Thursday, September 14, 2017

WSC 2017 Update: September 14th

It's been two weeks since we did a full team update, and a lot has happened. Teams are starting to arrive; here's a really brief overview of where teams are at in Australia

Nuon, Punch, Twente, and Blue Sky are all already in Darwin with their cars. The Sonnenwagen Achen and Eindhoven teams are also in Darwin; both teams are waiting for their cars to arrive from elsewhere in Australia.

Michigan and WSU are doing their own mock races in the outback, and should be arriving in Darwin relatively soon. Stanford has received their car in Adelaide and is planning their own mock race for the drive north. The Principia team received their car and is heading north to Darwin as well.

Bochum received their crate of equipment and the solar car battery in Sydney, and is currently heading north along the Stuart Highway. I don't think they have received Blue.Cruiser yet, however.

CUER in Adelaide, waiting for car to clear quarantine in Melbourne.

PrISUm's car is in Sydney, team will arrive over the weekend.

Some part of the Minnesota team has arrive in Melbourn, but I haven't heard any news about the car yet.

Challenger Class

2: University of Michigan

Status: Team and car in Australia! The team and Novum arrived in Adelaide around September 1st.

Michigan arrived and settled into their workspace in Adelaide. In this post about cooking (not a small matter! An army marches on it's stomach...), we learned that the team planned a mock race Sept 9-15 in the Outback between Glendambo and the Northern Territory border. They're out there right now, but must nearly be done. Expect them in Darwin soon.

3: Nuon

Status: Team and car in Darwin!

Last week Nuon received their car in Darwin, but the team had some issues shipping their battery. It sounds like these issues got ironed out on Monday, and the team will receive their battery very soon.

4: Antakari

Status: Shipped.

Antakari shipped Intikallpa IV to Australia on September 10th.

7: Adelaide University

Status: Unveiled (and in Australia already). The team unveiled Lumen II on August 29th.

No news since then.

8: Punch Powertrain

Status: Team and car in Darwin!

Punch is setting up shop in Darwin and putting the finishing touches on Punch Two.

10: Tokai

Status: Unveiled. The team unveiled the 2017 Tokai Challenger on August 29th.

The team has been testing at Bridgestone's proving ground.

12: Cambridge University

Status: Team in Australia, car in transit.

CUER has started their WSC 2017 blog. Team members started arriving in Adelaide around September 7th, and they're planning to depart north for Darwin around the 20th, which will place them in Darwin around the 25th.

Mirage has landed in Melbourne and cleared customs, although as of the 13th it still hadn't cleared quarantine.

15: WSU

Status: Heading north, about to start mock race.

WSU is about to start their mock race in the Coober Pedy area.

16: Stanford

Status: Team and car in Adelaide.

The Stanford team is in Adelaide with their car, and is planning some race training in the outback on the way north to Darwin.

18: UiTM EcoPhoton

Status: Unveiled!

The team unveiled TUAH on September 9th.

(image source)

It looks pretty much like the car they brought to the last WSC, except white instead of silver/chrome. The same cut-silicon array, too.

Given what happened last time, uh, maybe go easy on the smoke machine? Just a thought.

20: Durham

Status: Shipped. Durham shipped their car to Australia on July 18th.

No news since then.

21: Twente

Status: Team and car in Darwin!

Red Shift was supposed to arrive in Darwin on Sept 1st, but encountered shipping delays. Fortunately, the car cleared customs in Sydney and arrived in Darwin on the 7th.

Note in this unpacking photo that there's not array on the (visible) upper at the moment - we haven't actually seen Twente's array yet; it didn't have one installed when any of the testing photos were taken.

The team is doing a one-by-one driver reveal on Twitter, which is kind of neat, but I just can't look away from those weirdo boots. I can't imagine them driving the car with boots on (they simply wouldn't have fit in the solar cars that I drove back in the day), so those are special photo shoot boots, which only raises more questions...?

These details are the kind of weird shit my mind latches on to. I am so sorry.

22: MDH

Status: Shipped.

The team shipped the car to Australia on September 11th.

25: Nagoya Institute of Technology

Status: Shipped. NIT shipped Horizon 17 to Australia on August 9th.

No news since then.

28: Neul-Hae-Rang

Status: Unveiled. The team unveiled Woong-bi on June 25th.

No news since then.

32: Principia

Status: In Australia!

The team tweeted that they have taken possession of the car in Australia, and are preparing to head north (from wherever they are in AU) to Darwin.

34: RVCE

Status: Unveiled. The team unveiled Arka on August 5th.

No news since then.

37: Goko High School

Status: Car Complete. We've seen several photos of the completed 2017 Musoushin.

No social media, so we're not gonna know any more unless we get tips from teams in Australia that have seen them.

38: NWU

Status: Shipped. The team unveiled Naledi on August 22nd, and shipped it sometime around August 30th.

No news since then, although they've been posting headshots of each team member to social media.

43: Australia National University

Status: Unveiling Scheduled. A team member mentioned in a Facebook comment that they are planning to launch the car on September 19th

It sounds like it's really coming down to the wire for these folks. They've started posting some stuff to social media, like this relatively finished chassis, and their chassis lead feeling some schedule pressure. They're also discovering some last-minute electrical issues.

The team plans to head north to Darwin around September 24th, and acknowledge that it's going to be a scramble to get the car done in time. Good luck, folks...

46: Jonkoping University

Status: Shipped. The team shipped Solveig on August 30th.

The team posted some new photos from prior test driving to their blog. They're also going to have live tracking during the race.

70: Sonnenwagen Aachen

Status: Team in Darwin, car in Australia!

Huawei Sonnenwagen touched down in Sydney on September 9th.

Some team members are in Darwin, and they expect to have the car through customs and quarantine and delivered to Darwin by the middle of next week.

71: Istanbul Technical University

Status: Unveiled, Shipped(?). The team unveiled B.O.W (Bees On Wheels) on August 9th. A crate construction photo was posted on August 30th, but the team never confirmed when the car actually shipped

The team has been relatively quiet - the last photos of the car were posted on Sept 2nd and 5th. The team may be having issues shipping the car and batteries, or they may just be trying to plan contingencies in case of issues. Hard to tell.

77: Blue Sky

Status: Team and car in Darwin!
Blue Sky picked up Polaris in Melbourne on the 7th, arrived in Darwin on the 10th, and are settling into their workshop.

82: Kookmin University

Status: Shipped. The team shipped Taegeuk to Australia at the end of July.

No news since then.

88: Kogakuin University

Status:  Shipped. The team shipped Wing to Adelaide on July 31st.

Last week, Bridgestone posted a video about the team and the car. Real nice drone shot at 0:24!

The team has published a schedule for WSC detailing that the team depart north from Adelaide on the 18th, and arrive in Darwin on the 25th.

Kogakuin also posted some photos of their custom power trackers.

Cruiser Class

5: SunSPEC

Status: Shipped. Singapore Polytechnic shipped SunSPEC 5 to Australia on September 5th.

SunSPEC also posted a short test drive video.

9: PrISUm

Status: Car in Australia! Team to follow soon.

Iowa State shipped Penumbra on September 2nd, and it landed in Sydney on the 8th, followed by the batteries in Melbourne on the 10th. The team is due to follow on the 16th.

It sounds like everything has cleared customs and quarantine smoothly, and is just waiting to be picked up.

11: Hochschule Bochum

Status: Team in Australia, car coming soon?

Last week in Sydeny Bochum received their crate that contains everything except the car. At the time, Blue.Cruiser was still in Kuala Lumpur. It sounds like they expect to receive the car by the end of the week. Currently, different portions of the team have met up in Coober Pedy.

14: Flinders

Status: Unveiled! The team unveiled Investigator Mark III on September 11th.

(image source)

It's apparently a three seat car. It's not quite done yet (the interior is a little spartan) and they acknowledge that it's "down a little bit to the wire", but it looks like they're close...

It's really bothering me that I can't place the headlights. I got a real R34 Skyline vibe from the front, but those are't quite the right headlights.

23: University of Tehran

Status: L A M B O D O O R S

I'm really worried that we won't see Persian Gazelle make it to WSC this year; they're rapidly running out of time to ship and it looks like they have a lot of work left to do.

30: Team Arrow

Status: ?????

35: IVE Sophie

Status: Shipped. IVE shipped Sophie VI out to Australia on August 28th.

No news this week.

40: Eindhoven

Status: Team in Australia, car and battery soon.

The team shipped Stella Vie to Australia on August 19th. The initially had some issues with the car AND the battery shipments, but it sounds like the car is on the ground in Australia and the battery is too.

The team has already made the drive from Adelaide to Darwin and is waiting for their shipments to meet them there.

42: TAFE SA

It looks like the team has a pretty long ways to go to finish the car.

45: Lodz

Status: Shipped. The team shipped Eagle Two to Australia on July 17th.

No news since the last shipment update on August 20th, although there was a team member wedding on the 2nd, featuring Eagle One.

49: Siam Tech

Status: Shipped.

Siam Tech shipped Nikola on September 6th.

75: UNSW Sunswift

Status: Unveiling scheduled. 

The unveiling was scheduled for today (the 14th), but has been pushed back to the 22nd due to an accident while testing. The left front suspension failed during a high-speed brake test with car fully loaded with 4 occupants, causing it to skid for quite some distance on its belly. Fortunately it sounds like damage to the car is reparable, and no one was injured.

94: University of Minnesota

Status: Car shipped, some race crew in Melbourne.

The team shipped Eos II out to Australia over the last weekend in July, and the first team members have arrived in Australia.

95: Apollo

Status: Shipped. The team shipped Apollo VIII to Adelaide on August 23rd.

No news since then.

Adventure Class

52: Illini Solar Car

Status: Shipped. The team shipped Argo out to Australia at the start of August.

No news since then.

53: Mississippi Choctaw High School

No news this week.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Mostdece

    Seeing Principia featured on the WSC Fb page made me realise that you have paid scant attention to them and their little catamaran.

    I wouldn't see them challenging for the top spots but they are a team who's attitude I really like and with good experience, in Australia, UAE and the US, I can see them being one of the biggest improvers this year.

    Nigel

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, they're in that unfortunate valley between "zero social media so I wonder what they're keeping secret/what trouble they're having" and "a lot of social media so they keep my attention".

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    2. Well at least they have possession of their car now. The way things are going I will be surprised if we see more than 35 cars on the grid after such fanfare about 50 teams when the list was published.

      Nigel

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    3. Yeah, the delays that some teams are having with customs & quarantine (CUER for example) are rough.

      Delete
  2. I hadn't twigged until you said "LAMBODOORS," but of course the Iranians are building an Aventador.

    ReplyDelete
  3. TAFE SA's Solar Ute is BOGAN AF

    ReplyDelete