Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Solar Car Testing at Gimli
From Leon Fainstein, Project Manager:
"The r3 Solar Car Team had two great days of testing June 12 and 13 at Gimli Motorsport Park. The car performed extremely well! The students finally convinced me to drive the car. It handles remarkably well and goes quite fast! It is amazing to think that we tested and 'rayced' the car for two days and never used a drop of gas. Many efficiency improvements were made and verified (the computational fluid dynamics 'CFD' simulation accurately predicted the optimum body angle of attack to reduce drag). Some other lessons learned;
-caster angle and driving stability;
-aerodynamic drag reduction of wheel fairings;
-new wiring durability;
-instructors can fit in the car;
-max and steady state power consumption; 90-amps and 7-amps respectively.
The car also set many records for solar powered vehicles at Gimli;
Fastest lap time; Tim Knight, 1-min 34-sec. Average speed, 80-km/hr ???? (fastest lap is 1-min 4-sec for cars that pollute the environment). This lap time proves two things; 1 - the car goes fast, and 2 - Tim is an excellent driver. We couldn't get a top speed as our speedometer only goes up to 85-km/hr. Some more records;
-fastest quarter mile, Adam Palanuk;
-fastest lap for instructors over 50, me;
-fastest lap for instructors over 40, Dean;
-fastest lap for graduates under 20, Philip Palazzo;
-fastest lap for students who have worked 10 years sorting lumber, Trevor Farski;
-most laps in a single day and over a two day period."
Please check out the videos and pictures of Gimli and the Smart Partners Award:
http://xnet.rrc.mb.ca/solarcar/galleries.htm
