KEY POINTS:
Jeremy Clarkson is unlikely to approve, but engineers are about to start building the first biodegradable Formula 1 car, as part of an international effort to clean up the world's most polluting sport.
Its inventors, at Warwick University, will start work on it in the New Year, probably using coconuts, and plan soon to be racing it competitively. They have already successfully constructed a sports car using materials such as hemp, potatoes and rapeseed, which achieves 240km/h.
The car is one of a series of moves to "green" the sport, long seen as the epitome of gas-guzzling waste. Formula 1 is to introduce new energy-saving rules within two years.
Dr Kerry Kirwan, an assistant professor at the university, says he started building biodegradable racing cars because people thought environmentally friendly products were boring.
The body of his sports car, "Eco One" - which goes from 0 to 62mph in just four seconds - is moulded from hemp matting impregnated with a resin made from rapeseed oil. Its tyres use natural rubber and starch from potatoes, and its brakes are manufactured with hemp fibre and a liquid wrung from cashew nut shells.
It can run on bioethanol made from wheat and sugar beet. Its engine and chassis are steel, which can be easily recycled - making the car about 95 per cent biodegradable or recyclable.
Dr Kirwan and his team have not yet decided exactly what materials to use for the Formula 1 car, but are planning to include "tropical fibres", including from coconuts. They hope that their research will set an example for the motor industry. "If we can build a high-performance car that can virtually be grown from seed," says project manager Ben Wood, "just imagine what's possible for the average family car."
Nick Fry, team principal of Honda Racing, says: "Unless Formula One can become a contributor to the technology that might help the environment, it's likely that it will become a dinosaur." Over to you, Mr Clarkson.
- Independent
Vroom, Vroom
* During a Formula 1 race, a car will use more than 150 litres of fuel (a consumption rate of about 50 litres per 100km).
* A Toyota Prius Hybrid has a consumption rate of 4.4 litres per 100km.
