Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Primers on 'Green' Motoring
Greenlings is a series of Autoblog columns that provide a thorough introduction to some 'basic' concepts, such as why so many 'green' cars have three wheels and what regenerative braking is and what applications it's useful for. It's a great resource to get familiarized with a variety of concepts.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Motor Meandering
An interesting article chronicling New generation Motors, which supplied the motor used in Drifter. It's funny that they had such difficulties, now that electric cars have suddenly become all the rage. It's never easy to be ahead of your time...
The Little Engine That Might
The Little Engine That Might
Sunday, April 19, 2009
UA at Shell Ecomarathon Americas 2009!
We've just returned from our first ever Shell Ecomarathon, participating in the inaugural Urban Challenge division of the competition. Although we intend to continue improving our vehicle, our first sojourn was a successful one. Check out the videos below!
Also, here's a nice article (from 2001!) that frames our decision to focus on 'practical' vehicles.
Also, here's a nice article (from 2001!) that frames our decision to focus on 'practical' vehicles.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
New Directions!
Yes, thank you for asking, we ARE alive and well! We've actually realigned, so to speak, and are now pursuing a hybrid vehicle to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon (Urban Challenge class). Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuxObYQehYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuxObYQehYM
Saturday, July 26, 2008
#1 WILDCAT
We're still the #1 WILDCAT as we beat the other two Wildcats in the race, Northwestern University and University of Kentucky.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
We're still the #1 WILDCATS!
Today's North American Solar Challenge award ceremony was held at the Calgary Zoo. We arrived an hour earlier to look around the zoo.
Tucson is definitely missing a zoo.
The food was sponsored by SolarWorld which were the Germany's main sponsor which consisted of salad, burgers, corn and dessert.
It was a deja vu moment for me as it reminded of NASC 2005. I was happy that we were able to have such a reliable car both mechanically and electrically for a 3 year old car.
The first awards that were handed out were the observer awards which were traditionally handed out. We of course received the "Cinderella Watch Award" for being late at the check points. This was due to our very aggressive approach in trying to push our car to it's very limit. Anyways we still beat the other 2 Wildcats in the race.
It's 9 pm now, we just cleaned out all the support vehicles and packed the trailer for our long trip back to Tucson....
Tucson is definitely missing a zoo.
The food was sponsored by SolarWorld which were the Germany's main sponsor which consisted of salad, burgers, corn and dessert.
It was a deja vu moment for me as it reminded of NASC 2005. I was happy that we were able to have such a reliable car both mechanically and electrically for a 3 year old car.
The first awards that were handed out were the observer awards which were traditionally handed out. We of course received the "Cinderella Watch Award" for being late at the check points. This was due to our very aggressive approach in trying to push our car to it's very limit. Anyways we still beat the other 2 Wildcats in the race.
It's 9 pm now, we just cleaned out all the support vehicles and packed the trailer for our long trip back to Tucson....
Final Day
The night before leaving Medicine Hat, we double checked our official times and there was a huge error with our trailering penalty. This error was significant as the new corrected overall time put us about 3.5 hours in front of U of Kentucky, our closest competitor. We got this corrected Tuesday morning.
We started with a 40% full battery pack on Tuesday morning because we had pushed the car close to its max. Arshed and I had accounted for good clear weather before the race started at 9 so we could as least get a 65-75% state of charge (SOC) in our battery pack.
Unfortunately, the weather turned out opposite to what Arshed and I, with 8 days of weather forecasting experience, expected.
Nevertheless, we left at 9.30 am and crawled towards Calgary where the sun was better. We stopped about 10.30 am and charged back up to 55% SOC and continued on. We kept crawling towards the finish line.
The weather was splotchy towards Calgary which drained our batteries down to where we had to stop. We had 100 miles to go at that point. It was 1 pm and we had 3.5 hours till the finish line closes. We decided to trailer so we could at least cross the finish line with our car.
Alas, we did not make the finish line with our car. We were very disappointed to not able to get a picture perfect finish. Traffic conditions and the truck running out of gas at the last minute were a few of the things that prevented us from reaching the finishing line on time.
That night, we saw some of the Kentucky guys and asked them whether they made it all the way on their own power. They said that they had to trailer from 30 miles out of Calgary. At that point, Arshed and I knew that we had beaten them.
Here's the official final standings.
1 2 University of Michigan 51:41:53
2 32 Principia College 61:38:45
3 1 FH Bochum Solar Car Team 63:47:55
4 24 University of Waterloo 64:00:06
5 35 University of Minnesota 65:41:48
6 65 University of Calgary 75:42:53
7 42 Missouri University of Science and Technology 81:20:36
8 9 Iowa State University 91:12:59
9 95 Red River College 92:15:02
10 8 University of Arizona 98:26:12
11 3 University of Kentucky 100:33:24
12 100 Queen's University 106:36:20
13 11 Northwestern University 113:58:11
14 175 Durham University 134:07:06
14 256 Oregon State University 145:20:00
We're still the #1 WILDCAT!
We started with a 40% full battery pack on Tuesday morning because we had pushed the car close to its max. Arshed and I had accounted for good clear weather before the race started at 9 so we could as least get a 65-75% state of charge (SOC) in our battery pack.
Unfortunately, the weather turned out opposite to what Arshed and I, with 8 days of weather forecasting experience, expected.
Nevertheless, we left at 9.30 am and crawled towards Calgary where the sun was better. We stopped about 10.30 am and charged back up to 55% SOC and continued on. We kept crawling towards the finish line.
The weather was splotchy towards Calgary which drained our batteries down to where we had to stop. We had 100 miles to go at that point. It was 1 pm and we had 3.5 hours till the finish line closes. We decided to trailer so we could at least cross the finish line with our car.
Alas, we did not make the finish line with our car. We were very disappointed to not able to get a picture perfect finish. Traffic conditions and the truck running out of gas at the last minute were a few of the things that prevented us from reaching the finishing line on time.
That night, we saw some of the Kentucky guys and asked them whether they made it all the way on their own power. They said that they had to trailer from 30 miles out of Calgary. At that point, Arshed and I knew that we had beaten them.
Here's the official final standings.
1 2 University of Michigan 51:41:53
2 32 Principia College 61:38:45
3 1 FH Bochum Solar Car Team 63:47:55
4 24 University of Waterloo 64:00:06
5 35 University of Minnesota 65:41:48
6 65 University of Calgary 75:42:53
7 42 Missouri University of Science and Technology 81:20:36
8 9 Iowa State University 91:12:59
9 95 Red River College 92:15:02
10 8 University of Arizona 98:26:12
11 3 University of Kentucky 100:33:24
12 100 Queen's University 106:36:20
13 11 Northwestern University 113:58:11
14 175 Durham University 134:07:06
14 256 Oregon State University 145:20:00
We're still the #1 WILDCAT!
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