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By Richard King
U.S. Department of Energy |
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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, July 8, 2003 - Scrutineering, Day 2. We accomplished a lot today. Everyone worked hard to get the solar cars in "race ready" condition. Kansas State University and the University of Waterloo passed all requirements quickly and easily. Most others have minor problems to fix, such as repairing a mirror, replacing a fuse, or tightening steering linkages. Tomorrow is the last day to get everyone passed, so team members will get nervous as the day progresses.
There are five scrutineering stations: electrical, mechanical, sizing (car and array dimensions), safety and dynamics (where steering and braking are tested).
Yesterday, I talked about the new rule change that allows two-person cars. Today I had a surprise when Stanford University's solar car drove up for the brake test and with two people inside! That makes four teams who decided to design a solar car capable of carrying two people. The other three are the University of Michigan, the ASC 2001 winner, Queens University, and the Solar Jackets from Georgia Tech. Unfortunately, the Solar Jackets withdrew today because their steering linkage was under-designed and found to be too weak. So, this year's race will have three two-person cars.
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| Photo contributed by Richard King |
| The University of Waterloo's solar car, Midnight Sun VII, was among the few that passed scrutineering inspections quickly and easily. |
We have been getting excellent media coverage, surprising because we haven't started the race yet! ABC 7 has been interviewing teams and has had nice pieces on the news. Fox News and Chicago Channel 2 also have been out. Both Chicago newspapers have had articles, too. In addition, DrivenTV, a new DVD video magazine for college students, is documenting the entire race and has been taking lots of footage of the activities. This means that we should expect good crowds for the start Sunday at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
We had an all-teams meeting this evening to go over qualifying, which starts Thursday. Once the teams get through scrutineering, each team must prove it can drive 140 miles at a minimum of 25 miles per hour before it is allowed to race 2,300 miles across the country. We do this because cars that can travel only 10 or 20 mph create traffic jams and unsafe situations. If a car cannot maintain a safe speed, then that team will not be allowed to race.
To qualify the cars, we use a professional racetrack and each car must drive laps until it accumulates 140 miles. In addition, we challenge the teams to drive further by making the start order based on the number of miles driven. Wednesday night we will move to Burlington, Wis., to the test track so we are ready to go first thing Thursday morning. Qualifying begins at 9 a.m.
We hope all the teams will successfully pass scrutineering, so they can move on to the qualifiers. We will post the final results of who passed scrutineering tomorrow.
REPORTS FROM THE ROAD
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