See below for pictures from the World Solar Challenge. Included are pictures of the repairs done to Continuum.
Dear Friends, Family and Fans of the Michigan Solar Car Team,
I am Bob Culver, one of the faculty advisors of the team and I have just returned from Australia and would like to share some perspectives with you.
I often say that the Solar Car experience is a self-awareness or awakening of sorts, allowing students to find their own limits – what they can do and what they cannot do. Well, I was half right. This team was tested often. It started with a structural failure in the bulkhead just a few days before they were scheduled to leave for Australia. The team quickly analyzed and fixed the problem such that the resulting structure was stronger than ever. Then came the dust devil in Australia that almost destroyed the array that you have read about in the blog. And then, of course, was the accident. After a short period of shock and a few tears, the team began the arduous task of rebuilding the front end of Continuum. No one needed any inspirational speeches as everyone was working with determination and purpose as soon as the car was back to the Darwin racetrack. It was truly amazing and inspiring to see the car rebuilt and ready for racing in about 10 hours. This team responded to everything and anything that was thrown at them. So, pardon the double negative, the Continuum team never found out what they couldn’t do!
During the qualifying week, the Continuum team continued the Michigan tradition of helping other teams. The team let the Venezuela team borrow a motor when many of their parts got stuck in customs. And the team, with Chito’s help, built a new wheel hub for the Malaysian team after an accident during a qualifying run destroyed their only hub. What goes around, comes around. At the accident scene, a local Darwin gentleman happened by to see the damage. When he saw the damage, he said he had a friend who was an expert in carbon fiber composites. We called the expert, Mr. Mike Butler, and he joined us back at the racetrack pits. Mike brought with him some fast curing resin which turned out the be critical to getting the repairs done quickly.
A special thanks to all the sponsors of this team. You have enabled an experience of a lifetime for a very special group of kids. They may not have finished first, but this team is definitely a group of winners.
Continuum completed the last 280.7 km of the race in 2 hours and 55 minutes with an average speed of 96.7 kilometers. Yesterday we ended with a negative battery pack and today we finished with more than half of a pack remaining. For the Alice Springs to Adelaide half of the race we averaged 89.8 km/hr and finished that section of the race only 16 minutes behind Nuon's time. We started this part of the race with well less than half of a battery pack, while they were given time to fully charge their batteries in Alice Springs. Continuum barely didn't catch up with 3 of the Teams directly in front of us and we should end up in 7th place in Challenge Class. Overall we passed over 25 Teams on our climb up after the accident. Continuum was the 4th Team to cross the finish line.
We've always been looking for a different finish than what we ended up with, but we are ultimately very happy with how Continuum performed. To us, the first half of the race demonstrates that we are the best Team in the world while the second half demonstrates that we have the best car in the world. A first place victory almost comes as an empty victory because it doesn't demonstrate how good the Team really is. Having rallied around the crash we were able to show the world how well we face adversity and how well prepared the Team was. As we crossed the finish line there were 25 friends and family members that had made the trip to Australia to watch the race and cheer us on. We were all happy that we could make them proud by completing this race the way that we did.
The World Solar Challenge has left everyone with a desire to continue racing Continuum. We all look forward to participating in the North American Solar Challenge, where we will have the opportunity to show the world what Continuum is truly capable of. None of this would have been possible without the tremendous support of our sponsors including our Platinum sponsors: The University of Michigan, The University of Michigan College of Engineering, BHP Billiton, Ford, and General Motors. We would like to thank all of them and we hope that we have made you proud to be a part of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team!
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!
Continuum has now reached Adelaide and has successfully completed the 2007 World Solar Challenge! We completed the race in 46 hours and 3 minutes with an average speed of 65.09 km/hr. This puts us at 36 hours and 2 minutes not including the time lost from the accident with an average speed of 83.83 km/hr! Stay tuned for results as the Teams behind us finish the race! As soon as we hear from the race crew in Australia I'll get a more detailed update as well!
GO BLUE!
Today we started 1,977km into the race, 45 km north of Cadney Homestead. We had an astonishingly quick day through the Cadney and Glendambo Control Stops. We cruised at between 91 km/hr and over 100 km/hr, which is marvelous considering that we ended Wednesday with an empty battery pack. Continuum covered 720 km and reached Port Augusta with an average speed of 92 km/hr for the day. We had our first flat tire and were able to change that tire in less than 8 minutes! Continuum has made up nearly 2 hours on Twente, at least another hour on the Southern Taiwan Solar Car Team, and about one hour on Solar World. At this point we are in, at worst, 13th place overall in the race. With 280km left, we will be starting the day at the Port Augusta control stop, where we arrived at 5:08pm today. Nuon arrived at the end of timing but they have not gone through the finish, and to our knowledge no other teams have reached the end of timing. It was another great day of racing and we’re excited to have made up nearly 8 hours on our closest competitors. The Team coming out of this race is so very different from the one that started it. Spirits are unbelievably high and everyone is greatly excited about how Continuum has performed in the first 2700km of the World Solar Challenge.
GO BLUE!!
Continuum has just passed through the Glendambo Control Stop around 1:30pm Australia time. Based on the GPS data we seem to have made it there without any stops and we should be able to make it most of the way to Port Augusta before the end of the day!
We recently learned that the Stanford Solar Car Team was involved in a race-ending accident. Our Team is very sorry to hear this as we have had a very good relationship with their Team since the beginning of this project. We are very thankful to hear that no one was injured in the Stanford accident and hope that they are able to repair their car for the upcoming North American Solar Challenge!
Camped 30km South Marla
Last night Michigan camped a little over 200 km north of Alice Springs and Continuum never had to pull over once. This was the first night since the accident that everyone could get a good night of sleep. It took Continuum just under 3 hours to reach Alice Springs this morning, which was treated as a normal control stop. This unfortunately means that we were not able to recharge our batteries like the Teams that arrived the day before. We should cross into South Australia this afternoon and will hopefully approach the Cadney Homestead Control Stop by the end of the day. At the border of the Northern Territory the speed limit drops to 110 kph, limiting the speed that Teams can cruise at. Because of the control stop everyone is only about 3 hours ahead of us on the road(more for total elapsed time). Consequently all other Challenge Class Teams should be dealing with the same weather so we should be able to catch up with a fair number of the Teams.
Weather is 60 or 70km ahead of the rest of the Team. We started off the race as prepared as we could be. The forcasting went really well. The only issue was with the Intermet hardware, but after speaking with Intermet to troubleshoot hardware problems this was fixed. We have had several successful weather balloon launches so far and launch them 4 times per day – at 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 7pm. The UAV has yet to be launched yet, but once we reach Southern Australia we will begin launching it. There was a 250 km wall of clouds that slowed us down quite a bit before Alice Springs. Right now we’re getting about 25 or 30 mph headwinds that are slowing Continuum. After seeing the control stop leader board in Alice Springs we realized that they aren’t doing all that badly especially considering the one day that we lost in Darwin. Everyone is excited at how well Continuum is performing after the accident and we hope to continue passing other teams in South Australia!
The Team is currently 45 km outside of Cadney Homestead. Today Continuum traveled a total of 700 km with an average speed of 82 km/hr. At Alice Springs, Continuum was in 7th place among Challenge Class vehicles and 16th overall. We were 11 hours and 24 minutes behind Nuon, 10 hours and 2 minutes behind Umicore, 9 hours and 40 minutes behind Aurora, 5 hours and 20 minutes behind Bochum, 4 hours and 26 minutes behind Twente, and 3 hours and 58 minutes behind Soutern Taiwan. Today we have gained 30 minutes on Bochum , 1 hour on Twente, and 50 minutes on Soutern Taiwan. Please keep in mind that we have had 10 hours and 2 minutes of down time from repairs during the first 2 days of the race. Also keep in mind that even if we go through the control stop before a Team they may still be ahead of us due to the way the Alice Springs Control Stop was structured.
The format for the Alice Springs Control Stop was not known by officials or the Teams until 5:30 on Tuesday evening. The way it worked is that when we arrived at 11am on Wednesday morning the first 6 challenge class teams had at least 2 hours of charge time (and as much as 10 hours of charge time) while Teams that arrived after only got 30 minutes of charging. The first 3 Challenge Class teams were spaced out the distance they arrived and then each car after that was spaced out in 10 minute intervals. Challenge Class Teams arriving after that treated it as a normal control stop. Basically the slowest cars were allowed the least charge time and the fastest cars were given the most charge time.
Today we are just outside of Cadney Homestead and teams like Nuon got here at 1:54pm, while Umicore arrived at 3:20 in the afternoon. Continuum arrived later than them, but we had to drive another 220km this morning just to reach Alice Springs. It took us 5 hours and 43 minutes to get to our stopping point from Alice Springs, meaning that we should arrive in Cadney Homestead in 6 hours and 15 minutes. Despite setbacks and only running on half of a battery pack's charge, Continuum is keeping pace with even the lead cars. In general, the crew is focused on regaining ground and is extremely proud to see Continuum making so much progress in such a short amount of time. It’s one thing to build a fast Team, but to have a Team who can take on a challenge this great, clear it, and still be so fast is incredible to be a part of. It’s almost impossible to prepare for what happened on Day 1 despite thousands of miles of testing in light and heavy traffic. To have rebuilt Continuum overnight is fascinating to see. We look to arrive in Adelaide at midday on Friday and we are eager to see how Continuum will perform over the next 2 days.
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!
The Team is currently 45 km outside of Cadney Homestead. Today Continuum traveled a total of 700 km with an average speed of 82 km/hr. At Alice Springs, Continuum was in 7th place among Challenge Class vehicles and 16th overall. We were 11 hours and 24 minutes behind Nuon, 10 hours and 2 minutes behind Umicore, 9 hours and 40 minutes behind Aurora, 5 hours and 20 minutes behind Bochum, 4 hours and 26 minutes behind Twente, and 3 hours and 58 minutes behind Phoenix. Today we have gained 30 minutes on Bochum , 1 hour on Twente, and 50 minutes on Phoenix. Please keep in mind that we have had 10 hours and 2 minutes of down time from repairs during the first 2 days of the race. Also keep in mind that even if we go through the control stop before a Team they may still be ahead of us due to the way the Alice Springs Control Stop was structured.
The format for the Alice Springs Control Stop was not known by officials or the Teams until 5:30 on Tuesday evening. The way it worked is that when we arrived at 11am on Wednesday morning the first 6 challenge class teams had at least 2 hours of charge time (and as much as 10 hours of charge time) while Teams that arrived after only got 30 minutes of charging. The first 3 Challenge Class teams were spaced out the distance they arrived and then each car after that was spaced out in 10 minute intervals. Challenge Class Teams arriving after that treated it as a normal control stop. Basically the slowest cars were allowed the least charge time and the fastest cars were given the most charge time.
Today we are just outside of Cadney Homestead and teams like Nuon got here at 1:54pm, while Umicore arrived at 3:20 in the afternoon. Continuum arrived later than them, but we had to drive another 220km this morning just to reach Alice Springs. It took us 5 hours and 43 minutes to get to our stopping point from Alice Springs, meaning that we should arrive in Cadney Homestead in 6 hours and 15 minutes. Despite setbacks and only running on half of a battery pack's charge, Continuum is keeping pace with even the lead cars. In general, the crew is focused on regaining ground and is extremely proud to see Continuum making so much progress in such a short amount of time. It’s one thing to build a fast Team, but to have a Team who can take on a challenge this great, clear it, and still be so fast is incredible to be a part of. It’s almost impossible to prepare for what happened on Day 1 despite thousands of miles of testing in light and heavy traffic. To have rebuilt Continuum overnight is fascinating to see. We look to arrive in Adelaide at midday on Friday and we are eager to see how Continuum will perform over the next 2 days.
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!
After 24 hours of hard work, repairs to Continuum are complete! Track testing proved Continuum to be safe and reliable after the repairs. The Team began racing again at 8am this morning and has just arrived at the first control stop in Katherine at noon exactly. They'll be charging the batteries for the next half hour or so. Spencer was the driver for the car. When asked if he was driving his response was "Well yeah, I didn't get to drive very long yesterday." We passed the 1st of 37 teams and hope to pass more over the course of the day! Continuum has performed similarly to before the accident thus far and we hope to continue through the Outback at our current pace.
Go Fast, Go Smooth, GO BLUE!
Continuum has just passed through Tennant Creek. The trip from Dunmarra was made without any stops along the way, indicating that the electrical repairs were successful! This control stop was only open for another 2 hours so Continuum arrived with perfect timing. So far this morning we have already passed around 10 teams!
Looking ahead, our weather crew told us that it is raining around Alice Springs. After the crash, water proofing was a concern so the engineers ensured that the car would not have any problems with rain during the Tennant Creek control stop.
Meanwhile, Jeff Ferman and Brian Ignaut have gone ahead to Alice Springs. They will work out how the Alice Springs Control stop will work for our Team after the set backs from the accident. Generally this stop is used as a halfway point where cars are able to recharge their batteries for most of Tuesday. Unfortunately due to the accident we will be arriving as the Challenge Class vehicles leave. We hope to gain some time after other Challenge Class vehicles leave to charge our batteries. More to come!
Go Blue!
Race officials have been working with us to ensure that all Team members are safe after the accident and there has been a lot of immediate support from both race officials and locals. Coming out of this impact, our lead vehicle actually shows more sign of damage than Continuum itself. The rear hatch has been forced in to the point where it is non-functional. Thanks to proper race caravaning, the crash was less severe than it could have been considering the vehicles were forced to break from 70 km/hr.
Fortunately, in crashing Continuum performed exactly as designed. The crush space protected the driver entirely and components failed as predicted, a tribute to the amazing designs. Meanwhile, Spencer Bailey, the driver of Continuum, has walked away with only a single scratch and a bruise from the seat belt. During the collision his head didn’t even hit the roll bar.
The Continuum Race Crew has moved to a garage at the Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin and within a matter of hours has begun work on Continuum. Damaged modules have been removed, composites are being reinforced, components are being replaced with spares, and preparations for the new array are underway. There is a flurry of activity around the lower surface since it is the most complex and structural part of Continuum. Parts are being repaired, making them even stronger than before the accident without much added weight. The pace of work is quick and the final time for completion will be largely limited by the curing time for resins and epoxies rather than the energy of students working on Continuum. Ultimately, everything looks like it can be repaired.
Even after all of this we are all confident that at 8am tomorrow morning Continuum will be back on the road and operating the way it was designed. We started this race as a world class team and we plan to finish this race as a world class team.
Michigan was involved in a road accident.
We are informed that their solar car ran into their lead vehicle. Both were damaged. They have returned to Hidden Valley to establish damage and if possible effect repairs.
No injuries were reported.
They are disappointed and working hard to assess and repair damage if possible.
We wish them all the luck in the world.
--Event Director
In the first hour of racing today, Continuum has had an accident. Spencer Bailey was the driver of Continuum, and aside from a small scratch on his leg, he is perfectly fine. After the Stanford Solar Car Team passed our Team, they stopped abruptly, causing our lead driver to stop, and Continuum to hit our lead vehicle.
As for the car, the concentrator canopy is cracked in multiple places and will be replaced with our spare. The front of the car will need to be repaired and the front solar modules replaced. There was also delamination seen in some of the front bulkheads.
The car is currently back at the test track in Darwin and will be repaired over the next day. At that point we will evaluate the condition of the car and decide whether it is safe to complete the race across the Outback. I will update you again on the status of the car after I speak to the Team in Australia later in the night.
Sincerely,
Tom Carroll
Interim Project Manager
Reports from the Challenge indicate that the University of Michigan have crashed their Solar Vehicle into their support vehicle. Severe damage to their vehicle has been reported.
This report has not yet been confirmed.
After picking up supplies to keep the team healthy and awake, I have stopped by to provide everyone with a quick update. Tonight will be a late night and we are currently installing new modules on the upper. The completed vehicle will be tested to ensure safety for the driver early tomorrow morning. We are confident the testing will prove the vehicle to be safe and able to continue down the Stuart Highway. Therefore we are treating tonight as any other race evening and will have our drivers in bed shortly. Tomorrow our race day will be begin bright and early with sunrise and we will have the car back on the road at 8am, the normal start time.
It is quite impressive to see the entire team come together immediately after the accident and all divisions have been helping with the repairs. Thank you all for your support. Brian passed it on to everyone at the team meeting and we look forward to an providing another positive update tomorrow.
As always,
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!