Apples power a 675 Daytona to 255km/h
A Triumph Daytona 675 powered by bioethanol fuel has reached an astonishing speed of 255km/h at a proving ground in England. The biofuel used for this groundbreaking initiative was produced from windfall apples by students from Prince William School in Northamptonshire.
Devised by Rupert Paul, contributing editor of Bike magazine, “Project Fast Fruit” aimed to convert and run a high-performance vehicle on biofuel using only basic equipment. Triumph became involved with the project by providing its Daytona 675 as the test bike.
The successful final run on April 24 was the result of four months of hard work, with the school having fermented and distilled around 6000 crushed apples, while Bike modified the Daytona’s engine to run on bioethanol.
Surprisingly, very little modification was required: just a remap of the fuel-injection system. The engine was then tested using commercially available E85 (85 percent ethanol) with very encouraging results. The project then moved to the next phase, with testing and optimisation of the engine using the fuel produced by the students before the final run on the Bruntingthorpe proving ground.
Rupert Paul of Bike magazine commented:
“We believe that achieving a speed 158.7mp/h sets a record for a production bike on home-brewed fuel. Although they are still questionable from an environmental point of view, biofuels are here to stay, and this experiment was all about exploring how much power we could extract from them – as well as having some fun.”
Andrea Friggi, PR & Communications Manager at Triumph Motorcycles commented:
“At the moment all Triumph motorcycles are designed for optimum performance with non-ethanol fuel but are compatible with E10 (10 percent ethanol). We’re currently investigating making all models compatible with E25 fuel, so while this is a fun experiment it does have a serious side and we’re looking forward to reviewing the results.”
Dr Anton McAleese, Head of Chemistry at Prince William School said;
“This is a really interesting project for our students to get involved in. It’s important that industry recognises the skills and creativity that our students can offer. Further, it’s often young people today who are the most concerned about the future of our environment, so it’s a topic close to their hearts.”
