UM Solar - ASC - A2 - Big House
If you did not know, the American Solar Challenge will be making an overnight stop in Ann Arbor today. It would be great if you could stop out to see/support the Team in their own back yard, the Big House. However, please be careful if you encounter them on the road:
From The University of Michigan Solar Car Team:
There have been some questions about the penalty we received yesterday. The penalty was a result of a Michigan fan that drove to close to one of the solar car caravans and therefore impeded traffic. Please do not follow solar car caravans with your cars, because it may result in a penalty for our team and it is not safe. If you are interested in taking photos of the solar car, please park and watch the cars as they go by. This is especially important as we will be coming into Ann Arbor tomorrow and there will likely be lots of traffic and fans. We hope to see you in Ann Arbor. Go Blue!
For additional information, please check the UM Solar web site: LINK
Next Stage Stop: Ann Arbor, MI
The University of Michigan
Lot SC36, Pauline & Main Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
The stop opens at 11 AM EDT. You can expect Teams to arrive any time thereafter.
UPDATE: Quantum has arrived!
Video courtesy of Furqan Nazeeri
I work in Goshen, IN and I see they will be driving through. Does anyone have any tips on when this might happen so I can go see? I know it all depends on conditions but any kind of window would be appreciated.
Also, I would think that an event like this would be big news for Smalltown, IN. Is it possible that cities on the route don't even know the awesomeness of what is going on here?
That's really going to be hard to say. The team will leave A2 and head up to EL. There's a control stop in K-Zoo. They may stop, for the night, before reaching Goshen, they may press on. I would guess they'll roll thru Goshen Wednesday morning, July 18. Don't forget that the Team will want to make as much progress as they can but still have plenty of daylight left to charge batteries. So, they usually stop in the mid-afternoon at latest. The best thing to do is to keep an eye on their progress, on their web site. That should give you a pretty good idea.
It is distinctly possible that most small towns have no idea what's going on. If Goshen has a newspaper, try to see if you can drum up interest. Try to contact the Sports or Technology reporter to see if they'll run a story tomorrow. There are plenty of information sources on the ASC and UM Solar in particular.
Either late tomorrow or early Wednesday.
Holy shit, they're passing a block from my house! I'm sure I'll be at work when they're going through, though.
Thanks for the heads-up!
Was it this guy?
Quantum is charging by the Big House
Looks like a really nice day in A2. Thanks for the pic!
Average speeds for the Mansfield, OH to AA leg of the race:
Michigan: 46mph
Minnesota: 32mph
Principia: 27mph
Total Elapsed Time for the Top Four:
| Team | Total Time (hh:mm:ss) | Time Delta (approx.) |
| Quantum | 14:45:24 | -- |
| Minnesota | 17:55:25 | +3:10:00 |
| Principia | 19:49:47 | +5:04:00 |
| Iowa State | 20:25:59 | +5:40:00 |
Data courtesy of Furqan Nazeeri
I'd like to bring my kid by to see the cars. Will people be around tonight? Or do they just leave a few surly guards and everyone else heads off to the bar?
The team will be charging the car till 8pm and most of the team members will be around till then
Woohoo! That was totally worthwhile, although the Michigan team seemed pretty busy; it wasn't easy to find a free team member who wasn't already talking to others (Dean Munson and MSC came by!)
The cars were incredibly cool looking. Most of them shared the same basic shape but there were subtle differences. Principia tiled EVERYTHING but the windows with solar cells, so it looked like a stealth car (most other teams had some exposed body on top showing some color, often around the cockpit bubble).
I had a great exchange with one of the Berkeley guys. I asked him why they weren't cooling their solar cells like everyone else does (apparently you are allowed to spray room-temperature water on the cells while they are charging; cooling improves their efficiency). I thought maybe their cells were different in some way. No, he said. That wasn't it. It's just that their team wasn't very organized. "Someone probably should be doing that," he mused. "We're just not." It was sweetly hilarious.
If it ever comes through Ann Arbor again I will be there again and I HIGHLY recommend it.