The solar car drives!
Good morning,
A lot of milestones have been hit these last two weeks!
Aevum was officially unveiled to the world, our main caravan began their test drives, and the team got a fresh delivery of Red Bull via the Red Bull car… Needless to say, a few late nights and long hours have been pulled to get everything ready for our events, but Race Crew keeps moving forward together.
On the way to the Michigan Union for Unveil, the team also met quite a few notable individuals passing by, including the Composites Lead of Infinium, a friend of a friend that was a team alumnus, and several other solar racing fans. It’s great to see how far back the team’s legacy goes and how many memories people have with our cars and the team! Someday that will be us looking at the team’s future cars…
Included in this newsletter:
- Unveil Thank You
- Aevum’s First Drive
- Wind Tunnel Testing
Announcements
Aevum: Unveiled
On June 10th, our 2022 Race Crew unveiled Aevum to the rest of the world. As the first solar car the team has built since 2019, we’re grateful for the continued support we’ve received from our sponsors, alumni, and team. Thank you to those who were able to attend our Unveil and to everyone who has been a supporter of the team over the past few years and beyond!
Learn more about Aevum and its capabilities on our website!
Watch a recording of Unveil on our YouTube channel UMSolar.
Michigan Sun Run
Watch out! Aevum is here.
Even though the weather for the day was a high of 90 degrees, 54% humidity, and sunny, the team didn’t hesitate to take Aevum out for its first drive! After applying sunscreen and drinking water, everyone was buzzing with excitement as they walked over to the nearest parking lot.
Here, our drivers ran through a slalom course and drove a few laps around the lot. Following closely behind was our Chase driver in a GMC Sierra 2500 provided by Toyota & Subaru of Ann Arbor! The drive went quite smoothly, and now, we’re gearing up to test Aevum and the rest of the main caravan even further on the proving grounds.
Aevum vs. The Wind
While we try our best to optimize the car’s aerodynamics using CFD, it can be hard to align expectations with reality when human error is at play. That’s why several Race Crew members took Aevum over to Stellantis’ Aero-Acoustic Wind Tunnel to validate our data!
Given that the tunnel is used to seeing large commercial vehicles and other racing cars, there were some creative liberties taken to secure Aevum to the wheel mounts. Needless to say, everyone quickly got acquainted with the floor and Aevum’s underbody.
Watching Aevum withstand speeds over 60mph at different angles without any deformations was a memorable experience, and we’re thankful for the continued support that Stellantis has given us in our wind tunnel tests.