IM01 is the Racecar of the Future. Nürburgring, You’ve Been Put on Notice
What happens when you cross a Formula 1 car, a World Endurance LeMans prototype, and a group of design and engineering students? You get this unholy monstrosity.
This is the IM01. The name stands for InMotion Motorsports, the group challenged to build this creation, and the chassis number, 01. The car, if you could call it that, was devised by a group of students from both the Technical University of Eindhoven and the Fontys University of Applied Sciences and was thought up for one goal alone. Beat the Nürburgring.
We all know what the Nürburgring is, we’ve played in on Forza and Grand Turismo, watched countless YouTube videos of cars flying around the course, and wished and hoped that someday we would get a go on the infamous German track. Now, this intrepid group of young brilliant minds wants to go for the all-out record for the track which stands at 6:11minutes. The time was set in 1983 in a Porsche 956 and has stood to this day.
Not to back away from a challenge, the team not only wants to set a new lap record for any car, but the car will also be a hybrid of sorts. All four wheels will be hooked up to individual electric motors and then supplied by a rotary engine range extender.
As for now, the IM01 is still just a design and engineering problem, but the group aims to make the car a reality by 2017 so it can first beat the record, and then go on to race at the 24hrs of LeMans in the “Garage 56” category.