Penn Electric Racing featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer

After a streak of high-profile wins, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Tom Avril visited the Penn Electric Racing workshop to talk about their next project.

They are the New York Yankees of the collegiate electric race car circuit in North America, dominating competitions with a combination of raw acceleration, handling, and endurance. So what does a team of more than 80 University of Pennsylvania undergraduates do this year?

Scrap the winning design in favor of a bold new approach: four-wheel drive.

Unlike gasoline-powered engines, electric motors can immediately rotate a car’s wheels with peak force — a quality that gearheads refer to admiringly as “instant max torque.” But some of that extra oomph is wasted if the wheels slip and skid. So instead of using one big motor in this year’s car, Penn Electric Racing is installing four smaller ones — one in each wheel — controlled by an onboard computer that delivers varying amounts of power to the wheels as needed.

The goal: a road-hugging rocket that can round the corners at high speed.

Continue reading at the Philadelphia Inquirer.