Solar Car Time

[redandguilty]

Huge improvements to the specs:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20120612-48/racing-like-the-wind-powered-by-the-sun/
race progress can be followed here
http://solarcar.engin.umich.edu/wsc/

I just noticed that it's only a 4 day even, so cars have to average 50 mph just to finish the race. I guess that mean everyone has improved.

 

[redandguilty]

Michigan vs. Nuon

identical weight to within lb to kg conversion rounding

L x W x H is 16 x 5 x 3.5 vs 14.5 x 5.7 x 3.1 ft

Michigan lists a top speed of 105 mph, Nuon does not list their top speed.

The solar cell area is limited to 6m^2. Nuon's efficiency is 22%, Michigan does not list theirs.

 

[TheVictors]

The Solar Car team was on my flight last year, going out to the event. The pilot came on and recognized the team from Wisconsin and gave them a Go Badgers! Two random Go Blues! followed from passengers.

 

[redandguilty]

FB post:

#Quantum's qualifying run was .01 seconds behind Nuna6's. At this point @UMSolarCarTeam is in the second position. A very good thing. #wsc You can actually see the track from the satellite map on the Solar Control Panel website -- http://solarcontrols.engin.umich.edu/

 

[redandguilty]

Race underway. Michigan off to a bit of a rough start I think.

 

[redandguilty]

Michigan in 3rd, but this is how close it is:

[flash=350,287:wlc0jub5]http://www.youtube.com/v/h7S4MhUXgSU&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:wlc0jub5]
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[michlady77]

remmeber this isn't just college but corporate

we came in 3rd about 10 years ago after winning north america race

 

[jever4321]

MSU's solar car entry

 

[redandguilty]

The Tokai car is in 1st, Nuon 25 min behind them, Michigan 4 minutes behind Nuon. I think. It's difficult to tell.

The lead team has picked up the pace, looks like they're actually speeding a little bit, but with only a 30 minute separation, this is probably the closest race to date. No flat tires or any other sort of issues that normally require stopping so far.

 

[redandguilty]

Apparently the Tokai car didn't have to use the full time available to charge their battery during the last stop, while the other teams did.

 

[redandguilty]

In short: it doesn't look good.

The race has been remarkably close. Yesterday Michigan had to pull over to fix something and fell a little behind. Now the whole region where the end of the race is is cloudy, but there's a hole in the clouds shining on the top 2 cars. No word if Michigan is close enough to be benefiting.