In the four-wheel sector, the most impressive accelerations often originate from some of the most prestigious sports car brands in the world. Electric mobility has meant that some recently created firms are also capable of achieving figures capable of surprising speed lovers.
But what is not at all common is that a group of students manages to surpass the records achieved by the giants of the sector. An electric vehicle named Mythen, designed and built by young Swiss people, has broken the Guinness record for acceleration of a handcrafted racing vehicle.
The project is the result of collaboration between the student team AMZ Racing Team, ETH Zurich University (Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Lucerne. And the result has been truly impressive, since the vehicle was able to reach 100 km/h from a standstill in just 0.956 seconds, a time in which it only needed to travel a distance of 12.3 meters.
The world record took place at the Swiss military airfield in Dübendorf. At the wheel, at the time of achieving the feat, was the student Kate Maggetti, whose objective was not to compete with world-famous rivals within the automotive industry such as the Tesla Model S Plaid or the Lucid Air Sapphire, with 1.98 and 1.89 seconds, respectively. The rival to beat was a team from the University of Stuttgart, which set the previous record in September 2022 with its handmade vehicle and a time of 1.461 seconds.
The Mythen is a totally unique, go-kart looking little car. It should be noted that all the components of this particular example, from the electrical control system to the chassis and batteries, were developed by the students. To achieve this remarkable feat, the students managed to make the racing car weigh only 140 kg.
The vehicle moves thanks to four hub motors integrated into each of the four wheels, thanks to which a combined power of 240 kW is achieved. Among the many details that had to be thought of from the first moment were those related to aerodynamics to achieve maximum traction from a standstill.
To achieve this goal, the students designed a type of custom-made vacuum cleaner responsible for keeping the vehicle stuck to the ground using suction. It is worth remembering that the AMZ Racing team has years of experience in this type of projects, as it also broke this same record in 2014 and 2016 with students from that time.
If you are interested in learning more about the impressive acceleration capacity of the Mythen and witnessing the moment it breaks the world record, you just have to take a look at the video that accompanies this article.
