After 5 days, 1800 miles, brush fires, dust storms, heavy winds, rain, and extreme temperature swings, Quantum finished 3rd in the Veolia World Solar Challenge.

It was an extremely close race, as for 3 days we kept pace with 1st place Tokai, and 2nd place Nuon. To put this in perspective, we camped out within 1 KM of Nuon 3 nights in a row. Unfortunately, heavy cross winds caused technical issues with the fairing mechanism, requiring repairs on the side of the road. Tokai and Nuon, spent zero time for roadside repairs, which was a key factor in the race outcome.

Further followup regarding the race outcome will be posted in the coming days.

We look forward to celebrating in Victoria Square with the other top teams tomorrow morning. We are all proud of our accomplishments, especially knowing that we are the first US team to win 2 consecutive top 3 finishes.

Go Blue!

Produced by Evan Dougherty

Just a little over 3 months ago, we launched the 100 Days to Win the World Campaign. The goal was to make the final push in funding that we needed to access to top technology and enter the best solar car into the Veolia World Solar Challenge.

I am honored to announce that today, we have tallied the numbers, and have not only reached, but exceeded our $200,000 goal. Many thanks to all of our supporters, especially the hundreds of individual donors who enabled us to reach our goal.

Also, I’d like to congratulate the 2005 MomentUM team for winning the team challenge. With a total of $6495 donated in the name of MomentUM, we will proudly add its logo to Quantum for the Veolia World Solar Challenge.

The totals of the other teams can be seen here

MomentUM's logo proudly displayed on Quantum at the start of the Veolia World Solar Challenge

Many thanks once again to all of you for your support.

Go Blue!

Today was a great day for the maize and blue!

Quantum qualified in the top of the pack, placing 3rd overall. This is a very strong start to our goal of winning the Veolia World Solar Challenge. The top qualifying times are separated by only 0.8 seconds.

1st Twente (Dutch): 2:02.20
2nd Nuon (Dutch) : 2:02.50
3rd Michigan: 2:03.01

Quantum poised and ready to take on the best of the best at the Hidden Valley Race Way

The exact starting time for tomorrow’s Veolia World Solar Challenge is determined by the qualifying position, with the leader starting exactly at 8:30 AM. The remaining teams will start in order of their qualifying position, staggered 1 minute apart.

We expect cloudy skies tomorrow which will make our race strategy critical to our winning potential. We hope you will follow along on our dedicated portal at www.umsolar.com/wsc and at the University of Michigan’s site http://solarcontrols.engin.umich.edu/ Live tracking, chat, and a constant stream of picture and updates will be available to bring the best of the challenge to the globe

Go Blue!

The team successfully completed scrutineering, which is essentially an inspection process. All systems on the car are inspected to ensure they comply with regulations. This includes checking the size of the array, weight of the battery, electrical isolation switches, and other safety items. Overall, the process was very smooth. We are very satisfied to have reached this point, as qualifying is the only remaining milestone until the race!

Crew Chief, Gerald Chang explaining Quantum's suspension to an official

Quantum looks very official now with the Veolia World Solar Challenge signage on the rear fairing. We will also be adding our latest round of sponsors onto the fairing in the next few days.

Race Officials apply the Veolia World Solar Challenge Logo to Quantum's rear fairing

Stay tuned for more updates, and Go Blue!

The team made it into Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia yesterday evening.

Darwin marks the start of the 3000 KM Veolia World Solar Challenge, which will begin on the morning of October 16th. In the mean time, the team will be at the Hidden Valley Raceway for Qualifying and final preparation of Quantum. We have already taken Quantum out for a spin on the track. See below for video from our Chase vehicle’s perspective

We are staying at the Youth Shack Hostel, which is well equipped with air conditioning and a pool. Since the temperatures are easily in the upper 90s to 100s with high humidity, it is a pleasant retreat.

Poolside at the Youth Shack Hostel, our Oasis in Darwin

Driver and Mechanical Engineer Troy Halm, relaxing poolside at the Youth Shack

American and Michigan Flags flying high at the race track

The team charging Quantum in Australia

With a little over one week left until the race, we are in the final days of our 100 days to Win the World campaign that we started on July 1st, 2011.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the campaign, we proposed to raise $200,000 to fund second iteration parts for Quantum within the time span of 100 days and now the campaign is coming to an end.

We have raised $191,810 so far with the campaign, leaving us approximately $8,000 away from our goal.  We would like to thank everyone that has shown their support and have donated to the campaign – we wouldn’t be in the great position that we are in without your support!  The funds will help us enter our best car yet into the World Solar Challenge, the big event that starts just 8 days from now and it isn’t too late to donate to our cause.  Please keep an eye out on our website and social media sites for more updates from Australia in the next couple of weeks and GO BLUE!

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