Completed Stage Four
We arrived in Medicine Hat at 13:08:52 this afternoon! I apologize for the problems with the tracking website - I believe we lost internet access which the updates are dependent upon. Anyhow with nothing planned except general maintenance on Continuum and then an evening charge starting at 6pm, the team hopes to complete work and then relax and get some sleep. We haven't seen any other teams yet and we heard from the Germans that they would be in around 5pm. Only one day of racing left!
Posted by Jeff Ferman at 5:32 PM | Permalink |
24 comments
24 Comments:
Awesome work everyone. Roll across the finish line tomorrow in true Michigan style.
CJ
Great job guys. Try to have all the pieces on the car when it crosses the finish line this time.
Go fast, go smooth, go Blue, one more time, Continuum.
Multi-juntion solar cells ROCK!!!
Time for some math.
Assuming no more penalties, the total elapsed time is now 47:23. Adding up the distances from the route book, the car has traveled 2177 miles (although with route changes it is actually higher). The average speed so far has been 45.95 mph.
There are 187 miles left to Calgary. To complete the race at Momentum's average speed of 46.2 mph, Continuum will need to reach Calgary in 3:47. Therefore, to match Momentum's average speed, Continuum will need to average 49.34 mph tomorrow.
I agree with Garrick. Tell the drivers to watch out for curbs as you drive towards the start line.
Thanks for the math, Charles. Nice to hear that Continuum can continue to raise the bar for future teams.
To the team, stay focused and make these last miles count. You're almost done!
An update from Medicine Hat:
Waterloo rolled in a while ago (I think 3:45pm, but no one should quote me on that) and Minnesota just pulled in (~4:34pm unofficial time).
Yeah, definitely don't:
1) Run the car into the curb, destroying one of the very important fairings
2) Follow it up by losing telemetry for the whole day
I do think Continuum would be able to average close to 60 mph tomorrow. It's a straight shot and all highway until the stopping point. Of course, they should get a full charge tonight and in the morning.
And yeah, the datalogger is using the GPRS data network in Canada, so coverage is very spotty out in the middle of nowhere. When it does get coverage, it'll send all the buffered driving data. We have another unit in beta that uses satellites to transmit positioning.
-Rbt
We have a time change somewhere. M.Hat is in Mtn time, 2 hrs earlier than A2 time.
Jay
Congratulations everyone for getting this far. You've only got a little ways to go.
Also an FYI for any team members reading this, the U-M Gateway (www.umich.edu) now links to your blogger post about tracking the car. The coverage may be spotty, but you now may have a bit of an audience, so it couldn't hurt to have the page running as best as possible.
As always -
Go fast. Go smooth. Go blue.
For someone who has raced with UofM in every WSC entered I find this blog almost as good as being there with you all - it is very exciting to keep up with your effort.
Many thanks Jeff and others involved in the blog and the tracker.
Have a great day today and nail this race.
Bob Allan
C'mon, it's killing us! Tell us what happened with Principia and Bochum. Did they make it in under their own power? Looks like Minnesota and Waterloo did. And this rainy year, that's quite an accomplishment.
You are almost there, keep up the amazing work! Nothing would be better than a new US record. Everybody do a little no-rain dance and take a deep breath. You're so close, just take your time and follow the same processes, you've gotten this far with strong, steady, progress. Don't forget to keep us posted, you're going to have a captive audience staring at computer screens waiting for news from the finish line! Take your cameras, and most of all - Have fun tomorrow!!!
PS Somebody on race crew please pass along the message to Chito that I said try not to miss the freeway exit in Calgary, the Canadian police may catch you this time!
Enjoy tomorrow everyone...it will be a highlight of your life pulling into Calgary with the thousands of people lining the finish line.
I know it was for me, and I am just a dad.
Hats off to everyone...except if they are yellow hats...keep them on!
Great work.
Bob Hayes
You guys are lucky to not have a rabid team breathing down your neck, waiting for the slightest slip up to pull ahead. We were definitely clogging traffic w/ Minnesota in '05 with no one conceding an inch until about 3 blocks to go.
Take it easy and play it safe. All you have to do is cross the finish line. Do not get a big head and make it your goal to pass Momentum's record. We are one team. We are Michigan. We beat other teams, not ourselves. If you beat Momentum's time, congrats. But make sure it's a bonus to completing the race in 1st place. Good luck and godspeed.
Looks like, with bated breath, we will have to listen to principia's internet radio broadcast at 11 pm, a2 time to hear where in the world is Principia
Jay
GO BLUE!
Better than baited breath.
I just thought that I'd share some of the blog statistics over the course of the race:
16,313 visits came from 79 countries/territories (looks like people all over the world are watching you guys, so don't mess up)
23 visitors have come 201 or more times (I can think of a few people who are in that category)
Bring it home tomorrow!
Principia has failed to phone home tonight. Principia does not know where its children are tonight.
Wolverine Road Warriors, with NASC 2008 coming to an end, I'd appreciate your perspectives.
The attrition (trailer) rate was high for NASC 2008. Was it more grueling than WSC 2007? Are there any similarities in terrain?
How does NASC 2008 compare to the first NASC in 2005?
Godspeed, Continuum!
Per Podcast: Principia came in under its own power---but it came in late, very late. Moreover, its battery packs are drained.
Late, as in 7:42 PM. BUT, they also said they held on to second place by taking the late penalty instead of the trailering penalty. Smart.
Wow, that is pretty darn late to show up in Medicine Hat. Let's say they have an empty battery pack and only get the morning charge (and the weather is clear in the morning). Let assume the sun rises around 6:30 so they get around 2.5 hours of charging:
2.5h * ~1200W (guess) = 3kWh
This is about half a battery pack, and the day is short. Given good weather, I feel they could make a 50-60 mph run to Calgary tomorrow. Or I could be completely wrong...
One thing that is for sure is that Michigan won't have all the stress and mess that came from the very contentious and unsportmanlike '05 run from MH to Calgary. So have fun!
-Rbt
Just in case it wasn't clear, by unsportsmanlike I meant that *both* teams were engaged in more of a back-and-forth tug-of-war and less of a dignified solar car rayce, with competitors running miles apart for timing numbers. ;)
Yea, but it sure was exciting Robert!
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