Elon Musk is serious about turning his Hyperloop system into a legitimate form of transport for passengers and freight. To help with that, SpaceX sponsors a Hyperloop pod competition, where teams compete to develop the most well-design and fastest pods.

The first competition was in January with team Warr, consisting of 30 students from the Technical University of Munich, winning. The second pod competition just finished, and team Warr won again, but with a much more impressive showing.

Here's Warr's winning pod in action at SpaceX's 1.25km test track:

According to Engadget, the winning pod reached a top speed of 202mph (324km/h). Only three teams made it to the final of this second competition: Warr, Paradigm, and Swissloop. Paradigm came in second with a maximum speed of 60mph, while Swissloop managed 25mph.

Warr had an impressive speed advantage over the competition, but also over its previous entry. Back in January, Warr won the first competition with a pod that maxed out at 58mph, so they almost quadrupled the speed in six months.

The Warr Hyperloop Pod II weighs 80kg and is powered by a 50kW motor providing 40Nm of torque allowing it to accelerate from 0-350km/h in just 12 seconds. Energy is supplied from a 132-cell lithium-polymer battery system. The weight is kept to a minimum through the use of carbon fiber allowing the outer structure to weigh just 20kg.

Musk is confident that the speed of Hyperloop pods can be pushed as high as 600mph on the SpaceX test track. Imagine how journey times would tumble if he's right and a Hyperloop network is installed across the US.

In May 2016, PCMag was in the Las Vegas desert for the first public test of a hyperloop propulsion system by Hyperloop One. The entire test lasted less than five seconds; it was a modest but important milestone in the implementation of an idea that Elon Musk famously proposed in 2013. See more in the video below.

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