Mock Race Update: Day 2

Posted Tue, 07/21/2009 - 5:32pm by Steven Hechtman

After a full day of racing, the team has arrived in Effingham, Illinois. The team left Fort Wayne, Indiana at 8:12 AM (we had to observe the final 12 minutes of our checkpoint to start the day) and arrived in Kokomo, Indiana at 10:40 AM.

While at the checkpoint, the weather crew successfully launched a weather balloon from the weather vehicle. Thanks once again to Ford for providing us with a F-150 Platinum to transport our weather equipment, and to InterMet Systems for providing our team with the radiosondes launched by the balloon.


The team prepares to lift the upper surface at the control point in Kokomo, Indiana.


Rachel Unger stretches after her stint in the solar car while Sudeep Rohatgi readies himself for his turn.

After leaving from Kokomo, the team drove to Terre Haute, Indiana, arriving at 3:45. Leaving Terre Haute, the team drove towards Effingham, Illinois, with an eye on storms to the west and south of Effingham. Fortunately, the team reached Effingham minutes before 5:00 PM, avoiding all traces of rain.

We would like to thank the Knights of Columbus in Effingham, Illinois, where we have currently set up camp for tonight. They have graciously allowed us to inhabit their parking lot, where we will prepare for the next day. Tomorrow's route takes us from Effingham, Illinois to Bloomington, Illinois, then on to Kankakee, Illinois, and finally towards South Bend, Indiana.

Mock Race Update: Day 1

Posted Mon, 07/20/2009 - 9:50pm by Steven Hechtman

After a succcessful day of racing, the team is now in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Our Mock Race started at 2:22 PM (as opposed to the typical 8:00 AM start), so all who stayed up the previous night installing array modules could get some rest. We left the workspace for Fort Wayne, our first control stop, traveling at the speed limit for almost all of the day. Rather than ending the day at 5:00 PM, we set a finish time at 6:00 PM due to the afternoon start.

During the 138 mile drive across Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana highways, we pulled over only once--but only because our lead car needed to be filled with gas! We arrived in Fort Wayne at 5:42, for an average speed of 41.4 miles per hour.

Charging at the end of the race day in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Charging at the end of the race day in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Semi trailer parked at camp in the Fort Wayne Coliseum
Semi trailer parked at camp in the Fort Wayne Coliseum

US Mock Race Starts Tomorrow

Posted Sun, 07/19/2009 - 7:17pm by jfed

Tomorrow, Monday, July 19 at 8 am we will be starting a mock race throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois following this route.  Depending on weather, we anticipate the mock race to last until Friday, with the finish line occuring at the Dune Climb in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

We are currently making last minute additions to the array and lower surface of the vehicle.  For those not driving tomorrow, it should be a long night.

Ethan Stark and Steve Hechtman Wire the Array
Ethan Stark and Steve Hechtman Wire the Array

Dylan Applies Silicone to Seal Laminates
Dylan Keefe-Reitzell Applies Silicone to Seal Laminates

Testing Continues: On the Road with Infinium

Posted Wed, 07/15/2009 - 2:53pm by jfed

Coming off our 2008 victory, we have learned that every mile driven on Infinium before the race is one less mile we are likely to break down on the race. Reliability is essential to building a championship solar car, as well as allowing for ample time to make minor tweaks that translate into minutes off the clock.

Infinium at Michigan International Speedway
Infinium at Michigan International Speedway

As of now, Infinium has driven for over 1080 miles (1738 kilometers) and 26 hours with an average speed around 40 mph (65 kph). We have tested the car through a variety of different scenarios: low speed endurance, high speed endurance, precision steering and handling, basic vehicle dynamics, cobblestone road, and open road during rush hour. I am happy to say that with the exception of a few very minor glitches, the car is performing exactly as designed. We also pass all mandated vehicle dynamics testing for both the 2009 Global Green Challenge and the 2010 North American Solar Challenge with a sizable safety factor. In fact, everyone who has driven the solar car attests that it handles significantly better than the vans that serve as our lead and chase vehicles.

Traverse City Cherry Festival Part 2

Posted Mon, 07/13/2009 - 1:03pm by Steven Durbin

After a busy first half of the week in Traverse City, the team returned last Friday with some new team members to hold an educational day for local children.  Continuum was put on display at Traverse Motors Toyota for 5 hours so groups of local kids could learn about solar technology.  Throughout the day we had several visitors stop by and ask some great questions.  A couple of the kids even said they were going to join the team when they go to college.

Jeff Rogers explains how a solar car works

Jeff Rogers explains how a solar car works  

The next day the team participated in the Cherry Festival Parade with the Traverse City Alumni Association.  The team was one of over 150 entries in the parade that lasted for over 3 hours.  The team was greeted by lots of waves and cheering as we passed the crowded streets.

Traverse City Alumni Semi

Traverse City Alumni Semi

Philip Kim Hands out posters

Philip Kim Hands out posters

Continuum in the parade

Continuum in the Parade

Continuum goes to the Traverse City Cherry Festival

Posted Thu, 07/09/2009 - 4:03pm by Julia Hawley

Early in the morning on July 4th, Continuum and five solar car team members headed to Manistee, Michigan for the town’s 4th of July parade. We met Jan ­­­­­­NewmanGraham and our good friend Chito Garcia and headed for the streets of Manistee.

The parade was exciting! Everyone in town was watching as we rolled by (Continuum rode on the bed of the trailer, since it was decomissioned to prepare Momentum to drive in Aruba). We were greeted by many Michigan fans along the route yelling "GO BLUE!" as we passed. We proudly represented Michigan when we passed by groups of Spartans chanting "Go Green. Go White."


From Left to Right: David Kye, Julia Hawley, Steve Durbin, Jan NewmanGraham, Brian Pak, Blaine Riley, Chito Garcia


Blaine Riley waiting for the parade to start.

Thanks to Jan, David and Todd, and Suzanne Stevens for making this event possible.

From Manistee we traveled to Traverse City, Michigan for the Cherry Festival. We met our hosts, Scott and Kathy Monteith, and watched the fireworks from the balcony of their home.

In the morning we participated in the Hagerty Family Car Show, where we talked to a lot of Traverse City natives as well as tourists, or "fudgies" as the locals call them.


The team with Howard King, Michigan Football announcer for 34 years.

Being safely surrounded by Maize and Blue, we decided to take a picture with Sparty:

On Tuesday we had the honor of eating lunch with the Traverse City Rotary Club, and met some more Michigan Alumni that evening.


The team with our hosts, Kathy and Scott.

 

Alumni Event in Grand Rapids

Posted Tue, 06/30/2009 - 9:07am by Julia Hawley

Yesterday Continuum traveled to Grand Rapids to participate in a Michigan Alumni gathering at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The car was placed outside of the museum, where we spoke with people walking into the event and anyone else who passed by the Art Museum.

We had a lot of fun talking with alumni and hearing about the adventures they had when they were students at Michigan. We also had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with President Mary Sue Coleman again.


Super Fans and friends of Chuck Hutchins: (From left to right) Carl Walker, Esther Padnos, Seymour Padnos, and Dorothy Walker


Our little friends, Jackson and Porter, speak with Steve Hechtman
(They were ready to drive!)

M-Pulse on Rodeo Drive

Posted Thu, 06/25/2009 - 10:11am by emstark

This Father's Day, our 2001 car M-Pulse was on display at the Rodeo Drive Father's Day car show in Beverly Hills, CA.  The car show is just minutes away from the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles where M-Pulse is on permanent display, and showcases some of the best in classic and exotic cars from around the world.

Being from California myself, it was my dad that was able to send me these pictures of M-Pulse on display.  This is the first year that I've missed going to this car show with him in a long time, so its nice to know that even though I'm in Michigan building Infinium, a Michigan solar car was there at the show to remind him of me.


M-Pulse on display at the Rodeo Drive Father's Day car show. Photo courtesy of Keith Stark.


Jay Leno at the Rodeo Drive car show. Photo courtesy of Keith Stark.

First Track Testing

Posted Sun, 06/14/2009 - 10:10pm by Gerald Chang

A few engineers recently went to Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI to test the handling and reliability of the car at low speeds. I test drove the car for 35 miles at around 35mph on the small, half-mile track. There is a cross in the middle of the circuit so we had a blast driving some large figure eights. However, the support vehicles were the university minivans, which handled the course worse than Infinium. Sudeep and Kevin each had a chance to drive Lead while Jeremy followed in Chase.

It was a warm day, but I was driving just fast enough for the air duct to function; there were no fairings on, so a lot of air was scooped into the cockpit.

On a turn

Handling a turn

Infinium with Chase on the track

Infinium with Chase on the track

Infinium goes to the Wind Tunnel

Posted Sat, 06/13/2009 - 11:14am by Steven Durbin

Infinium in the Wind Tunnel

Infinium in the Wind Tunnel

 

Yesterday, I went with four other team members to perform aerodynamic testing at the Jacobs Engineering wind tunnel. In preparation for testing, we taped bits of yarn to the car to help visualize the air flow over the body.  After securing the car to the platform, it was time to begin our testing. Being an Aerospace Engineering student, I was excited to be able to do some hands on testing, so I stayed in the tunnel for the first shakedown.  It was pretty cool.  The yarn we attached to the car allowed us to see how the air moved over the car, and what areas need to be improved.  After taking some notes, we moved on to using the smoke wand.  Smoke is another way to visualize flow over the car, but it allows you to analyze specific areas in more detail.  Using smoke was the most exciting part of the testing, but I can’t discuss our results because they are top secret : )