Berkshire Component distributor ACAL Technology is sponsoring a group of students who are designing, building electric and hybrid racing cars based on the 2CV.
A team of 31 post-graduate students, from Group T, Leuven Engineering College, and Antwerp Karel de Grote University College, will race the two cars in the Experimental class of the 24-hour, 24H24 race on the Francorchamps circuit, France, in October.
The team approached ACAL for help with designing the electrical interface from the cars' batteries to the drive-trains and to the electronics used for the telemetry and wireless communication with the pit team.
In Odyssee, the electric-drive car, this included converting a 400V input into an output voltage of 12V at 600W and a further conversion of the 12V supply to outputs of 15V and 5V.
Pegasus, the electric-petrol hybrid, required conversion from a 12V-input to a 24V output at 200W.
ACAL power specialists provided Vicor VIPAC DC-DC converters.