世界上首款环保F3赛车近日问世

世界上首款用残余巧克力做燃料，用胡萝卜、土豆淀粉和亚麻布等材料制成的F3赛车于近日问世。这款赛车最高时速可达135英里，能在2.5秒内起步加速至60英里，并且绝对环保。

A formula 3 race car that researchers from the University of Warwick in Britain have retrofitted is seen at the MIT Energy Conference 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts March 5, 2010.

Fueled by leftover¹（残留的，吃剩的） chocolate and with components² made from carrots, potato starch³（马铃薯淀粉） and flax（亚麻） , the world's first sustainable Formula 3 racing⁴ car has a top speed of 135 miles per hour and can go from zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds.

Sound nuts? Not yet -- brake pads（刹车片） made from cashews（腰果） are still under development.

Meet Lola, the England's University of Warwick's blend of muscle and eco-friendliness and the world's first racing car retrofitted（被改装） with renewable and sustainable materials.

Researchers from the British university showed off their prize possession at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT麻省理工学院) energy conference in Boston.

"She's incredibly green, taking materials that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill（垃圾堆） . It lets people engage with recycling without the finger-wagging（摇动的，摆动的） ," said Kerry Kirwan, one of the car's designers at the university.

"The public has really taken the car to its heart, because she's fun," he said.

Many of the car's components would more usually be found at a farmer's market -- or in a trash bin⁵, since most of the materials are actually industrial waste.

The 2.0-liter BMW engine has been converted to diesel⁶（柴油机） from gasoline and configured（配置，组装） to run on fuel derived⁷ from waste from chocolate factories or other plant-based oils.

Among Lola's other unique features is a radiator⁸（散热器） that converts ozone⁹ back to oxygen.

"It's a racing car that cleans up as it goes along," said Steve Maggs, another member of the design team.

The World First Formula 3 racing car took the university more than nine months to develop and cost around $200,000.

Kirwan said that the thinking behind the project was to find a way to really put recycled materials to the test.

"A lot of these technologies were a huge leap of application, something that shows the material under a really demanding application."