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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

An Update from Chase

As I ride along in Chase for the last stretch of the rayce, I would like to take a few minutes to thank all of our team sponsors, especially those who help my Division: Strategy.

Computers
Computational power is one of the greatest tools of Michigan Strategists. During the race Strategists run simulations to help determine the optimal speed to run Continuum. A special thanks to Acer America, Computer Builder's Warehouse, Red Barn Computers, Intel, and CAEN for providing the team with laptops, desktop computers and servers for the race.

GPS
One of the keys to Michigan's success race strategy is accurate GPS and route information. Topcon provided the team with GPS equipment, which in conjunction with a correction service from OmniStar was used to gather sub-meter accurate data for the entire race route. This helped us plan ahead and save extra energy in the battery for those nasty hills.

Software Development
For this race, Michigan Strategists used mainly MATLAB and Visual Studio for software development. A special thanks to The MathWorks and Microsoft for providing licenses for their respective software suites.

Computer Peripherals
Even with the fanciest computer and superb software tools, it is difficult to run a race without all of the small computer peripherals and accessories. Cables Unlimited, Alternative Wireless, Targus and Sewell Direct helped provide the team with top of the line products including Serial-USB adapters, cellular antennas, laptop power cords, portable harddrive enclosures and other such things.

Testing
Another key to Michigan's successful strategy is detail testing of Continuum. Testing was done on both a system and vehicle level. A special thanks to Carlisle Belts for providing timing pulleys and belts and Visteon for donating a dynamometer to the team; both were used to characterize Continuum's new CSIRO motor last summer. Performance of Continuum was characterized on Dana's and Chrysler's test tracks and at Michigan International Speedway. Continuum has also recently visited Jacobs' and Chrysler’s wind tunnels. This testing was essential for Michigan Strategists to understand the performance of Continuum; it enabled us to drive fast without worrying (too much) about draining the battery back.

Wireless Communication
Continuum utilizes Motorola’s MESH technology to wirelessly transfer data from Continuum to Lead and Chase. Michigan Strategists monitor telemetry data from Continuum throughout the race and compare its performance to their predictive models. MESH worked flawlessly for the team this NASC.

Unfortunately due to my poor internet connection crossing the Canadian prairie, I am unable to post pictures right now.

-Alex
Head Strategist

Labels: ,

Posted by Alex Dowling at 1:08 PM | Permalink | 4 comments

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, Alex --

How does the Caflor Industries gps fit into scheme? (I've really appreciated the gps website the team has given us access to the last couple days.)

Thanks for the updates and to your sponsors from a grateful alum!

Rainey

July 22, 2008 at 2:00 PM  
Blogger Alex Dowling said...

Sorry about that... I knew I forgot someone.

A special thanks to Caflor. In addition to GPS tracking, they have also provided the team with other resources such as testing facilities (chassis dyno.)

July 22, 2008 at 2:29 PM  
Blogger Wisniewski said...

Alex,
Thank you for recognizing our company. Being a Continuum sponsor has been an extremely rewarding experience.
Dean T. Wisniewski
Visteon Corporation

July 22, 2008 at 2:54 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Seagate was also a big help - the team has an absurd amount of storage available.

July 22, 2008 at 3:08 PM  

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Standings as of Medicine Hat

Here are the current official standings from NASC:

Team             Time
Michigan     47:22:53
Principia    56:18:51
FH Bochum    58:43:32
Waterloo     59:05:33
Minnesota    60:30:16
Calgary      70:13:58
Missouri S&T 72:58:23
Iowa State   84:53:20
Red River    85:38:55
Kentucky     91:42:36
Arizona      94:54:11
Queens       101:18:35
Northwestern 104:30:51
Durham       121:27:28
Oregon State 121:42:48

And some quick calculations. Leader is the time behind the leader. Gap is the time behind the next place. These are my numbers, so please let me know if you find any errors.

Team             Time      Leader       Gap
Michigan     47:22:53    --------   -------
Principia    56:18:51     8:55:58   8:55:58
FH Bochum    58:43:32    11:20:39   2:24:41
Waterloo     59:05:33    11:42:40   0:22:01
Minnesota    60:30:16    13:07:23   1:24:43
Calgary      70:13:58    22:51:05   9:43:42
Missouri S&T 72:58:23    25:35:30   2:44:25
Iowa State   84:53:20    37:30:27  11:54:57
Red River    85:38:55    38:16:02   0:45:35
Kentucky     91:42:36    44:19:43   6:03:41
Arizona      94:54:11    47:31:18   3:11:35
Queens       101:18:35   53:55:42   6:24:24
Northwestern 104:30:51   57:07:58   3:12:16
Durham       121:27:28   74:04:35  16:56:37
Oregon State 121:42:48   74:19:55   0:15:20

Labels: ,

Posted by Steven Hechtman at 10:30 PM | Permalink | 28 comments

28 Comments:

Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Whoa! That's a record 9-hour lead! Great job...Go Blue!

July 22, 2008 at 12:35 AM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Wow. Just wow. I'm impressed. Now don't lose the fairings!

July 22, 2008 at 12:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done team. Nice to see the note on lead brought some luck after Soiux Falls. Finish strong, it surely is a proud moment for the team and all our supporters.
GO BLUE!!!!!!!

July 22, 2008 at 1:08 AM  
Blogger Mark said...

Congrats on your incredible time! It's great how I've been using your blog to get updates on times long before NASC updates... Best of luck on your last leg from the Kentucky solar team!

July 22, 2008 at 1:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amaizing, great teamwork.

July 22, 2008 at 6:00 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Steve! So much arithmetic. It all checks. You get an 'A.'

July 22, 2008 at 6:44 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Michigan did the Winnipeg to Medicine Hat stage in about 13:09. At 662 miles, that's a 50.3 mph avg. At 2132 miles overall, it's about a 45.0 mph avg. Somebody said with route changes, it's actually 2177 miles. That gives a 45.9 mph avg.

The record of 46.2 mph is still theoretically reachable.

Other teams must have taken penalties. The stage should have been a maximum of 18 hours. (9 to 6 the first day, 8 to 6 the second day, minus 1 hour for two checkpoint stops.) But, besides Michigan, only Waterloo (17 hours even) and Minnesota (17:32) came in under 18 hours. Bochum had 18:44 for the stage, Calgary 19:03, Missouri S&T 19:38, and Principia 20:43.

From their radio interview last night, we know Principia chose to take the penalty for coming in late (7:42 PM!) rather than take the trailering penalty, which would have been app. 12 hours. They saved something like 9 hours, so that's looking like a pretty shrewd move. Good enough to hold onto second place. If they had trailered in, they would have fallen to 5th place.

Principia is not out of the woods yet. They had terrible electrical problems yesterday, and limped in to Medicine Hat with empty batteries. That means they may run slower than they wish for this last leg of 187 miles. Bochum has a small chance to catch up. But Waterloo has a small to catch up to Bochum.

Calgary has moved up to 6th place. S&T fell to 7th. Iowa State moved up to 8th. Red River fell to 9th.

The first five teams managed to go the whole way without trailering. That is worthy of respect right there, with this stage, the longest, scheduled at only 2 days.

Michigan now has almost a 9 hour lead. At least one team has suggested (complained) that Michigan should be in a different class, so somebody else has a chance of winning. (How quickly they forgot 2005.)

The big difference, IMHO, is that Michigan built this car to compete in WSC '07, and consequently had over 5,000 miles of testing before the start of this race.

July 22, 2008 at 7:44 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The team suggesting a separate U of M class also apparently forgot '03, when U of M didn't qualify, and that team won the race! But it doesn't matter much now... 9 hours. Wow. Just wow. For the historians out there, has any US race *ever* been quite like this? Amazing.

July 22, 2008 at 8:06 AM  
Blogger Doug Carroll said...

Congratulations Michigan!! I believe that Continuum is the best solar car ever made in North America. You may or may not set the speed record of your 2005 car, but the 2005 rules allowed for a lot more charging time at the stage stops. Continuum may be the car to upset the Dutch team in WSC.

Good luck - hope you have a great run today.

July 22, 2008 at 8:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, wonderful Job!

If Continuum keeps up at the speed it posted for the last leg, it should take roughly 3 hours and 45 ish minutes. Presuming they are leaving at 9 am Mountain Time from Medicine Hat. That would put them into Calgary at 12:45 ish. So 1:45 Central and 2:45 eastern.

Keep up the great work!

Go Fast,Go Smooth, Go Blue!

Kate Bateman

July 22, 2008 at 8:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done guys and girls.
Make up the 4 minutes and 2 seconds and I will give you all permission to take the day off and have a beer.
An Australian beer of course.

July 22, 2008 at 8:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I saw the comment earlier about Continuum and WSC. Is the team planning on rerunning Continuum for WSC 09 or is that the debut race for Infinitum (BTW, I like the name!)

Jose

July 22, 2008 at 8:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Good luck today - we wish we could greet you at the finish line. Go Blue!

July 22, 2008 at 9:00 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Michigan is working on InfiniUM right now. (Well, I hope the Infinium team back in Ann Arbor took a break to follow this race.) They tell me it will be a really sweet ride, better in many ways than ContinuUM. Maybe this one can dethrone King Nuon.

July 22, 2008 at 9:10 AM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Steve - It's been great to see you posting on here. I'm sure the team would like to take you up on your offer, though it's generally difficult to find decent Aussie beer (the only "Aussie" brand is generally Foster's, and that's brewed in the U.S. now). It's a sad state of affairs.

July 22, 2008 at 9:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow ... and ... [an awestruck] whoa, Continuum. Thank you for all the updates. Well done through this stage! Good luck today! Go fast, go smooth, Go Blue!

Rainey

July 22, 2008 at 10:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great job guys and gals. I know you will finish strong! I know I speak for everyone in saying how proud we are of all of you... seriously! It's amazing how different this race ended up being from the '05 race.

Be sure to take pictures of that teepee thingy in Medicine Hat... it might be the last chance you have to see such a fine structure.

Also, be sure to keep your cool on the final morning... things get hairy when you're too stressed with fighting penalties.

July 22, 2008 at 10:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did they already start? The tracker shows a vehicle peeling down the highway.

July 22, 2008 at 10:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I must have been mistaken. 8 am start? Subtract one hour from my projections... That would but them in Calgary roughly 11:45 Mountain, 12:45 central and 1:45 eastern. Go Blue!

July 22, 2008 at 10:51 AM  
Blogger Hostman said...

My understanding is the Continuum is not going to race again after this NASC, and Infinium will be the new car starting in WSC '09. It's going to take a lot to beat Nuon ... they're faster than us by about as much as we're faster than everyone else in NASC (this year). Innovation along the lines of the concentrator system will help propel the team to victory, but don't expect it.

Garrick - we can get Cooper's here in Ann Arbor, just go to the Beer Depot...

-Rbt

July 22, 2008 at 10:54 AM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

I reran my calculations it it looks like Momentum's record actually will be just out of reach. The 2132 miles to Medicine Hat was correct, not the 2177 I initially calculated. The total distance of the race, as far as I can tell, is 2319 miles. The Winnipeg to Medicine Hat stage was 602 miles. If you neglect the 1-hour penalty for not changing brake pads, then my numbers are correct, but officially setting a new record will have to wait until 2010.

Congratulations on running a great race and have a safe drive into Calgary. I'll clear a spot for the trophy case in the workspace.

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!

July 22, 2008 at 10:59 AM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

The car is rolling out now.

The tracker was showing the weather car earlier. Its correct now.

July 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Goosebumps are just around the corner! I do envy those who get to be there.
Continue going fast, true, smooth, and blue, CONTINUUM!!!
(another anonymous)

July 22, 2008 at 11:10 AM  
Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

This is just amazing! Great job Team, you're almost there.

July 22, 2008 at 11:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Traffic Cams in the area show that its a cloudy overcast day, hopefully it will clear up by Calgary.

July 22, 2008 at 11:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

;This blog site has been wonderful. I can keep track of Jeff R. (sort of) and not use our shared phone minutes. I have enjoyed all the comments and keeping up-to-date on the race or rayce. You are pretty close to finish,so maybe you could carry the car the rest of the way, should something horrendous happen. Looks like you have been pretty smooth and fast and so blue! Jeff's Mom

July 22, 2008 at 2:26 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Oh no, error, error. (Mine, not Steve's.) Bochum only took 17:44 for the stage, within the 18 legal max. Es tut mir leid, meine Freunde. Und herzlichen Glückwunsch zu laufen wie ein gutes Rennen.

July 22, 2008 at 4:55 PM  
Blogger NShway said...

Steve,

On behalf of the 2001 M-Pulse team, congrats to you and the entire ContinuUM team for your tremendous win in the 2008 NASC. It was a phenomenal accomplishment and perhaps the largest margin of victory in Solar Car history. In reading your blog, we’re especially proud of the way in which you conducted yourselves as competitors and how you represented the University of Michigan across your journey.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the Michigan Solar Car Team is an excellent launch pad to your future and we hope the bonds you form with your teammates will last for decades to come. Best of luck in your future endeavors as a group, as professionals, and as champion solar car alumni.

Go fast, go smooth, and GO BLUE!!!!

Yours,

Nader Shwayhat
Project Manager (retired)
M-Pulse 2001
University of Michigan Solar Car Team

July 24, 2008 at 3:22 PM  

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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Arrival in Winnipeg

Well, the team has arrived in Winnipeg at 11:32 am. We have impounded the battery and are now taking the rest of the day to check over the vehicle and get everything prepared for tomorrow. In addition there are many things going on today. Red River College is hosting this Stage Stop and they have planned a BBQ for the team, opened the gym for floor hockey, and will play a movie for teams to enjoy this evening. And now for some images from stage 3.


Continuum reaches the border and prepares for Canadian customs.


We reach the town of Morris and the Canadian police and other folks on horses proceeded us into the parade.



The main caravan proceeds as part of the parade.


Weather and Scout follow Chase through Morris.


After flagging us around the turn by Red River College, Josh runs to meet us at the Stage Stop.

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 2:00 PM | Permalink | 13 comments

13 Comments:

Blogger Wisniewski said...

Wow, what a great time. Please let us know how the hockey tournament goes.

GO GET 'EM TEAM CONTINUUM!

July 19, 2008 at 3:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am confused. The pictures show the scout car following the chase car in the parade. Why would the scout car be behind?

July 19, 2008 at 3:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When did your remaining competition arrive in Winnipeg

July 19, 2008 at 4:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Reading the last few entries, I'm so impressed by the collegiality of all the teams, all of you helping each other do your best. What a terrific example of friendly competition - Keep up the great work! Dr. Montgomery

July 19, 2008 at 5:10 PM  
Blogger Steven Hechtman said...

Anonymous,

When weather and scout arrived at the parade, they spoke with local police and were told that our caravan could not bypass the parade and would have to wait. Weather and scout worked with parade officials to let us into the parade. The caravan made it to the parade route right as it was about to start--therefore we were let in as the third "float" in the parade. Weather and scout followed behind, having been waiting at the beginning to broker the deal.

George,

Principia arrived 56 minutes after we did. They were followed later by Minnesota, Waterloo, and Bochum. Most (if not all) of the other teams were forced to trailer to make it to Winnipeg. We should have more details after tonight's race meeting. Keep in mind, the 56 minute gap does not reflect time off of the clock at the border. One of our team members had to go into the border station to get her visa stamped, so the time taken to do this will be removed from our elapsed time.

July 19, 2008 at 7:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the explanation (about the scout car in the parade) Steve.
I hope the parade watchers enjoyed continuum.
GO BLUE!

July 19, 2008 at 8:47 PM  
Blogger Elson said...

I love the photos of the race caravan in the parade. No doubt it was good PR for solar racing and for UofM. :-)

July 19, 2008 at 8:52 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Hey, the Strategy team timed it so Michigan would be the only team getting a parade. :) Go Blue!

-Rbt

July 19, 2008 at 9:34 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Quick weather report. Environment Canada says Winnipeg and Brandon will have showers and clouds tomorrow. Regina will have sunny skies, if anyone can reach them.

July 19, 2008 at 10:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Principia radio will have its nightly audio show on the solar race: It is at 10:00.
It is a good show.
http://www.prin.edu/public/index.pl/radio_podcast


GO BLUE

July 19, 2008 at 10:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Principia'a radio show is 11:00 pm A2 time

July 19, 2008 at 10:55 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

My guesstimate for overall standings:

1) Michigan
2) Principia
3) FH Bochum
4) Waterloo
5) Minnesota
6) Calgary
7) Missouri S&T
8) Red River

and I can't even guess the others. I won't try to guess the time intervals either, except to say it looks like the first three have stretched out, but 4 and 5 may be closing on third. The only change in order from last time is Calgary passing Missouri S&T.

3 of the top 8 are Canadian entries (Waterloo, Calgary, and Red River). Third place is German (Bochum). The other four, including the top two spots, American, and all from middle American states (Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri). Nothing from the left or right coast, nor down south. Not sure what to make of that.

July 20, 2008 at 8:49 AM  
Blogger Peter said...

I think this kind of compensates for the time Chito stopped a train for the team...

Also, now when you get decked with speeding penalties you have clear evidence that you were going no faster than the horses holding things up.

Dr. Montgomery, great to see you cheering the team on!

GO BLUE!

July 20, 2008 at 11:20 AM  

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And across the border we go

The team is now in Canada under 100 miles (or rather 160 km) from Winnipeg. Continuum has also partaken in it's first parade. The city of Morris, Mt holds an annual stampede and it just so happened that this morning the festivities began with a parade. The town welcomed us and let us join their parade. Following two horse drawn carriages and a float we turned on all of our caravan lights and joined in. We were followed by our weather and scout vehicles who arrived earlier to ensure our safe passage through the parade. The parade announcer was unsure of what this yellow car-thingy was and said he still preferred horses. After a short while the parade route turned right and we continued straight on the race route to Winnipeg. I will post a few pictures when we arrive in Winnipeg.

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 11:53 AM | Permalink | 8 comments

8 Comments:

Blogger Michael Adams said...

Is everyone going to get a parade? I would think it would only be fair...we're in a race!! We could've lost crucial time!!

July 19, 2008 at 12:20 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

Principia might get caught up in it, but I think everyone else is going to miss it.

Michigan is now less than 10 minutes away from the stage stop.

July 19, 2008 at 12:23 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

Arrival time in Winnipeg: 11:32
Total time for stage 3: 12:32
Distance: 530 mi
Average Speed: 42.3 mph

July 19, 2008 at 12:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aw come on!
So what if a few minutes were lost in the parade! Winning aint everything (...and I am as competitive as anybody). I suspect that publicity is one thing that this race has had a severe shortage of. We UM cheerleaders should hope that the M car appear in many more parades to come.
Viva la parades. Way better than hail and rain.
RE:
Is everyone going to get a parade? I would think it would only be fair...we're in a race!! We could've lost crucial time!!

July 19, 2008 at 1:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of Principia, did anyone find out when they made it in?

July 19, 2008 at 2:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

What rediculous luck to arrive in the middle of the parade. That's even crazier than trying to evade the herds of sheep that hang out in the middle of the Stewart Highway! If anyone has any parade video, it's got to be entertaining if there's any way to post it.

July 19, 2008 at 2:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now that's a first for solar car racing! The odds of that happening are so slim...

Now how on earth would could you work that into a strategy... :-)

July 19, 2008 at 5:04 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Just got back from a wedding. My favorite niece got married! Anything interesting happen in the meantime? What the . . . ? A frackin' parade? Are you kidding me? What are the rules regarding this? Any penalties other than driving through horse droppings?

Charles, thanks for the numbers.

How many teams made it to Winnipeg on their own power? The next stage, Winnipeg to The Hat is over 130 miles longer, but still only allotted 2 days. Michigan should be able to make that, probably by early afternoon Monday. Principia by mid-afternoon. Maybe 2 or 3 more without trailering.

July 19, 2008 at 10:06 PM  

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Fargo

We are arriving in Fargo!  Quite a few people and media are here to greet us.

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 4:10 PM | Permalink | 31 comments

31 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats to the team for reaching Fargo. I hope today's ride was smooth, uneventful and incredibly successful! Go Blue!

July 18, 2008 at 4:13 PM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

And hopefully the penalty gremlins have been exorcised!

July 18, 2008 at 4:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great work...how is principia doing?

Bob Hayes

July 18, 2008 at 4:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

274miles/6h = 45.7 mph not too shabby...so where is Principia?

July 18, 2008 at 5:28 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Charles Eichorst reports Michigan made it to Fargo 13 minutes ahead of Principia. I don't know Charles, but I want to believe him.

Whatever the penalty was (and apparently the 90 minutes was assessed for just one infraction), the Michigan team knows what it was and won't let it happen again. I do know the Crew Chief, and he'll be watching for it.

July 18, 2008 at 5:30 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

I'm sorry, it's Charles Eichhorst. I owe him an 'h'

July 18, 2008 at 5:32 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

Maybe I should have introduced myself earlier. I've been on the team since 2006, and currently working on designs for the 2009 car. I'm getting my information from the chat tool the team uses, so I usually have access to more information than is posted to the blog.

On a side note, I did have a chance to meet TC Lambert at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, although I can't blame him for not remembering since I don't know why I remember that.

July 18, 2008 at 5:50 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Way to go team, great job bouncing back. Good luck with the border crossing tomorrow, hopefully everybody's got their passports ready! Also, I seem to recall the mosquitos being as large as birds up there, break out the OFF!

July 18, 2008 at 6:28 PM  
Blogger Michael Adams said...

The mosquitoes weren't THAT bad. We just made the decision to camp near large bodies of standing water. Great for charging...bad for mosquitoes. Success always has its price....

July 18, 2008 at 6:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We are cheering you on from a BHPBilliton diamond mine in the Canadian far north. Keep the updates coming!

July 18, 2008 at 8:17 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

It's 8:30. Does anyone know where are children are?

July 18, 2008 at 8:26 PM  
Blogger Wisniewski said...

Charles, you were the dynamometer guru..before it was retired..right?

As of Fargo, the estimated Continuum overall lead is 32 to 33 minutes. How does that compare to the battle with Minnesota in 2005?

July 18, 2008 at 8:30 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Well, now, young 'un, back in ought five, Minnesota was ahead at this point. And MIT was second. Michigan caught 'em and passed 'em on the windy plains of Canada.

July 18, 2008 at 8:36 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

I don't have an exact location, but it looks like they ended up somewhere around Grand Forks, ND

July 18, 2008 at 8:36 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

To be more specific, (if I remember correctly) in 2005 we were behind Minnesota by about half an hour at this point. By the end of the race we made up an hour and won by half an hour.

July 18, 2008 at 8:38 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

Yes, I was the 'dynamometer guru'

July 18, 2008 at 8:40 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

The wife says she thinks we passed MIT before Winnipeg in '05. Minnesota was ahead by a little bit at Winnipeg, less than an hour I believe. We caught 'em and passed 'em somewhere on the road to Medicine Hat.

Are you trying to cast us in Minnesota's role, and Principia in Michigan's? You think Principia will do better in the windy conditions? They do have a slick look. And I hear that Chris Vermillion helped with their aero design. Chris did Momentum's aero design, and also helped with Continuum's. He's the best aero guy there is. (Eat it, Burt Rutan!)

July 18, 2008 at 8:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Principia says they are at Grand Forks ND, and that they have travelled 1243.4 miles. See their website. http://www.principiasolarcar.com/nasc
I don't blame people cheering for the little 'un that could. Everybody loves an underdog, except for those of us who are UMich gradjets.

Jay
LSA '72

July 18, 2008 at 8:53 PM  
Blogger Chris Hilger said...

Nice work Michigan. Hopefully tomorrow is another successful day. I hope to see you all in Winnipeg

July 18, 2008 at 8:56 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

For those who are MapQuest challenged, Grand Forks is about 80 miles north of Fargo, and about 145 miles south of Winnipeg. Of course, MapQuest said to take the freeway. That would mean Continuum drove about 355 miles in 8.5 hours = about 42 mph. The plus or minus on this one is pretty big.

July 18, 2008 at 8:59 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

But Fargo is 1215 miles from the starting line. 1243 is only 28 miles beyond that. Grand Forks is more like 1295 or maybe 1300 miles. Somebody's arithmetic is suspect here. Who you gonna trust, the Latin majors of Principia, or a UM grad?

July 18, 2008 at 9:06 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

I just received word that they stopped just south of Grafton, ND. I also found out a little more about the penalties. 1 hour was due to the brakes, and the rest was speeding and not stopping quickly enough at a stop light.

July 18, 2008 at 9:17 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Chris is indeed quite good with solar car aero. However, we must also salute Jason Kramb, who designed the very successful '01 car (as well as some others, I'm sure), and who is now working for Burt Rutan down @ Scaled...

From my 2c, running past the wear point on the brake pads does not a safety issue make, until perhaps 300-1000 miles have elapsed. Certainly not 15 minutes. But if your observer is non-technical, they might get flipped out about it. Oh well. Time to blast by those amber waves of ... prairie grass... on the one and only road in Canada. :)

Don't get stuck in Brandon, Manitoba as we did on Route Survey '05. They *closed* the only highway for like 16 hours, and then only plowed *one* lane. Jeez.

-Rbt

July 18, 2008 at 9:39 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Michael - the mosquitos *were* that bad, I could have used a couple extra pints of blood.

I believe in '05 we made it across the border right after Minnesota and MIT, and then passed MIT before Winnipeg. Michigan was definitely 2nd to start the Winnipeg to Medicine Hat leg and made up ground as Minnesota got buffeted around with cross winds. As for the finish - less than 12 minutes separated 1st and 2nd after 2500 miles, the teams crossed the finish line just over one minute apart.

July 18, 2008 at 9:43 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

I'm pretty sure I recall even Kramb referring to Burt as a genius, so let's just thank fate that he never got an itch to field a Scaled Composites solar car, or we'd be hosed. On the other hand, if he ever does, sign me up.

An interesting note of trivia (and I hope Jason is around somewhere to add to this if I get it wrong) is that apparently Scaled employees were allowed to put a memento of some kind onto one of the SpaceShipOne X-Prize flights (they needed ballast). Kramb's piece was a part from M-Pulse, so Michigan has the distinction of being the first solar car in space.

July 18, 2008 at 9:48 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Also, for those wondering, Continuum handles pretty well in winds, even getting hit by a couple of dust devils while driving without any loss of control. Its short wheelbase and long tail, however, makes it look like it's rotating more than it really is, so the hypochondriacs in chase (among them, me) probably drove the drivers nuts asking them if they were okay.

July 18, 2008 at 9:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I second the mosquitos being *that* bad

July 18, 2008 at 9:57 PM  
Blogger Michael Adams said...

We never PHYSICALLY passed MIT into Winnipeg. We ended up at RRC about 4 minutes after them. They had a few speeding penalties, however, and that pushed into second for leaving Winnipeg.

July 18, 2008 at 10:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So Garrick, from your comments I take it that Continuum can sail well with the crosswinds?

In the years since solar car and following other racings sports like NASCAR and F1 I have a lot more respect for the work Kramb and the rest of the aero team did for MazieBlaze and MPulse.

July 18, 2008 at 10:08 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

She does indeed sail well, though the bigger profile can't help but get buffeted around a bit more than Momentum. And big crosswinds are always tough on your tires. But Continuum should be okay in anything shy of a Category 2.

July 18, 2008 at 11:21 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

Agreed with Adams on the situation. We were trying darned hard to pass MIT, and as luck would have it, it was their amazing 1000000 mph speedo that gave us the lead. As in, their speedo at one point read 1 million mph for a while, which cost them when they actually sped without knowing it.

To be fair, it's nearly impossible to pass on the one road in Canada. Especially when the other car is weaving like a slalom racer.

July 18, 2008 at 11:57 PM  

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A good start with unfortunate penalties

The official times have been released and as it stands we are leaving Sioux Falls in first place. Unfortunatly most of our lead has been lost due to penalties. With 1.5 hours of penalties we have reduced our lead to close to 14 minutes. The majority of the penalty time was caused by the actions of the team in the last 15 minutes of racing two days ago. After a few team meetings and discussions the team does believe that we acted safely and followed the protocols our team has set up. However we do see the other side of the coin and will not be protesting this penalty. Rather we will submit an explanation to the officials that allows our voice to be heard and gives them the chance to understand the mindset of the team and the procedures we have set up and have been running with for over 5000 miles.

The day has started pretty well. We are running for over 20 miles. We are currently in Minnesota heading north to Fargo!

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Posted by Jeff Ferman at 11:04 AM | Permalink | 18 comments

18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What were the penalties for?

July 18, 2008 at 11:32 AM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

I think that might be an all-time Michigan record in terms of penalties!

July 18, 2008 at 11:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you guys jockeying with Principia for first place this morning?

Sucks about the penalties, but its part of the rayce and theres still plenty of time to build up another lead.

July 18, 2008 at 11:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@furqan - The 99 team had to do a fair amount of trailering due to the lack of sun for 3/4 of the race, so thats proably the largest penalty. But this would be up there for a non-trailering offense.

July 18, 2008 at 11:35 AM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Well, we got about the same amount levied against us in Medicine Hat in '05, and we used logged telemetry data along with GPS data to show were were within the regulations, and all the penalties were removed. Good thing we collected all that data!

This sounds a little less cut-and-dry, but we can hope the race officials will come to a fair determination. Certainly any non-speeding penalty that is related to 15 minutes of driving should not be assessed more than 30 minutes in penalty time ... it's not like the pack was on *fire*, right? :-P

Best of luck team, I'm sure you'll pull through this per usual.

-Rbt

July 18, 2008 at 12:20 PM  
Blogger Wisniewski said...

Calgary News CTV is following the race. Here is a link to a video they posted covering Bochum and Michigan.
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080716/CGY_solar_sneha_080716/20080716?hub=CalgaryHome

July 18, 2008 at 12:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd be really interested to hear what the penalties are.

Congrats to the strategy crew for building a lead, because this would be disastrous any other way.

@jose: remember that our array in '99 was also put out between 1/3 and 1/2 of rated power output. We couldn't even recover a full charge on a clear day at the Atlanta stage stop it was so bad.

July 18, 2008 at 12:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@russ oh yeah I was just talking about the penalty number alone. The array and the weather just put us behind the eight ball, but it was still a fun ride.

July 18, 2008 at 12:55 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

I had a brief conversation with Ferman last night, and this particular violation was not one for which telemetry data would do much good. But the pack was not on fire. I'll leave it to someone on the team to explain fully when they have the time and feel it's appropriate to do so, but the gist of it is that the car had some mechanical issues at the end of the day. The team felt it was safe to press on until they could camp for the night at 5:45, but the race officials disagreed and assigned a penalty.

Again recall that that info is from last night when it sounds like this was still a bit up in the air and is thus in no way an official statement, I just hope to settle down the speculation a bit until the team can tell us more.

Also, the NASC webpage lists the official times with Michigan holding a lead of about 21 minutes, so it may be somewhat better than Ferman's report in the post.

July 18, 2008 at 1:41 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

I got called in to work. Very frustrating. The safety regs should not be fuzzy enough that we think we can proceed and the official disagrees. At the very least the official in the chase car who is assessing these penalties should be able to say something. That disagreement apparently turned 15 minutes into 90 minutes. Obviously, if we know that's the trade-off, we should stop and fix whatever is wrong. Take the 15 minute hit rather than the 90 minute hit.

The official no doubt acted in good faith. But a disagreement over rule interpretation shouldn't be a 90 minute penalty.

I am upset with the NASC organizers now over a number of issues, one of which is the abysmal communications to us poor folks trying to follow the race. Another big one is about the solar concentrators. Another one is that the longest stage, Winnipeg to Medicine Hat, 662 miles, is only scheduled for 2 days. Only a few top teams can make that, and only if the weather is favorable. Neosho to Sioux Falls, 606 miles, was allotted 3 days.

The guy in charge of NASC doesn't know what he's doing.

July 18, 2008 at 5:03 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

TC, I understand you're upset, but keep in mind that there's more to the story than what I said before, or am even aware of.

I agree that, in disagreements over safety between the observer and the team, the observer should be required to give a verbal warning that the intend to pursue a penalty (generally observers don't penalize directly, they only make an observation that other officials later make a determination on). Generally they are not supposed to tell the team when they do this.

The logic behind verbal warning would be that, if it's truly unsafe, the observer should say something - the team may not be aware of the problem, or that it's something that should be considered unsafe. If it's safe enough to keep quiet about until the next stage stop, it probably should not be given a race-changingly large penalty.

With regards to your other criticisms, the guy in charge of NASC, Dan Eberle, is a fantastic, extremely knowledgable person, and this race would have died a long time ago without his persistence in believing it could happen long after a lot of people had given up on it.

A year ago, this event had no sponsor and no prospect of happening. Many if not all of the problems you note are the result of having to hastily organize an event on a minimal budget with a small staff. They are justifiably more concerned with keeping the race safe and well run than they are with putting fancy widgets on the website. This is precisely as it should be. Regulations also had to be developed quickly, with minimal time for debate between teams and race officials. As for the route and stops, much is determined by when venues can be scheduled, etc, things that are difficult to manage on short notice.

Despite the challenges faced by Eberle and the NASC crew, NASC has always been a well run, safe event, much more so than the World Solar Challenge in ways too numerous to list here. The very fact that we're complaining about a lack of GPS coverage rather than, say, making up stage rules two days into the race or releasing solar cars into rush hour traffic without their support vehicles is a testament to the dedication and skill of all the people who make NASC happen. While there are certainly constructive critcisms that can be made, we should really commend the NASC organizers and officials, without whom North American solar racing would be more or less dead.

July 18, 2008 at 5:59 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

TC I certainly share your frustration, I loved the GPS tracker in '05, I mainly used it to see where my own caravan vehicles were! But I mostly agree with Garrick. From what I understand this year's NASC is being run by volunteers (no paid employees), and on short funding and time. Not really excuses, but I think we're fortunate there is a race at all (remember they came within a week of canceling it all together)!

Regarding the penalties - No doubt the officials felt they were in the right, and it's pretty hard to argue with safety calls, but 90 minutes, wow! U of M never fails to make things interesting, it'd be no fun if the race wasn't filled with excitement, drama, close calls and lead changes. I have all the faith in the world that the Continuum team will come through this stronger than before!

July 18, 2008 at 6:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi TC and Garrick. TC I am surprised you went to work, it seems that with all the info you have been posting for us that you have not had time to sleep never mind work as well.
Regarding both your comments on the organisation of the event and WSC, yes i am frustrated too with the lack of feedback from the official website and confusion with rules and i was frustrated with the same thing for WSC.
But thinking about it a bit the best event ever was 1987 WSC, budget was $0.00 paid staff was 0 lots of volounteers all organised by one bloke who made all these evnts possible.
Let us all thank Hans Tholstup for making it all happen.

July 18, 2008 at 8:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I take more of an issue with the team putting their driver on public roads with overly worn brake pads (based on hearsay I know). If true, that is a ridiculous choice and they should be penalized. The fact that no details about what actually happened have been posted (updates from the road have been very prompt) and that the team isn’t pursuing an appeal tells me that this probably wasn’t a marginal call.

July 18, 2008 at 8:30 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Well, little has been posted because last I knew little was finalized. And as your negative speculation indicates, the team putting out a little info can be worse than putting out none at all. Presumably they are waiting to put out a full report until they can settle down and write something coherent.

Also, worn brakes are a bit of a gray area - obviously running metal on metal all day is unsafe, but is, say, carrying on for a couple miles after you hit the wear indicator unsafe (they are of course, designed to warn you long enough ahead of time to get repair)? In between there's a lot of gray, where conceivably two reasonable people can come to different conclusions, so it's unfair to assume horrific guilt just because you don't have a detailed account.

Keep in mind as well that the race officials are by necessity going to be extremely conservative, while the team knows the car and what it can handle very well. Recognizing this and not protesting the official decision may be a mark of grace rather than an admission of guilt.

At any rate, you make a mistake, serve your time, learn from it, and move on, which is what Michigan appears to be doing.

To Steve:

Hans is, of course, basically the god of solar car. Eberle is comparatively a minor deity, but still worthy of the praise of mere solar mortals.

July 18, 2008 at 9:15 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Garrick you are totally right, we should all be thanking Hans and Dan for giving us unlimited reasons to avoid work and blog about nerdy stuff all day.

July 18, 2008 at 9:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, just checking out the blogs today and there is great information out here. I was lucky enough to see the start of the rayce, living in Plano, TX. My boys were impressed enough with the whole gathering that one of them is finally leaning towards U of M. I just hope we don't penalize ourselves into a situation like our football team! Keep up the great feed. BSEE '88 Go Blue!

July 19, 2008 at 10:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You misspelled "Minnesota"!

July 19, 2008 at 2:16 PM  

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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Images from Stage Two

One final set of images leading up until today. I will post more about the evening and a stage update tomorrow. We will be starting in the lead tomorrow morning at 9am!

Here Michigan is on the road making the final turn before we enter the Omaha checkpoint.


Continuum enters Iowa!


Traveling through Sioux Falls just before we enter the park for the stage stop. Just past the next intersection a police escort joined the caravan and led us into the stop.


Continuum enters the stage stop on a road lined with flags. NASC and American flags lined the entrance into Sioux Park (with British, German, and Canadian flags at the end for the international teams).


Lead and Chase line up at Sioux Falls just after we arrive.


We serve 30 minutes after arriving at Sioux Falls and point the array at the sun to help gain a charge before impounding our batteries.


A police escort lead in each caravan. Here they are leading Principia into the stage stop.


Principia enters the stage stop just over an hour after Michigan.

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Posted by Jeff Ferman at 6:08 PM | Permalink | 0 comments

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Images from Stage One

Here is a set of images spanning from the start line to the Neosho Stage Stop.

From my viewpoint in Chase, Continuum rolling down the highway towards Neosho.


Continuum pulls into the Neosho stage stop.


Richard flags in Principia as they enter the stage stop behind us.


A nice picture of the University of Kentucky solar car as it arrives in Neosho.


Iowa State University pulls into Neosho and qualifies! Congrats!


After finding a puddle, we set up to charge at night hoping to fill the pack.


Charing at night while two team membres, Dan Eberle, and Garrett, our observer stand near the array.


The sun sets in Neosho, Mo.


The Missouri National Guard at Camp Crowder


The Missouri Army National Guard provides us with Barracks to spend the nights in Neosho at Camp Crowder


Two team members work to help the Minnesota team.


Crowder College offers us cold water, Coke, and Mountain Dew.


Steve moves over to Minnesota after inspecting our battery pack.


The last morning of the stage stop, we get a little extra charge before moving the car to the start line.


Lead and Chase vehicles for each team line up down the road in order ready to leave the Neosho Stage Stop.

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Posted by Jeff Ferman at 4:58 PM | Permalink | 5 comments

5 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I love the pictures!! Very cool. I took a few of my own while down in Texas...

Qualifying

Display Day and Pre-Race

NASC Start Line

Mostly Michigan pictures, but there's one of each car as it gets the green flag. Enjoy!

July 17, 2008 at 8:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

where can I find the time for the "Stage Start" in Sioux Falls?

thanx in advance for prompt reply!!

July 17, 2008 at 8:27 PM  
Blogger Wisniewski said...

WELCOME to those that saw the announcement of this team website during the CTN CitiTV 19 coverage of the Ann Arbor Art Fair.

Note that the 2008 edition of the world's longest solar car race is about to begin stage 3. The race website is americansolarchallenge.org but as you can see, this blog is a wonderful way to follow the "rayce".

July 17, 2008 at 9:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yay! I've been waiting for pictures! Thanks for putting these up, and for making captions too! :D

July 17, 2008 at 9:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is Michigan only about 20+ minutes ahead. From previous posts here it looked like Michigan was over an hour ahead. Did Michigan receive penalty minutes on the second leg

July 18, 2008 at 7:49 AM  

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Some Images from the Start Line

Again continuing in the series of adding photos, here is a set of photos from the start of the race in Plano, Texas.

The official start line.


The solar car lane leading away from the start lined with NASC 2008 flags.


Robert Vogt, head strategist for both the 2003 and 2005 Michigan teams, and Brian Gilchrist, our faculty adviser, join us at the start of the race. Brian stayed with the team until we reached Sioux Falls.


Continuum and the team pose while waiting for the official all team photo to be taken.


Our lead and chase vehicles sit and wait for the start of the race. We were given American and Canadian flags to put on both vehicles. The start of this race was well organized. While the solar cars lined up at the start line, the lead and chase vehicles for each team were put in another line just after the start. When the solar car passed the starting line, the lead vehicle was already in front of the car ready to go. Chase quickly followed behind and we were off down the road.


Continuum sits in position 1 at the start line. Minnisota and Missouri S&T can be seen in the background.


The two Jeffs on the team stand in front of Continuum shortly before the race start.


The team is treated to dinner by the Dallas Alumni Club on Friday before the race begins.

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Posted by Jeff Ferman at 4:17 PM | Permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aww, I love those group shots!! Especially that one of everyone with the car. Go--well, you know, that color next to green. ;)

July 17, 2008 at 9:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great pictures...esp the one using the puddle and the one in which Continuum looks so proud (and somewhat smug) as she is surrounded by her team. And she has every right to be proud (and smug)!

July 17, 2008 at 10:21 PM  

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Stage Stop in Sioux Falls

After a night and early morning full of rain, we left Omaha for Sioux Falls at 7:45 AM this morning. Driving at the speed limit or close to it, we pushed into South Dakota, arriving by police escort in Sioux Falls at 12:35 PM. As is the rule for stage stops, we charged for 30 minutes, then impounded our batteries, They will be released for an evening charge tonight from 6:00-8:30 PM, and then for morning and evening charges tomorrow. On Friday, we will have one last morning charge before heading out for Fargo, North Dakota and the Canadian Border.

Our nearest competition, Principia, arrived at 1:40 PM. Therefore, we added 1 hour and 4 minutes on Principia for the stage, giving us a total lead of 1 hour and 40 minutes for the first two stages (before second stage penalties, if applicable). More updates to follow. Hopefully, our connection here should be able to handle some picture uploads as well!

Update (8:00 PM): Although I do not have times on me at the moment, Bochum arrived at around 3:15 (give or take 10 minutes either way).  Waterloo arrived around 40 minutes later.  Calgary arrived somewhere after 5 PM, followed by Missouri S&T.

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Posted by Steven Hechtman at 3:35 PM | Permalink | 43 comments

43 Comments:

Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Glad to see the blog working again. Congrats on completing the second stage and extending your lead! Say "hi" to my Mom and Dad for me.

July 16, 2008 at 6:06 PM  
Blogger Michael Adams said...

I really could've used all these posts at work!! Congrats, guys. Enjoy the picturesque beauty of the falls. Do they have free massages like they did in '05?

July 16, 2008 at 7:25 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

I have to hand it to Dowling, his "go faster than everyone else" strategy seems to be working much better than my "spot the field 8 hours" approach. Nice work.

I do request that someone get some nice pics of Principia for me - at the risk of making Continuum jealous, it's a very nice looking car (but you'll always be my favorite Con ... don't give me that look).

July 16, 2008 at 7:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@Garrick Williams

It's pretty damn gorgeous isn't it?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdelc/2665718613/sizes/l/
http://www.principiasolarcar.com/photos/nasc-2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8492055@N08/2673853444/
http://lh4.ggpht.com/h.trudell/SHqAW3MuFcI/AAAAAAAAFlo/z-QSnA4wWg0/PICT2859.JPG
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdelc/2666545250/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdelc/2659600853/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdelc/2660428994/

July 16, 2008 at 7:53 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Well, one thing that's not surprising about Principia is that a team of art history majors should make a really pretty car.

July 16, 2008 at 8:02 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Okay, I get 12 hours even for the entire second stage of 606 miles. That's an average of 50.5 mph. First two stages: 941 miles in 20:10 = 46.7 mph overall.

Good job, Brad Charboneau, on controlling the weather. Liked how you held off that storm until the Base-X tents were up.

July 16, 2008 at 8:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To be fair, the car was designed by a Math/Physics major and there are many Math/Physics/Chemistry/Computer Science majors on the team (I was Compsci). Either way it's true, there have been Art, History, English, and Philosophy majors doing very technical work on our race teams. And I'd bet you'd never guess which ones are not science majors.

July 16, 2008 at 8:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rumor has it that the team got to visit a moon bounce along their race route. May we see pictures in an update on your newly working blog?

Go blue! I've really enjoyed tracking your fantastic progress so far--I'm glad your hours/days/months/years of really hard work are paying off!

PS as a faithful fan of course I want Michigan to win, but as a fellow liberal arts schooler I'm excited that Principia has been doing so well! Art history majors can be good at math and physics too :)

July 16, 2008 at 8:23 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

It seems all U of M weather guys have something in common - "I seem to control the weather!" - Matt Trantham NASC video '05.

Way to go Brad, you're keeping the sunny skies overhead during all the important times!

July 16, 2008 at 8:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also for the record I think this is one of the all time most beautiful cars: http://tinyurl.com/57obw3

July 16, 2008 at 8:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I seem to remember Matt Trantham guessing when a storm was going to arrive to the minute during qualifying in 2005.

July 16, 2008 at 8:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The next ASC will be the tenth one and Michigan should look into trying to get some of the past vehicles together. The way the design and technology has changed from 91 until 08 is amazing!

July 16, 2008 at 8:35 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Well, in the conversation of best looking solar cars ever, this one has to be up there. The inside was just as pretty, something that unfortunately cannot be said of the Michigan series.

But the prettiest by far (in my humble opinion) is the Continuum that never got built due to the rule change. It was frakkin' beautiful.

July 16, 2008 at 8:53 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

A comment on Red River's blog says, "We are probably still ahead of Calgary and 30 min. behind Missouri. Probably in 6th place." That was posted at 1:57 pm and they were past the Omaha checkpoint at the time. Missouri was ahead of Minnesota last I know. No word on Bochum nor Waterloo.

July 16, 2008 at 8:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@garrick

That Honda is pretty good lookin'.

Agreed about the Continuum that never was built (just look at the logo)...sigh.

Did those links satisfy your request?

July 16, 2008 at 9:33 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Thanks for the 8:00 news. Michigan, Principia, and Bochum appear to be running 1-2-3, with the time between them stretching out. It looks like Waterloo has closed the time gap with Missouri and is really challenging for fourth. Missouri had 2 and a half hours on Calgary at Neosho, so I think Calgary is really 6th. Red River could be in there in elapsed time, though.

The big question: Where is Minnesota? They were third in Neosho, with a 50 minute lead over Bochum.

July 16, 2008 at 9:37 PM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

July 16, 2008 at 9:56 PM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Speaking of good looking cars, personally I like to kick it old school.

July 16, 2008 at 9:59 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

@Furqan

Can't blame you. She was/is/always will be very sexy. Form follows function, as they say.

@Garrick

Agreed on the Honda as well, though maybe that was just because they had a spare car in their trailer that they never needed to use...

July 16, 2008 at 10:27 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Tim, the links are great - that's a fantastic photostream and everyone on this blog should go there if they haven't already. I was just requesting some full res closeups, and 3-views, from my team for *entirely* non nefarious purposes ;)

July 16, 2008 at 10:37 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

No, I'm sorry guys, Trantham actually _did_ control the weather. Remember that big dish on Chase? Yep, you guessed it ... weather control device. That's why we got stuck in that huge thunderstorm on day 2... the car battery on chase died and we couldn't control the weather anymore!

-Rbt

July 16, 2008 at 10:39 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

And by that photostream, I mean those, specifically macbobumr and john4kc.

July 16, 2008 at 10:40 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Robert, the weather gods should not be mocked while a race is on >:(

July 16, 2008 at 10:43 PM  
Blogger Gertlex said...

Metaphorical Lineup: Blue, Sexy, German.

I like all three ;)

July 16, 2008 at 10:47 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

@michael_adams those free massages were for drivers only if i remember correctly.

@rbt - agree with Garrick on this one. The battery died right after Trantham made that comment that he controlled the weather on the video.. Though that could have also been because he was up all night doing forecasts...

Maybe next time we can get little solar-powered autonomous sensors similar to what they had in the movie Twister to float around and monitor the weather. And the other teams, of course.

July 16, 2008 at 11:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@garrick

Oh I see, so you want our Unigraphics files and aero numbers? :P

July 16, 2008 at 11:16 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Hey Peter,

We can afford batteries! Who needs solar power, just toss some Lithium primaries into those trackers... :)

-Rbt

July 16, 2008 at 11:17 PM  
Blogger dkadams said...

Congrats, Continuum team, on your excellent performance so far! And thanks for all the timely posts on this blog, and for the interesting and valuable information added by other posters. Following this race via the blogs brings back fun memories of the 2005 NASC race!

We hope to be present at the starting line out of Sioux Falls on Friday, and we're thrilled that you will again be spending a small portion of the race route in Minnesota.

Go fast. go smooth, go BLUE!!

Steve & Donna Adams

July 16, 2008 at 11:18 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

Rbt,

You're right. But I just realized that it's a moot point. We do have a helicopter, after all.. ;)

July 16, 2008 at 11:24 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

No that's okay Tim, it's more fun to look at grainy close ups crooked and squinty eyed and put our best guess into our predictions. Seems more devious (and more sporting) that way.

But seriously I'm very impressed by the Prin aero group - they should be deservedly proud (now, if only those fairings were working...)

July 17, 2008 at 12:18 AM  
Blogger Matthew Trantham said...

Yeah, be careful with those comments on weather control. They'll come back to bite ya.

July 17, 2008 at 12:48 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

The race isn't quite half over and you guys are getting slaphappy, arguing over which car is prettiest. You need to find some women.

July 17, 2008 at 6:57 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Did my morning sweep of the blogs.

Missouri S&T made it to SF about 6:27:30, just before closing. They were running right with Minnesota for much of the day.

Minnesota reports they made camp 40 mi. south of Sioux Falls. Should be checking in early this morning.

Red River, the team that travels with its own chef (a culinary student from the college (take note Infinium team)), reports making camp about 2 to 3 hours from SF.

Queen's hopes to make SF this afternoon (Thursday).

Northwestern is still competing, but will trailer their car part of the way. They also have a link to a CNN report about the solar cars: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/15/roesgen.solar.cars.cnn?iref=videosearch

FriendFeed found a couple of articles that claim Michigan won the World Solar Challenge last year. Apparently the crash was a bad dream, and those Dutch . . . sweethearts didn't win their 4th in a row.

Principia reports signing autographs when they came into Sioux Falls. People are liking these cars!

July 17, 2008 at 7:55 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Yes, TC Lambert, we are all huge nerds. But thanks for trying to set the guys straight anyway!

July 17, 2008 at 8:22 AM  
Blogger Wisniewski said...

Momentum Alumni,
In 2005, you focused on a border crossing strategy. The rules were later adjusted to not time the border crossing. How long did the border crossing take you?

With the border crossing and about 50 mph average speed for Continuum, do you think the team will get to Winnipeg about noon on Saturday?

The Saskatchewan crosswind was an ally for Momentum. Besides Continuum, which teams do you believe will be competitive in those winds?

July 17, 2008 at 10:43 AM  
Blogger Hostman said...

I can't speak to the border crossing, but it was pretty quick. There were lots of cameras and it was mostly a formality. Getting the car *back* in the semi trailer was more challenging than you might have thought.

There's a lot that goes into vehicle speed, including weather, terrain, and speed limits. I think the current average speed is mainly due to the restrictions of the speed limit along the route. Without looking at the upcoming route and weather, this is difficult to predict.

This is a tough question. I am quite impressed with Principia's design work, but I don't know if *any* of the cars are really equipped for crosswinds of the strength we encountered last year. Just looking on weather.com (not very scientific), it looks like 6-10 mph crosswinds are being experienced right now, which isn't all that bad... I remember gusts up to 30 mph. I guess we'll find out soon enough...

-Robert

July 17, 2008 at 10:54 AM  
Blogger __mars said...

meh. No wonder there was no update on google reader. You guys moved!

July 17, 2008 at 10:54 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Minnesota made it to Sous Falls just before a terrible storm hit. The 7 teams in SF could take cover. Hope the others still on the road found cover, as hail was possible. (Solar cells do not like hail.) News reports say they think Kentucky is in 9th, Northwestern in 11th.

We won't know official standings until penalties are assessed, but here's my best guess:

1) Michigan
2) Principia (+1:40)
3) FH Bochum (+4:27)
4) Waterloo (+6:45)
5) Minnesota (+7:47)
6) Missouri S&T (+7:48)
7) Calgary (+9:35)

then I think Red River, Kentucky, Queen's, Northwestern, Iowa State, Arizona. Not sure at all of positions nor times of the last 6.

Look how close Minnesota and Missouri are. Looks like we have a race.

July 17, 2008 at 12:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So it looks like its Michigan and Principia duking it out for the lead (Wolverines vs. Panthers, always an interesting matchup). Then Borchum in kind of a middle ground. Then a three way battle between Waterloo, the Gophers and S&T. Reliability and strategy are going to be huge during this next stage.

July 17, 2008 at 12:39 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Mr Wisnewski, Our border crossing practice on mock race led the race officials to not time it due to uncertainty of how different teams would be prepared... on mock race Michigan prepped so much and sent info ahead of time, and they ended up just letting us drive on through without even checking our passports! The semi was indeed the more difficult part, we didn't know we had to clear Momentum through customs separately depending on whether it was driving or coming back into the US as cargo... $1M car on a cargo manifest raises some questions at the border! During the race however, the border officials had a separate lane for solar cars, and all went pretty smoothly. It took maybe 15 minutes to get the solar car and main caravan through, and an additional 30 minutes to get the semi cleared. Pretty good considering the hazardous looking nature of so much of the equipment!!

July 17, 2008 at 6:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

After penalties, Principia won stage two, and it has now closed the gap to only minutes away from the U-Mich car.
The current times are posted at americansolarchallenge.org
Anybody know what the penalties were assessed for?

July 18, 2008 at 6:01 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Today's posted times show the first seven in exactly the order I posted. (Thank you, thank you.) The bottom 6 were a little out of order. I guessed: Red River, Kentucky, Queen's, Northwestern, Iowa State, and Arizona. The correct order is: Red River, Iowa State, Kentucky, Arizona, Queen's, and Northwestern.

The times of the leading cars were different from what I expected. A lot of that may be penalties. I'm very surprised by the time they have for Michigan. I had 20:10. They show 22:15. Two hours in penalties? Somebody poke the legal department. That can't be. NASC didn't list the penalties separately this time. Somebody please get some clarification.

Michigan is listed with a 22 minute lead. But they entered SF over an hour before Principia. If these penalties stand, the race is still pretty close.

Minnesota and Missouri S&T are close at 5 and 6, only 14 minutes apart. (My guesstimate had them almost dead even.) That is the smallest gap listed. (NASC didn't post times for Queen's and Norhtwestern. Does that mean they dropped out?)

Can somebody find out the penalty numbers?

July 18, 2008 at 6:58 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

And if that time stands, Michigan's average speed for the first 941 miles would be only 42.3 mph. (Yes, Robert, that's slower than Momentum's speed in '05.)

July 18, 2008 at 7:04 AM  

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Sioux City

Hi all,

We are through Sioux City. With quite a few turns and low speed limits we had to decrease our avg speed for the day. But we are now out under the sun and running smoothly - working to increase the daily average speed :) .

Under 100 miles to Sioux Falls...

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go BLUE!

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The Morning After

Well last night was fun. After arriving for our nightly stop we could tell a storm was brewing in the distance and Brad let us know it was on its way. Quite a bit of water was dumped on us but the Base-X tent survived and kept people dry, well dry-ish given we some of us made trips outside to get lunch ready, to get our other motor ready, and to get vehicles refueled.

After deciding not to switch motors in the morning, we got running a few minutes late and we are now just over 50 minutes into the day.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Arrival in Omaha

We arrived at the Omaha checkpoint at around 4:40 PM and left at 5:10 PM. Taking the alternate route, we drove until 5:45 PM before stopping to charge. Therefore, we will start tomorrow at 7:45 AM, planning on making it to the next Stage Stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the late morning/early afternoon. Tonight we are getting hammered by some severe thunderstorms, but are managing to keep pretty dry in our shelter. Tomorrow we can expect some debris and residual flooding on the roads to keep our scout car busy.

After stopping to charge, one car of team members doubled back to the Omaha checkpoint, where we came upon Principia's team. Principia arrived at around 5:40 PM, an hour later than us (they left Neosho in second, one minute after us). It was nice getting to catch up with Principia's team members and advisors--they were, as always, very kind and welcoming (they even offered us rice krispie treats and cookies!).

Reports from Principia members confirm that Minnesota left Neosho a half hour late due to their turn signals. Additionally, three of the four MPPTs they were using had malfunctioned. Hopefully they will be able to get their MPPT situation resolved in Sioux Falls.  According to Missouri S&T (who are camped 50 miles south of Omaha according to their blog at http://solar42.mst.edu/), they passed Minnesota and Calgary--Waterloo also had a strong day. Hopefully we can piece together a clearer picture of the entire field tomorrow once we get into Sioux Falls.

Overall, a fast, sunny day with many miles traveled! In fact, we almost beat race officials to Topeka. Our weather car arrived at the Topeka stop while officials were at lunch, but the officials did a good job setting up before the rest of the caravan could get there. We'll try again to beat them next time ;)

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Posted by Steven Hechtman at 11:10 PM | Permalink | 34 comments

34 Comments:

Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Big thanks to Base-X for providing the Team with such amazing shelters! Now is a great time to have that kind of serious hardware.

July 16, 2008 at 12:09 AM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

Based on the early stop and the relatively short day (knock on wood) planned for tomorrow, I'm assuming you guys ran it almost dead today - must be nice having all of those stage stops... ;)

Good luck staying dry and dodging the storms. Keep it up, and keep adding to the lead (no such thing as a cushion in solar car). Also, remember that the batteries are good till at least -2 watt hours.

Godspeed, Continuum.

July 16, 2008 at 12:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great job wolverines! I had to stay up for the post. Keep them coming. Go blue! (Principia's performance is amazing. How does a school that small do it?)

-Engineering 1994

July 16, 2008 at 12:26 AM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Great to hear! Go Blue!

July 16, 2008 at 12:29 AM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Yo Shawn, long time! How goes the battle? Send me your email address at fn (at) altgate (dot) com.

July 16, 2008 at 12:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi to you all again from Australia.
I read in an earlier blog that you have recieved no penaltys, that means you are not driving fast enough!!!!!
Bye the way, does Brooke have the 'P' plate on the car and does Spencer have his 'L' plate on the car.
Also for my personal info, can someone tell me who is on the team this year. Keep up the good work, regards from Steve Cook steve@cityplastics.com.au

July 16, 2008 at 1:21 AM  
Blogger Lisa said...

Great job, Michigan!

I love this blog, it's so exciting to follow your team. I check this page obsessively and did the same during Australia... it was so good to come back to it and see all the familiar stuff I've come to love reading about. Even in the comments, I feel like this team and its alumni and supporters have so much character--numbers from TC Lambert, Brian Ignaut still being motivational, etc. I first started following the team as a family member but solar car--as a sport and a community and a pretty sweet engineering/science project--has sucked me in completely. Great job guys, you're inspiring. :D

Go Blue!

July 16, 2008 at 1:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Blue!

July 16, 2008 at 1:26 AM  
Blogger Peter said...

Hi to everyone from Singapore!

I wish I was there with you guys. It's really weird reading this blog and not actually being on the rayce.

It's great to see that the team is doing so well. The energy, professionalism, and spirit you guys bring to the scene is what makes me proud to be even remotely associated with all of you - if not personally, then through the sleepless nights, carbon fiber cuts, yellow tape, and all the forecasts, checks and rechecks that you do, knowing that it's cutting out of your sleep time - all in order to gain those precious few minutes and seconds.

Make sure you keep all the speed logs, and I agree with Joe - Go fast, Go smooth, Go Blue!

PS - watch out for the wet roads!

July 16, 2008 at 6:46 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

I can't stay up that late, you guys! Okay, app. 7 hrs. 10 min. to drive from Neosho to Omaha. Was the new 15 miles added before or after the checkpoint? If before, we get an average of 57.6 mph for the second stage (so far). If after, only 55.5 mph. Overall, about 49 mph after 748 miles. 1571 to go.

Does anyone still have the breakdown of the times Momentum posted for similar stages 3 years ago? Continuum, with a plumper cross section and 25% smaller array, looks to be kicking Momentum's butt.

We're about 1/3 of the way. At this rate, Minnesota will need about 8 more MPPT's. Seriously, I hope they figure out what's been breaking them. I hate to see such a strong competitor sidelined by a little glitch.

Kudos to Base-x for the shelters, and to Michigan for extending their lead over the lit majors from Principia. I still can't get over how well they're doing. Principia has to be the smallest school in the race. Amazing.

July 16, 2008 at 7:18 AM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Hi TC,

It's not really comparable, with all the staged stops and such. The car has a LOT more weight, drag, rolling resistance, etc. It also has a smaller array (6m2 vs. 8m2 for MomentUM). So, head-to-head, not a chance. But, considering the field, it's overcoming it's shortcomings quite well (like the fact that the very cool concentrator system had to be removed between races, leaving Michigan with a much bigger car than necessary).

Principia had help from Michigan's head aero guy from '03 & '05, and I can say from firsthand viewing it is quite nicely put together. Unfortunately, it suffers from the typical Principia traits in other areas - they didn't even have the motor working until a few days before the race, and no speedometer on Sunday (I'm guessing that was the penalty as well), and still no telemetry. It's a quite different design methodology - one that at UM would not be allowed to race. But as a liberal arts-only school they do surprisingly well...

Anyhow, I'm also unhappy with NASC for not doing the GPS tracking thing again this year. Our company makes GPS tracking devices, and Michigan is using one in the race caravan, but it would be nice to see where everyone else is. Perhaps we'll offer to loan some to NASC for 2010.

-Rbt

July 16, 2008 at 7:39 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Principia has been a long time friend of the team, it's great to see them doing well! Let's hope Continuum can get to Soiux Falls early and cheer the other teams as they roll in!

July 16, 2008 at 8:07 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

In reply to Steve Cook:

Michigan's team:

Brooke Bailey
Alexandre Curaudeu
Alex Dowling
Jeffery Ferman
Julia Hawley
Steven Hechtman
Doug Lambert
Maura Lynch
Keyvan Mirsaeedi-Farahani
Gerald Chang
Brad Charboneau
Kristine Cramer
John Federspiel
Josh Feldman
Gerald Giarmo
Chris Hammond
Richard Ho
Michael Kezelian
Chiao-Ting Li
Sarah Napier
Evan Quisenberry
Jeff Rogers

See http://www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/multimedia/solex_july2008.pdf
for more details.

I'm sure you will recognize some of these names from previous races. (I.e., This is Doug's 4th solar car race, but the first in which he hasn't driven the lead car. He has to ride in the back this time.)

July 16, 2008 at 8:13 AM  
Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Also, just so you guys know, there are daily race updates being posted all over EMCORE in Albuquerque so everyone knows how you're doing. We will spread the solar car obsession as much as possible, by force if necessary. Keep the good news coming!

July 16, 2008 at 9:03 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

What's goin' on? Are you in Sious Falls yet? Huh, huh, are ya?

July 16, 2008 at 11:29 AM  
Blogger Wisniewski said...

Thanks for taking the time to post the late night update. It was great to receive it during last night's long MLB All-Star game.

University of Calgary's blog has posted a picture of the Neosho start with Michigan up front.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/blogs/solarteam

Missouri S&T has posted details of last night's battery related fire.
http://solar42.mst.edu/

We're proud of the team for many reasons and recent events add "safety" to your list of accomplishments.

Spending time with the team in Texas was inspiring; seeing your work ethic and outreach to other teams -- paying it forward. Did any WMU students take you up on your invite to ride along?

Hopefully, Sioux Falls will hold another "green" fair like they did for the 2005 rayce checkpoint. Enjoy the stage stop and then...
Godspeed, Continuum!

July 16, 2008 at 11:52 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Hostman, I'm tellin' ya, despite the shortcomings, Continuum is running faster than Momentum did. Maybe the weather was worse in '05. Or maybe these engineers found ways to make Continuum that much more efficient. The array is smaller, but they have more efficient cells. I know they did things to the motor. With Continuum cruising at the posted limit almost all the time, it's hard to see how Momentum could beat it.

July 16, 2008 at 11:53 AM  
Blogger Hostman said...

I'm sorry TC, but that position is indefensible. Remember that the stage stops provide an opportunity to recharge pretty much every day or two - this is in stark contrast to '05 where we had to run from Weatherford to Winnipeg without stopping. Due to the additional stage stops, the teams are pretty much guaranteed to be able to top off their packs before proceeding ... so now they can use sunlight + a full pack of stored energy to complete the stage, as opposed to having to strategize more than a couple of days at a time. We also had pretty terrible weather in the first part of NASC '05. Regardless, I know the performance numbers for the vehicles, and MomentUM is better from a performance standpoint ... but this is the whole point!

The regulations were changed in '07/'08 to provide more of a challenge and slow the vehicles down. Unfortunately, the race officials did not like the field becoming as stratified as it did in '05 (due to the long stage, poorly performing cars could be a couple days behind better ones), so they added an additional stage. This is good for PR purposes but hurts the true challenge of the race - endurance, strategy, energy management.

Robert Vogt
Head Strategist '03 & '05

July 16, 2008 at 12:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The team is about 45 miles from Sioux Falls as of 11:20 AM.

July 16, 2008 at 12:24 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Anon, thanks for the position update.

-----------
Robert, not only is my position defensible, it is unassailable. Continuum IS going faster than Momentum did. Not only that, but I went back to WSC. Here's a quote:

"Continuum averaged 89 kph during the second half of the race, finishing the 1500 kilometer stretch 45 minutes faster than our 2005 vehicle despite regulation changes."

That's twice Continuum has surpassed Momentum in a real-world test. Like I said before, maybe it's weather, or just maybe it was bad strategy in 2005. Who was in charge of that anyway?

I'm kidding. We're arguing two different things. I'm saying the times are better this year. And it truly is weather-related and as you pointed out, the additional stage stops help. You're arguing that in theory, if Momentum were racing today, it would blow Continuum's doors off. Check that. No doors. It would blow the fairings off, maybe?

However, if you want to argue, I will take the position that it would be a frackin' close race. First of all, Continuum's smaller array is more efficient than Momentum's. Continuum is thicker, but only has three wheels. The fairings on the two front wheels were always a headache with Momentum. The motor and electronics have been improved with Continuum. Continuum has better tires. The big thing, though: the speed limit is the speed limit. Continuum is running a nearly perfect race. A couple of yips the first day, and then as fast and smooth as the regs allow. If both cars can run the speed limit the whole way, the only variable is reliability. Both cars were very reliable. And that variable is kind of unpredictable. Who would have predicted that Minnesota would blow up their MPPTs or that Missouri would have a fire? Or that Momentum would have a big hunk of metal imbed itself in the front of the car in WSC '05?

If it were possible to run them head-to-head, that is one race I'd love to see.

July 16, 2008 at 1:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Any updates from the road today? Needed a break from work for a few :)

July 16, 2008 at 1:35 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Team is arrived in Sioux Falls as of 1:11 PM local time.

July 16, 2008 at 2:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No questions about it... this blog is the best place to get rather frequent updates about the current race and very frequent memories about past races. :) I'm loving every moment of it.

Great work so far team Continuum, keep it up.

Also, as has been mentioned a few times earlier, Principia is pretty amazing. That they are able to compete at such a high level year after year (with no engineering department) is nothing short of astounding. I should also point out that they are a great team filled with great people. I don't have a single bad memory of the Principia team members.

-Dave
Micro Controllers 2005

July 16, 2008 at 2:44 PM  
Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

One fun factoid that never got into the blogs this summer: The Team re-set the all-time Michigan Solar Car speed record with Continuum at MIS this summer, running at 88 mph. That was also with a CSIRO motor instead of the NGM. Yay Continuum! Go Team!

July 16, 2008 at 6:02 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

In response to the Continuum/Momentum comparison, trust me that, in a straight up head to head with both in race trim, Momentum is the faster car.

But it's really almost impossible to compare them by any sort of fair standard - not only are they designed to different rules (you might as well argue over NASCAR vs. Indy), but Momentum had the benefit of a somewhat longer desing cycle and more heritage to build off of, meaning it's closer to "perfect" for its rule set. Continuum is essentially a first iteration - you'll see a lot of evolution in 2009.

What's important is not how well Continuum compares to previous Michigan cars, but how it compares to the other cars in the race. And both Momentum and Continuum seem to hold their own in that comparison.

But, if you really want to crunch numbers to call one the best, I'd suggest Momentum vs. Continuum in WSC - however, you'll still need to correct for Continuum's lack of experience in the first couple days of the race (no previous race to get a good feel for strategy + blown up telemetry = suboptimal energy management)and for the lousy weather faced by Momentum at the end of WSC '05. That should keep you busy while we wait for the race to get rolling again ;)

July 16, 2008 at 6:17 PM  
Blogger Michael Adams said...

Garrick, thank you for your input. I do find it frustrating that people are comparing Continuum to Momentum. It's apples to oranges. Momentum had worse weather, a longer race, and a longer stage. The top speed argument doesn't hold water, either, since Momentum hit its highest (not TOP) speed on a public road in Australia, not on a super-speedway.

July 16, 2008 at 6:42 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

I just don't see how it's anything to get riled about - last I checked both cars race with the same logo on 'em.

Though to be perfectly fair, Mike, a lot of the public roads in the NT might as well be superspeedways - of course, you don't have to worry about hitting any 'roos at MIS.

July 16, 2008 at 6:54 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I think we need to arrange a head to head drag race, but I certainly agree with the NASCAR/Indy comparison - It's too hard to compare two great cars. Robert, you'll always have me on tape bragging you up in the '05 NASC video. Regardless, Continuum is doing great now, so let's all focus on that!! Go Blue!! :)

July 16, 2008 at 6:58 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Robert, I did see your apples to oranges post before it was pulled. Perhaps you should have used some ode-cay anguage-lay to protect the ecret-say etails-day. You know I loved the numbers. Doug won't even tell me that stuff. He thinks I'm a security risk.

I did not mean to impugn the virtue of Momentum. Without jinxing things, I was wondering if Continuum has a chance to set a new NASC overall speed record. I believe Momentum's 46.2 mph over the entire 2005 race is the current record to beat. The 2001 Michigan team had a mark of 40.0 mph. Pretty sure Continuum can beat that.

Glad to finally hear we're in Sault Falls (that's the Michigan spelling).

Oh, and Steve Cook, I forgot one team member who came in at the last minute--Paula Harrison.

July 16, 2008 at 7:58 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Hey TC,

Doug is a good guy. I think he works a little too hard on solar car much of the time (and most everyone else too). Everytime I see him I can see workspace dirt and grime covering him from head to toe... I am very happy with the performance of Continuum. I hope they are able to continue at this pace in the more difficult stretch of the race (Winnipeg -> Medicine Hat). This is where we destroyed Minnesota in '05 - their car was so unstable in the high crosswinds it could barely maintain 50 mph while staying in-lane.

-Rbt

July 16, 2008 at 10:29 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Careful, Robert. Gophers can read this blog, too. I wonder how their car this year does in cross-winds? I think Continuum will do all right. Michigan always builds a smooth ride.

July 16, 2008 at 10:58 PM  
Blogger Hostman said...

Hey TC,

Why don't we discuss offline? rvogti@gmail.com

-Robert

July 16, 2008 at 11:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great job, Michigan! You guys totally rule. This is a great idea and I hope you guys drive safely and kick some butt

September 5, 2008 at 12:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great to follow your blog from holland

September 10, 2008 at 2:56 PM  

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Nearing Omaha

Thanks for all the comments on the blog! We did enter Topeka at 1:11:35. We are now just a few miles out of the Omaha checkpoint. By the way, the route was changed last night to avoid the crazy hills in downtown Omaha. The route is now 15 miles longer but we get to avoid the large loss of power going up those hills.

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go BLUE!

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Posted by Jeff Ferman at 5:38 PM | Permalink | 22 comments

22 Comments:

Blogger Garrick Williams said...

As much of a pain as I'm sure it was to get a last minute route change, it's good to get away from those bloody hills. Pretty much the third worst thing for solar cars, after clouds and bad rubbernecking drivers.

Great to see the old girl still has the speed, despite the bald spot and the busted nose. Keep it up guys, still a long way to go but looks like you've had a heck of a start.

How's the corn?

July 15, 2008 at 6:10 PM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

The tougher the conditions the better Michigan does (relatively)! Either way, Go Blue!

July 15, 2008 at 6:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm going to stand up for those that can't defend themselves. Yes, hills.

Hills are great, a welcome reprieve from flat lands (ever do a solar car race across Florida?). As long as you get to enjoy your new found potential energy as kinetic energy on the way down... The losses aren't so bad. Even better when you've got so much KE that you can use regen. Solar cars can traverse amazing distances on under cloudy skies and a malfunctioning array across hills.

Now mountains, on the other hand, are plain evil. The ASC '01 and '03 races climbed up to Flagstaff, AZ at 7.8k ft from Chicago at 0.6k ft.

So, I don't want to hear any more about the hills around Omaha... ;-)

July 15, 2008 at 6:27 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Good they changed the route, but it would have been interesting to see Continuum vs the other solar cars on that hill!

July 15, 2008 at 6:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heck Russ forget Floriday, the drive through western Kansas and easter Colorado was enough to put me to sleep. There were times on that route that I thought the weather satellite dish was the tallest object for miles.

July 15, 2008 at 6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hah Russ,

These hills were so bad they would have to put the NGM motor on to make it up. Not exactly something you want to do mid-rayce...

-Robert Vogt

July 15, 2008 at 6:43 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

I've got nothing against hills in general, in fact I rather enjoy them (Flagstaff is quite a nice place, really). I just don't like driving solar cars up them.

But Continuum does surprisingly well on hills - we almost had to stop on the steepest hill on the Stuart highway, but only because the road train in front of us couldn't handle it.

July 15, 2008 at 6:43 PM  
Blogger Michael Adams said...

Enjoy the hills while you can. From Fargo on, it's almost as boring as the Outback.

July 15, 2008 at 6:44 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Missouri-Rolla (aka S&T) reports this order reaching Topeka: Michigan, Principia, Waterloo, FH Bochum, Minnesota, Calgary, Missouri S&T, and Iowa State. Waterloo moved up quite a bit. Calgary and Iowa State moved up, also. Minnesota and Missouri dropped back a little.

Missouri said they were driving 45 and guessed Michigan was going somewhat faster. Check out video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FRs34V-V-I to see Michigan going 60.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for an area just north of Omaha. Hope you guys are under cover.

July 15, 2008 at 6:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Garrick, yeah, going UP a hill is quite a bit less fun than going down.

I take it you're talking about Hayes Creek Hill in the NT? Stopping on that hill... Ugh.

July 15, 2008 at 7:01 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Missouri S&T reports bad news from Topeka:

"HOLD ON!!! Just as we wrote this Minnesota was getting ready to lower their array when two fire-cracker-like reports from inside their car echoed all the way across the parking lot, and two of their crew jumped away from the car. No way that can be good!!"

I hate to hear something like this.

July 15, 2008 at 7:11 PM  
Blogger Garrick Williams said...

It was indeed Hayes Creek Hill. We were zipping along at about 95 kph, but came up behind a 4 trailer gas hauler who slowed to 15 kph - unfortunately there was no place for him to pull over, and no visibility to pass. We were worried about getting up that hill with the CSIRO, but ended up using full regen on a good chunk of it.

July 15, 2008 at 7:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I second Garricks first comment. It's great to see the car doing so well after so many unfortunate events. You guys in Michigan sure know how to make strong cars.

Keep up the good work.

I wish you clear skies and clear roads.

Go Blue!!

July 15, 2008 at 9:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awesome job guys, keep it up and cross the finish line first. I'm glad to hear Continuum is running exactly how we designed her to.

Go Blue!

July 15, 2008 at 10:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have some photos from the stage stop at Neosho. Where is the best place to upload them?
Go Blue!
Where else can I find blogs and comments on the progress of the race?
Jay LSA '72

July 15, 2008 at 10:08 PM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Anon, you can post on http://www.flickr.com/ and then share the link.

July 15, 2008 at 10:15 PM  
Blogger Elson said...

@Jay LSA '72: Many of the team blogs and Flickr feeds are being aggregated at http://friendfeed.com/rooms/nasc-2008

Any word on exactly what happened to Minnesota's car at Topeka?

July 15, 2008 at 10:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Missouri S&T's latest blog update mentions passing Minnesota again AFTER Topeka, so it sounds like they got the car going again.

July 15, 2008 at 10:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wish you gays have a great trip !!

July 15, 2008 at 10:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good they changed the route, it would have been interesting to see other solar cars on that hill!

November 21, 2008 at 9:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey guys how did the trip go? Waiting for updates.. any pictures to share with?

January 3, 2009 at 9:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone heard anything about the upcoming event this summer?

March 1, 2009 at 5:34 PM  

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Into Topeka

We are just arriving in Topeka and we will serve 30 minutes at the checkpoint. From there we will continue down the route to Omaha. With bright sun and clear skies, Continuum is performing quite well! More to follow.

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 2:04 PM | Permalink | 18 comments

18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awesome! That's great to hear!

July 15, 2008 at 2:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

While in Topeka where there any signs from our contenders?

July 15, 2008 at 2:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That would say a lot since I think the stage start this morning was at 1 minute intervals again, so unless Principia pulled in a minute after us we extended our lead on them.

July 15, 2008 at 3:19 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

241 miles from Neosho to Topeka in about 5 hours means an average speed around 48 mph. Definitely faster than day 1.

Excellent job!

Go fast, go smooth, GO BLUE!

July 15, 2008 at 3:32 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

The Principia trailer showed up, but no sign of their solar car, so we've extended our lead by at least 29 minutes!

July 15, 2008 at 3:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent! Great job Blue!

July 15, 2008 at 3:43 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

241 miles from Neosho to Topeka in about 5 hours means an average speed around 48 mph. Definitely faster than day 1.

Much faster, actually. They started at 9 and arrived a little after 1, just over 4 hours, so the average speed was about 60 mph.

July 15, 2008 at 3:44 PM  
Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Looks like they're already somewhere around 50 miles North of Topeka heading at 64 miles per hour. Go Blue!

July 15, 2008 at 3:49 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

2005's average speed was 46.2 mph from Austin to Calgary. Continuum with 2 square meters less in solar array is on a pace to beat Momentum's pace. Truly outstanding.

Charles, thanks for correcting my numbers. I like doing the arithmetic, even based on guesstimates. But I like the accurate numbers even better. 60 mph! I couldn't average that in a Buick. Of course, I'd have to stop for gas, and a restroom or two. Which raises the question . . . No. Never mind. That would be too much info.

July 15, 2008 at 4:09 PM  
Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Here's video proof of Michigan cruising at 60mph (watch for the shot of the speedo)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FRs34V-V-I

July 15, 2008 at 4:19 PM  
Blogger Tom Carroll said...

Great job so far guys! I hope the rest of the race goes just as smoothly!

July 15, 2008 at 4:36 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Maybe an empty Gatorade bottle? That's what my friend, Tom, does when he's delivering mail.

July 15, 2008 at 4:38 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

So . . . they may reach Omaha just about half an hour before quittin' time? Very convenient if they get to overnight in Omaha. Or will they have time to push on past and sleep in an alfalfa field?

July 15, 2008 at 4:42 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

My wife says make sure to mark the bottle so no one tries to drink from the wrong one.

July 15, 2008 at 5:01 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Wait, now I'm confused. Charles said they reached Topeka shortly after 1:00. Brian, at 3:49, said they were 50 miles north of Topeka. They should have left the checkpoint around 1:30. By 3:49, they should have been something like 130 miles north of Topeka, and reach Omaha around 4:00. That's an hour ago! Car number 2, where are you? (Did that just prove how old I am?)

July 15, 2008 at 5:13 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

The times on this blog are in eastern time. The times I gave were in central time. The car is approaching Omaha now. Sorry for the confusion.

July 15, 2008 at 5:19 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Argh, the firewall won't let me post from work! Been following the blog all day though (don't tell my boss). Watch out for those alfalfa fields, they house some crazy bugs, but the small town Nebraska ERs are happy to open up early for you if you get bit! Looks like sunny skies ahead, keep it up!
- Maggie

July 15, 2008 at 6:31 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Frackin' time Zones! EDT vs. CDT, and in Canada it looks like CST, and MDT, as well.

July 15, 2008 at 6:43 PM  

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Out of Neosho

And we are off. I am back in chase sending updates via my phone. After a nice relaxing day at the Neosho stage stop we are back on the road leaving the stage stop first at 9:00:00 am. The official standings were released this morning and we stand 35 min 37 sec ahead of the second place team Principia with an elapsed time of 8:10:28. Principia suffered a 20 min penalty giving them an elapsed time of 8:46:05.

Behind Principia stands Minnisota in third with a total time of 9:07:45. FH Bochum stands at 9:57:26. Missouri S&T is in 5th with 10:00:22. Next up Red River has 11:30:56. Waterloo is at 11:35:01, Calgary is at 12:30:34, Kentucky is at 15:29:56, and Iowa State is at 17:49:09. Next up at 11th is Queen's with 18:16:36. Right behind is Arizona at 18:17:18. Lastly Northwestern is at 19:09:09. I apologize for the format of this info. I cannot figure out how to do tables on my phone.

Yesterday we received our penalty sheet, which showed that our team received no penalties for the first stage! Congrats to Bochum, Missouri S&T, Red River, Waterloo, Calgary, Kentucky, and Queen's for also amassing no penalty time. We also received yellow hats for being the winner of the first stage stop.

Lastly I would like to congratulate Iowa State for qualifying and both Oregon State and Durham for joining us and we wish you much luck (or rather much skill) all the way to Calgary.

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go BLUE!

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 10:25 AM | Permalink | 11 comments

11 Comments:

Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Awesome, keep it up. Keep those yellow hats on.

July 15, 2008 at 10:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great job guys! It's always a great feeling to extend the lead and give yourself a little bit of breathing room. But it's amazing how quickly that can evaporate under the wrong conditions! I'm cheering you on from here.

July 15, 2008 at 10:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Been following the blog for a few days now, glad to hear that you're in the lead! GO BLUE!

July 15, 2008 at 12:27 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Principia's website lists 19 students as solar car team members. Sounds small, but it's like 3.5% of their entire student body. Michigan would have to have over a thousand team members to match that level of participation.

July 15, 2008 at 1:05 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Great job guys! Keep it up.

July 15, 2008 at 1:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Having no penalties for the whole day is outstanding.

Love your tagline - Go fast, go smooth, go BLUE!

July 15, 2008 at 1:21 PM  
Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Just as a quick update, it looks like the team is crusing at the speed limit about 180 miles out of Neosho. I think they've been running at the speed limit all morning but I'm not sure.

July 15, 2008 at 1:31 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

Just as a quick update, it looks like the team is crusing at the speed limit about 180 miles out of Neosho. I think they've been running at the speed limit all morning but I'm not sure.

Close, I saw a 63.8 and a 64.5 in the logs. They should be arriving at the next checkpoint very soon.

July 15, 2008 at 2:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wait what logs? Did the NASC folks decide to release the GPS data finally?

July 15, 2008 at 2:19 PM  
Blogger Charles Eichhorst said...

Wait what logs? Did the NASC folks decide to release the GPS data finally?

Team chat logs. I've been following them from Ann Arbor.

July 15, 2008 at 2:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh I see, thats great that they are using chat to keep in touch. Makes our communications in 97/99 look like carrier pigeons and semaphore flags. :)

Love the speed though, keep it going!

July 15, 2008 at 2:27 PM  

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Monday, July 14, 2008

Arrival Times into Neosho













Arrivals in Neosho as of Monday 1:00 PM:
Team (Start Pos)Arrival in Neosho
Sunday
Michigan (1)17:40:28
Principia (8)18:03:05
Monday
Minnesota (2)08:17:45
Bochum (6)09:27:26
Missouri S&T (3)09:30:22
Red River (7)11:00:56
Waterloo (12)11:05:01
Calgary (4)12:00:34


Weather in Neosho is sunny, meaning most teams who arrived here early should leave with a good charge. The cloudy weather in Texas and Oklahoma was rough for many teams. Minnesota had their MPPTs fail at 11:00 PM on Saturday, but Principia lent them some spare Biel MPPTs (the top of the line MPPTs that both Principia and we use). These MPPTs had to be reprogrammed to be configured for Minnesota's array, so we are currently lending Minnesota the necessary tool to do so (Arizona had lent them one the other night, though it was done incorrectly, and Arizona has not arrived in Neosho yet).

Labels: ,

Posted by Steven Hechtman at 1:51 PM | Permalink | 4 comments

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting MN borrow the tools. This will hopefully make for a very close race, as it was in 05.
Love getting your updates to find out how the whole field is doing.
Good luck to you and all the other teams as well.

July 14, 2008 at 5:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Doug you better add the sign to the steering wheel of lead. I think you will know the one I'm talking about. Keep it up!
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!!!

July 14, 2008 at 6:51 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Soooo excited for you guys, you're doing great! Hope you're all enjoying the sunshine on your break today! Good luck tomorrow!

July 14, 2008 at 7:09 PM  
Blogger Michael Adams said...

Way to go! Keep it up. I really would like to be more personal here, but, well, sorry. I'm never good with the pep talk.

July 14, 2008 at 7:29 PM  

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Sunday, July 13, 2008

First into Neosho

We finished the afternoon riding clear skies into Neosho, Missouri, home of the first Stage Stop at Crowder College. We were the first team to arrive, coming in at 17:40:28, nearly an hour before the close of the stop at 6:30 PM. After arriving, we held the array of our car in front of a puddle, so that we could get some extra reflected light while charging. At 6:00 PM, we were able to move our array onto its stand, where it will remain until batteries are impounded at 8:30 PM.

Shortly after moving the array onto the stand, Principia College arrived in second place. Their arrival time was 18:03:05. Principia started the day in 8th place, leaving Plano at 9:07 AM, so they are unofficially 16 minutes behind us (starting order and interval times for the next stage will not be finalized until 7:00 AM Tuesday). No other teams came into Neosho before the close of the control stop at 6:30 PM. Therefore, it will be us and Principia here at Crowder College tonight, being joined by other teams tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be allowed to charge our batteries in the morning and evening, and will have the day off to work, recover, and mingle with the other teams. On Tuesday, we will have another morning charge, and will then leave at 9:00 AM.

Despite the bad weather and a few minor electrical problems today, we are all happy to have arrived in Neosho in first, widening the gap between our nearest competitors. We look forward to the day off, and to the next week of racing.

Labels: ,

Posted by Steven Hechtman at 7:56 PM | Permalink | 11 comments

11 Comments:

Blogger TC Lambert said...

Oops. I thought they had to stop for the day at 5:00 pm.

Recalculating . . . Okay, 335 miles for the first stage in 8 hours, 10 minutes, and 28 seconds. (You have to subtract 30 minutes for stop at McAlester checkpoint.) That gives average speed of about 41 mph. Not bad for day 1.

Principia must have passed Minnesota and Missouri S&T. Wow.

Only 1,969 miles to go.

Great job, team!

July 13, 2008 at 8:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice move by Principia, curious to see if it was a strategy play (take advantage of the extra charging day in Neosho) or if they are just pure speed out there.

July 13, 2008 at 8:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The rate at which data moves from the race caravan to those of us following is mind boggling compared to the way it was 'back in the day.'

Excellent work on getting to the stop with plenty of time to ensure a good full charge. Unfortunately, if the going forecast verifies tomorrow everyone else will also have a good charge.

July 13, 2008 at 10:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done Michigan, when you get to the finish line just keep on driving southwest and i will see you all back here in Australia.
Regards Steve Cook, owner of the worlds fastest solar chase car.

July 13, 2008 at 10:53 PM  
Blogger brooks said...

The Principia team is twittering at http://www.twitter.com/prinsolar

July 14, 2008 at 12:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Glad to see my two favorite teams doing so well!

July 14, 2008 at 1:47 AM  
Blogger OgOrO said...

Steady and Smart wins the race.Now go us that 5th National Championship.
Go Fast Go Smooth Go Blue!!!
--
Momentum Alum
Seun Noibi

July 14, 2008 at 2:07 AM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

For some reason I thought Principia College was Canadian. Turns out they're a small liberal arts college of app. 550 students from Illinois, WITH NO ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. They've been building soar cars since 1991. They didn't race in 2007's World Solar Challenge. Their previous car finished 7th in the 2005 NASC. Their 2003 car finished 4th in the ASC, and 6th in WSC.

Their current car, RA 7, looks really good, very sleek curves, with feelers fore and aft to hold their turn signal lights far enough apart to satisfy regs.

Theses guys are for real.

Minnesota is apparently in third, camping for the night outside Neosho. Missouri S&T is in 4th, 70 miles outside of Neosho. Red River thinks they are in 7th about 100 miles out. Calgary is about 110 miles out.

Did I mention Principia has NO ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT?

July 14, 2008 at 8:14 AM  
Blogger Brian Ignaut said...

Fantastic work, glad to hear you guys are putting some space between you and your competitors. It's also great to see Steve Cook commenting on the blog. Wish you could be here, Steve. We cannot thank you enough for everything you did for us in Australia.

For reference to everyone else, Steve Cook is an Adelaidian (sp?) who helped us finish and repair the concentrators' clear window and also repaired the Semi's water tank on short notice before our Australian Mock race.

To the Team, great job keeping up the posts this afternoon. This information is greatly appreciated!

July 14, 2008 at 9:59 AM  
Blogger Steven Hechtman said...

A short explanation of start/finish times:

Stage stop days (including the race start) begin at 9:00 AM and last until 6:00 PM. All other days go from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

Each day, a team may stop up to 15 minutes early or 30 minutes late without penalty. Therefore, the stage stop was actually open until 6:30 PM.

For non staged starts, teams starting times will be adjusted based on their finish time from the day before (i.e. a team finishing at 6:05 PM begins the next day at 8:05 AM while a team finishing at 5:55 PM begins the next day at 7:55 AM).

July 14, 2008 at 2:18 PM  
Blogger myinc2u said...

Nice information about solar technology, I like the information..
Your team doing well..
well done!!

November 13, 2008 at 10:33 AM  

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Over half way to Neosho

We are currently over half way to Neosho (actually we are about 50 miles out). We have also passed Minnesota and we are back in the lead.

Go fast, Go smooth, Go BLUE!

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 5:16 PM | Permalink | 3 comments

3 Comments:

Blogger Furqan Nazeeri said...

Well, that's great news!

July 13, 2008 at 5:47 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Great, great, great! Back in first. I love it.

50 mi. from Neosho means 133 miles in about 4 hours, 19 minutes. Just about 31 mph. Day one average of about 38 mph for 285 miles. In 2005, Michigan's Momentum averaged 46.2 mph for the entire race. This race should speed up in the next few days.

An easy run to Neosho tomorrow, then a stage stop, rest, recharge, wait for the other teams, then restart in first place Tuesday morning.

I've got to share a story with you from FH Bochum's blog. They went to Arlington, Texas to practice caravan procedures on real roads. Nice, quiet town, Arlington, with good paved roads and very little traffic. Things went well for a while. Then the police showed up. The Germans were a little worried, but it turned out the officer just wanted his picture taken with their car. Pretty soon, the rest of Arlington's police force showed up with their cameras, and finally, the mayor. Is that cool, or what?

July 13, 2008 at 6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulation boys. I read about you every day and I can say that you're doing a great job. Enjoy your race.

September 16, 2008 at 2:01 AM  

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Out of McAlester

We have just left McAlester at 1:11:36 just behind minnesota. They left at 12:54:27. We are now on our way to Neosho under sunlight. The drive to McAlester was under clouds and we used a decent amount of power, but now we are charging!

Labels: ,

Posted by Jeff Ferman at 2:16 PM | Permalink | 3 comments

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey there well wheni first seen you guys we was on our way home from Durant Oklahoma and we happen to see yall i just thought it was the coolest thing ever...im so lucky i took my cam..i took pictures...well good look and have fun

July 13, 2008 at 3:46 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Route info says 152 miles from Plano to McAlester. Half hour at the checkpoint means Michigan made it in at 12:41, app. 3 hours 41 minutes after the start. The calculator says average speed was 41.3 mph. That's with clouds, rain, and a couple of stops. Might need to go a little faster to make Neosho by 5:00 (183 miles farther on). With sun shining and birds singing they should be able to. (Okay, the birds may not be strictly necessary.)

-TC

July 13, 2008 at 4:57 PM  
Blogger TC Lambert said...

Missouri-Rolla (I mean Missouri S&T) posted to their blog that they reached McAlester an hour behind Minnesota, with only the two U of M's ahead of them. Principia came in shortly after Missouri. So that's your first four places as of about 1:30.

July 13, 2008 at 5:15 PM  

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