UofMs solar car expecting to dominate world race
The route runs north and south generally, but I wonder if they did a solar analysis to determine whether the cockpit should be shifted left or right.
From what I remember, the sun is usually higher at the start of the race day (0900) than at the end (1700). This means that having the canopy on the left will result in a smaller shadow
No thought, no research, and it will be a wonder if the door can close!
Saw a thing about the 2011 car on the B1G Network about a week ago. They seemed like they were pretty disappointed to get 2nd in the race last time. Also if i remember correctly they were the only team (at least the only on of the top teams) that was made up of students and not filled with professionals with much more experience. Pretty cool either way. Love the winged helmet look on the car they had on the show too.
Got 3rd in 2011. Dutch team Nuon is made out of grad students who take the whole year off to do Solar Car, Japanese team Tokai is run by the profs with the students running doing their bidding. Still no one from mMichigan is gonna use this as an excuse for anything less than victory
They need to get over the hump of Japan and the Dutch. Have not been able to break thru the last few races.
really really really should have beaten at least the Dutch in 2011.
Would have if not for the fairing issue. One of those freak things.
...issue has been addressed with the new design.
Hope everyone here follows the Mississippi Choctaw High School team. Would be pretty impressive if they were able to finish.
Finish? They should win with all that SEC speed...
The U-M solar car page led me to this NY Times article.
Go, Generation!
UM expects to dominate. Is this news?
Awesome, go blue. Pretty fantastic that we're innovators in this field amongst not just other schools, but amongst pretty much anyone
Amateur poster? Bro... you have 4,870 points. That's like Jenna Jameson calling herself a virgin.
Awesome story, looks like UM has a good chance to win it with the new innovations. Does anyone know how much ground we have to make up from past years? Were they beaten by minutes, hours, or days?
Hour and a half to Japan I believe, about an hour to the Dutch. They had an issue with the fairing (wheel cover) breaking loose and creating wind resistance. They lost valuable time fixing it. They were within minutes of Japan and ahead of the Dutch when it happened. I was following it live on the Solar Car site.
"There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intollerant of other peoples' cultures, and the dutch."
For those interested, here is the route map per the World Solar Challenge site:
You can also view a map of where the competitors are from on the site as well.
that looks fun as hell. is it too late for me to be a part of this?
Probably, there's always next year, though
I heard there's been a shift in the rules -- they're trying to make it less of a sport and get back to original spirit of an engineering competition.
I also heard one of the big reasons Michigan's team has been so good in the last few years was they had like the top meteorology guy in the country. This was coming from his mother, however, so I may need a second source on that.
You can't have a solar car team thread without checking up on how our brethren in East Lansing are faring in their vehicle development program....
I give you Brasidius III, MSU's third generation solar vehicle, which is a really nice try. Coming soon, MSU's next generation vehicle which they are dubbing Leonidas.
Is PepsiCo going to sponsor the car? Because then it would be called the "Pepsi Generation".
/rimshot
#okaynotthatfunny
#showingmyage
Does anyone know why we went away from naming the cars with the "UM" at the end like the last car "Quantum"?
But in any case, the -um endings were actually a sort of accidental tradition that goes back only to 2003 (Spectrum, Momentum, Continuum, Infinium, and Quantum). But the first cars were Sunrunner, Maize and Blue, Solar Vision, Wolverine, Maize Blaze, and M-Pulse.
Wearing race #2 is also an accidental tradition not followed by all the early teams but is now effectively permanent.
I still think that they should have kept the 'um' naming converntion and called the current car Dilithium
This is a really promising project. I think that solar energy will be more widespread and accessible to everyone in the near future. I myself recently bought a portable solar panels and use them mainly on hikes. I think that it will be useful for you to read more detailed information about such devices.