By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Burning rubber, and putting the pedal to the metal come to mind when you talk about auto racing, but not when you talk about protecting the environment.
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy may be able to change that with a new green racing initiative.
ORNL researcher Perry Jones met 6 News Tuesday at the National Transportation Research Center on Hardin Valley Road to show off a race car simulator aimed at educating the public on green technology.
"We're not trying to regulate or reduce the entertainment value at all," explained Jones while sitting behind the wheel of the simulator.
He says it's aimed at driving the importance of green technology "from the raceway to your driveway."
"This particular leg of that particular initiative was created by Argonne National Laboratories, one of our partners in green racing, and they took a popular racing game and modified it so it could take the whole green racing message to the fans," Jones said.
Race fans can learn about fast cars, energy efficiency and emissions. The game simulates driving a Corvette on the race track.
The idea is to test alternative fuels, engines and drive trains to reduce fuel consumption and environment damaging emissions.
"The next piece that makes it a green racing challenge is the energy recapture capability," said Jones.
"A lot of sports, particularly motor sports, use a lot of energy to go really fast, and they do a lot of braking," Jones said. "That braking is an area where that heat, or energy is rejected as heat. That's one of the biggest things on a hybrid vehicle is they can recapture that energy and then can use it later."
Sorry NASCAR fans, it's not something you'll see on the track at Bristol anytime soon, but scientists are working on it.
"We'd love to talk to them about it, but they run a series that is fairly regulated," said Jones. "While that makes for great racing, that does somewhat limit some of the innovation. So we'd love to share with them how we think they could do that, but one of the big governing ideas is keeping the cars competitive for each other. Again, for motor sports entertainment that's great, but for innovation, that does kind of limit them."
Green technology is already being tested on real race cars. The green racing simulator is currently stationed at the National Transportation Research Center in Knoxville.
After taking a turn in the driver's seat, you'll get a grade on speed, fuel consumption and energy savings.
Perry Jones says it's aimed at driving the importance of green technology "from the raceway to your driveway."
