A new racing¹ car made of vegetables and powered by chocolate will hit speeds of 145 miles per hour when it is launched next month.

Designers hope the environmentally-friendly technology used in their car will be adopted by Formula 1 teams such as McLaren and world champions Ferrari.

The car, named ecoF3, has a steering² wheel made of carrots, a body made of potatoes and a seat made of soybeans.

It uses plant-oil based lubricants and a biodiesel engine capable of running on chocolate and vegetable oil.

Vegetable fibres are mixed with resins³ to produce the car parts and the oils in the chocolate are refined to produce fuel.

It is the first Formula 3 racing car designed and made from sustainable and renewable materials.

The WorldFirst team, from Warwick University, in Coventry, West Mids, hope racing chiefs will change the rules so they can compete in championship races next season.

The engine fails to meet current regulations because of its unusual fuel.

A team spokesman said: "We hope the Formula 1 teams will see that an environmentally friendly car is not necessarily a slow car.

"We expect our new materials to be used by the Formula 1 cars of the future."

一款以蔬菜为材料，以巧克力为动力供给的新型赛车将于下月问世，这款赛车的时速将达145英里。

设计人员希望这款赛车所应用的环保技术能被迈凯轮、世界冠军法拉利等F1车队所采用。

这款赛车名为“ecoF3”，其方向盘、车身和座椅分别由胡萝卜、土豆和大豆制成。

它使用植物油制成的润滑油，其生化柴油发动机可以巧克力和植物油为燃料。

这款赛车的零部件由植物纤维与树脂混制而成，其使用的燃料则由从巧克力中提炼出的油制成。

这是首款使用可持续利用和可再生材料设计和制造的F3赛车。

来自英国西米德兰兹郡考文垂市华威大学的WorldFirst赛车科研小组希望赛车运动管理部门能更改比赛规则，这样他们就能参加下季的锦标赛。

由于使用了特殊燃料，这款赛车的发动机不符合目前的参赛规则。

科研小组的一位发言人说：“我们希望F1车队看到环保赛车的速度不一定慢。

“我们希望将来我们研制的新材料可用于制造F1赛车。”