New car news

27 April 2009 - 12:00

Hot chocolate

Beware: the race cars are after your confectionary. WorldFirst, a team from an English University, has developed a eco-friendly Formula 3 racer that runs on chocolate.

OK, not chocolate, exactly. Wedge a Mars Bar into the EcoF3's fuel tank and you'll be faced with a dead race car with a somewhat gooey engine. But it does run on oils derived from chocolate beans, making the WorldFirst racer an ideal solution to both the ecological and obesity crises facing the world.

There's more greenness onboard, too: the EcoF3's bodywork is made from potatoes, its seat from soybeans and its steering wheel from carrots. Rumours that it'll be lubricated by Vegemite instead of engine oil are entirely unfounded.

Because of its unconventional fuel source (sauce?), the EcoF3 is currently ineligible to race in Formula 3, but the WorldFirst team says it's hopeful that F3 organisers will change the regulations to allow them to compete next year. And then they're aiming even higher.

"We hope the Formula 1 teams will see that an environmentally friendly car is not necessarily a slow car," said a WorldFirst spokesman. "We expect our new materials to be used by the Formula 1 cars of the future."

Chocolate in the F1 paddock? Kimi Raikkonen will be delighted...