Day 1 Recap
After one day of racing Continuum has gone approximately 600 km. Going into Katherine Continuum was performing as well as before the accident. On the trip from Katherine to Dunmarra we experienced problems with our electrical systems that we did not have time to troubleshoot during the 24 hours after the crash. While these slowed us down, we are still not far from Dunmarra and these should be fixed for racing tomorrow. The electrical division has benches lined up with all of their components, soldering irons, and laptops. They plan to fix the systems on the car before the night's end. Aerodynamically the car was entirely repaired and does not consume any more power than it did before. Mechanically the car seems to be completely repaired and is even performing better as we have yet to have a flat tire! There are 900 km until Alice Springs and 2 control stops. This should put us there early Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Nate launched several weather balloons today and is extremely excited to get the weather program up and running for the remainder of the race.
Labels: WSC 2007 Season
Posted by Tom Carroll at 7:58 AM | Permalink |
19 comments
19 Comments:
Great recovery! We are delighted to see you rolling again. Best wishes for the days ahead.
..from friends in KY, with MI roots and a CA branch.
I've always got a special place in my heart for the electrical team... keep up the good work guys. There's nothing quite like a fold-out table full of soldering irons in the outback.
Brilliant job getting back on the road. Beat down those electrical gremlins and go fast! Team Nuon says they're expecting rain, maybe just during the night. Maybe you can close that 900 km gap a little.
Here's the standings as of the end of Day 2, as near as I can figure from the various blogs:
Ashiya's Adventure class car, Sky Ace Tiga (love that name), reached Alice Springs.
Nuna4 camped 20 km north of Alice Springs.
NKU's Apollo 5 (Adventure class from Taiwan) camped 40 km north of A.S.
Aurora's Challenge class car camped 60 km north of A.S.
Umicore (Belgium) camped 70 km north of A.S.
Stanford was fifth amongst the Adventure class cars to reach Tennant Creek.
And Michigan camped 40 km north of Dunmarra, less than a thousand km behind the leaders.
Unfortunately, Michigan hasn't gained any ground yet. But the others didn't crash.
Umicore did have some sort of problem. From Team Nuon's blog, translated by Babelfish, when they reached Tennant Creek, Umicore asked if they "could a propeller machine lend because something was demolished in their wheel institution." Nuna4 had minor problems also, with their "silencer," which I think might mean shock absorber, and their "bewolking became thicker." And don't you just hate thicker bewolking?
(I apologize. Computer translation always makes me laugh.)
This is a close race this year. Nuna4 is not walking away with it. If Michigan even finishes the race, it will be a great recovery. And it looks like they have a chance to finish just a little over a day behind the frontrunners.
-TC Lambert (tclambert@gmail.com)
PS. Can anybody post before and after photos of the crash damage?
Brian Ignaut should be arriving in Alice Springs shortly. I am hoping to get pictures during their time there.
WAY TO BE, BLUE!
So proud of and excited for you all.. Glad to know that everyone is safe and that the car is back on the road..
Love you, Brian!
Lauren
Great job regrouping, repairing, and getting back into the race! We're so happy for you!
Awesome job fixing something that could have been devastating so quickly! This just affirms the fact that you guys are amazing and can overcome anything that's thrown at you! Good luck! We're rooting you on every step of the way!
Awesome job fixing something that could have been devastating so quickly! This just affirms the fact that you guys are amazing and can overcome anything that's thrown at you! Good luck! We're rooting you on every step of the way!
Lambert had some babelfish problems.
Nuna had a problem with a "demper", wich can be translated as a "silencer" but in this context it is a shock absorber. They have air filled shocks. The first time one sprung a leak they refilled it with air. After the second failure they replaced the shock.
"bewolking" = clouds wich you might have guessed.
Groetjes uit Enschede, Twente
Nederland
Mr. Lambert, your translations are hilarious and we appreciate your efforts ! Congrats and kudos to your team for their great Comeback !
The ProudCheerleaders4Nuna4, Portland, OR
Go Blue! Good job for getting back on the road. Now, go set a new track record and log the lowest cumulative elapsed time (minus "garage time") and put a nice big asterisk next to whoever places 1st in the race.
Weather.msn.com reports some overcast, or bewolkin, between Alice Springs and Adelaide, with a slight chance of rain, or regen. Not so much bewolkin north of Alice Springs. That might help a solar car trailing the pack and trying to catch up, like say, Continuum.
Told my brother Dan, who works at the GM Tech Center, that after you fixed Continuum you helped out some poor space aliens who had crashed their flying saucer in the outback. 'Cause you guys have proved you can fix anything. "Dilithium crystals? Let's see what we got in the truck."
Mr. Lambert, if you've recently checked the Nuna website you will notice that your team miraculously appeared in 4th position, so no despair !
Global Cheerleaders4Nuna4, Portland OR
Keep it up guys. Time for day 2! (Official day 3)
We're all rooting for you.
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue.
hmmm, where there's dilithium crystals, there's a a ship that can engage warpdrive....
but on a more serious note...Continuum seems to have been given Scotty's blessings from above.
BBC has a news snippet - don't blink or you'll miss U of M.
see http://worldsolarchallenge.blogspot.com/for the link
p.s. Deanna - how few and far between are the cell towers out there in the sticks - oops, i mean Outback?
Unofficial reports indicate that Continuum cleared Dunmarra earlier this morning and expected soon in Tennant Creek. Check back soon for an official report from Australia (Tom will post the message).
Great recovery UofM
Sounds like you u did the impossible.
Good luck with the remainder of the race
Greg
WSC96
UWO SunStang
Don't stop. Keep up the good work, team. Do the impossible...
-Ashwin
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