Solar car team fuels up for race

When the University solar car team heads out on Tuesday for Indianapolis, they hope to be basking in the sun for the next few weeks. If the team qualifies for Sunrayce 95 -- a 1,200 mile trek from Indianapolis to Golden, Colorado -- they will be one of 40 teams competing in a race designed solely for solar-powered cars designed and constructed by students. The race to Golden will take nine days, with the competition culminating on June 29 with a celebration. Last year the team competed in a considerably shorter race -- the Tour De Sol -- which went from New York to Philadelphia. The team finished third in the competition. Engineering sophomore Aaron Vernon said the team believes it has a decent shot this year, possibly finishing in the top 20. But the solar car, aptly named the Liberty Belle, will be facing some stiff competition from local rival Drexel and also former 1990 and 1993 national champion University of Michigan. Vernon attributed Michigan's racing prowess to the fact that Michigan has a $1.5 million budget, due in large part to corporate sponsorship from Detroit automakers. The University's solar car team has a budget of approximately $80,000, and Vernon estimated that the organization has spent $125,000 in the last two years. One difference that separate the University's team from other competitors is that the project is almost completely run by students, according to Engineering junior Ryan Crowell, who has been working on the car's electrical system. The team is so optimistic about this summer's race because some changes have been made on the solar car in the last year, he said. There has been a doubling of the solar cell surface area, a redesign of the rear wheels and suspension and the vehicle's electrical system is being upgraded from 100 to 200 volts. This change in electrical power should increase the speed and efficiency of the car, Crowell added. Another technological advance for the team is a state-of-the-art data acquisition system, which will be used in the chase car to collect 16 different types of data, ranging from the temperature of the car to how long the battery will last. In recent practice runs, the car has gone slightly faster than 40 m.ph., and Crowell said he expects the average speed during the race to be about 45 m.p.h. Although the solar car team is composed of 40 members, only 10 will actually be competing in the race. The 10 were chosen based on who put the most time into the project, Crowell said. He added that the team has recently been "burning the midnight oil," working on the car from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. for the last two week, putting on the finishing touches before race day. "We're the underdog, the cinderella story," Crowell said. "But we like it that way." The competition is not over when the teams finally reach Golden on June 29. The next day is Pike's Peak Challenge, in which the cars try to race up Pike's Peak. But Pike's Peak is not the last challenge of the summer, according to Vernon. In July the team plans to go to Pocono Raceway to attempt to break the world record for speed by a solar car of 83 m.p.h "We thought we could call Guinness and get him out here and see what this baby can do," Vernon said. In addition to receiving a big trophy, the top three finishers in Sunrayce 95 win an all expense paid trip to Australia, courtesy of General Motors, to compete in the 1996 World Solar Car Challenge. Sunrayce 95 is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, in an effort to promote solar energy as an alternative to the consumption of fossil fuels and to reduce pollution.

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