Unfortunately due to heavy rain part of the island flooded and the attempt was pushed to the 4th of October. In a much smaller time frame with almost no time to prepare the vehicle the team managed to set a time of 9,77 seconds.

On the 16th of August 2011 the team organized an official attempt on the Princess Beatrixlaan in the center of The Hague. With the help of the Dutch national autosport federation (KNAF) a licensed track to FIA standards was put up. The Forze IV hydrogen vehicle drove a time of 10,45 seconds that day. After several months the FIA ruled that this measured time was not an official land speed record because of an error in the by KNAF submitted documents to the FIA.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.