Challenger Class
Status: Unveiled! Michigan unveiled Novum on July 7th.
The team's school has been going on a blog blitz this week, making posts on the composite manufacturing, solar array, and recent wind tunnel testing.
Note that these are the first pictures I've seen with the solar array installed, and the last paragraph of the wind tunnel article notes that Novum will ship out to Australia on August 18th.
The team's school has been going on a blog blitz this week, making posts on the composite manufacturing, solar array, and recent wind tunnel testing.
Note that these are the first pictures I've seen with the solar array installed, and the last paragraph of the wind tunnel article notes that Novum will ship out to Australia on August 18th.
Status: Unveiled! Nuon unveiled Nuna 9 on July 25th.
Not much news this week - just some more testing. Their newsletter last week claimed two weeks left before shipping, so expect so see Nuna9 ship to Australia around August 24th.
Not much news this week - just some more testing. Their newsletter last week claimed two weeks left before shipping, so expect so see Nuna9 ship to Australia around August 24th.
4: Antakari
A few progress photos were posted this week - some suspensions work, some battery work.
All the solar car folks out there reading this: do not stick your hands into a battery pack with a big metal watch on your wrist! I have seen this go very badly before - and more than once! 2nd degree burns all the way around your wrist are no fun. Eye protection would also be advisable...
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All the solar car folks out there reading this: do not stick your hands into a battery pack with a big metal watch on your wrist! I have seen this go very badly before - and more than once! 2nd degree burns all the way around your wrist are no fun. Eye protection would also be advisable...
7: Adelaide University
Status: Unveiling scheduled. The team has announced that Lumen II will be unveiled on August 29th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
8: Punch Powertrain
Status: Unveiled! Punch unveiled Punch Two on June 21st. It will ship for Australia around August 20th.
The team recently took their car to a wind tunnel, and is wrapping up testing. They also posted a bunch of photos to their Flickr, including two interesting photos of their steering.
The first one shows that they're doing a capstan-and-bowstring style steering mechanism:
This isn't unheard of - Twente successfully used a steering mechanism like this in 2015, and I know other teams have in previous years. However, we couldn't tell what was going on inside that 3D printed housing until recently:
The team recently took their car to a wind tunnel, and is wrapping up testing. They also posted a bunch of photos to their Flickr, including two interesting photos of their steering.
The first one shows that they're doing a capstan-and-bowstring style steering mechanism:
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This isn't unheard of - Twente successfully used a steering mechanism like this in 2015, and I know other teams have in previous years. However, we couldn't tell what was going on inside that 3D printed housing until recently:
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Now I have a whole bunch of questions. Why are there two sets of wires? If it was just for redundancy in case one breaks, why wouldn't you just put both capstans on the same shaft; why is the second set running on a countershaft? Also, how is the countershaft driven? You can see in this photo that there aren't any gears on the driver end...
And what's with that thing sticking up and to the left off the main shaft in the last photo? What's the big circular flange in that location on the 3D-printed housing all about?
Here's my silly theory: I'll bet Punch Two has 4-wheel steering. The capstan on the main shaft steers the front wheels, and the capstan on the countershaft steers the rear wheels. The thing sticking out is part of a linkage or cam setup that provides a variable steering ratio for the rear wheels.
...Am I reading too much into this? Got any bright insights of your own? Sound off in the comments.
And what's with that thing sticking up and to the left off the main shaft in the last photo? What's the big circular flange in that location on the 3D-printed housing all about?
Here's my silly theory: I'll bet Punch Two has 4-wheel steering. The capstan on the main shaft steers the front wheels, and the capstan on the countershaft steers the rear wheels. The thing sticking out is part of a linkage or cam setup that provides a variable steering ratio for the rear wheels.
...Am I reading too much into this? Got any bright insights of your own? Sound off in the comments.
10: Tokai
No real news this week. A team profile was published on the Bridgestone WSC website.
Still no unveiling date from the team. If they unveil at the same time they did two years ago, we might see their car unveiled before next week's post - we'll have to wait and see.
Still no unveiling date from the team. If they unveil at the same time they did two years ago, we might see their car unveiled before next week's post - we'll have to wait and see.
Still no news on the car or the team's progress. The team announced that they've "brought on" a PR firm for their WSC coverage, and that they're working on designing t-shirts for their crowdfunding supporters.
15: WSU
Status: Unveiling scheduled. WSU announced an official unveiling date: August 29th.
The team published the 2nd and 3rd of their "Grill The Grid" team member pop quizzes. They're short and sweet; take a look!
The team published the 2nd and 3rd of their "Grill The Grid" team member pop quizzes. They're short and sweet; take a look!
16: Stanford
Status: Unveiled! Stanford unveiled Sundae on July 1st.
The team has been out testing in California's Central Valley. Even the roll hoop is painted pink. I'm really, really not a fan of these cantilevered-over-the-driver's-head roll hoops, but since the regs don't require anti-decapitation elements in front of the driver's head, they actively push teams towards building questionably-safe stuff like this. Sigh.
Note that their car this year has a standard removable upper shell, rather than the unibody/monocoque design they utilized in 2013 and 2015. This was probably driven by the new rules that only allow the driver to normalize the array at control stops.
The team also might have adopted a kitten.
The team has been out testing in California's Central Valley. Even the roll hoop is painted pink. I'm really, really not a fan of these cantilevered-over-the-driver's-head roll hoops, but since the regs don't require anti-decapitation elements in front of the driver's head, they actively push teams towards building questionably-safe stuff like this. Sigh.
Note that their car this year has a standard removable upper shell, rather than the unibody/monocoque design they utilized in 2013 and 2015. This was probably driven by the new rules that only allow the driver to normalize the array at control stops.
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The team also might have adopted a kitten.
18: UiTM EcoPhoton
No news this week.
20: Durham
Status: Shipped! Durham shipped their car to Australia on July 18th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
21: Twente
Status: Unveiled, and Shipped! Twente unveiled Red Shift on June 23rd, and shipped it to Australia on August 16th.
The team published a timelapse video of the packing process.
The team published a timelapse video of the packing process.
22: MDH
Status: Unveiled! The team unveiled way back on May 31st.
Not much this week - a short workshop video.
Not much this week - a short workshop video.
25: Nagoya Institute of Technology
Status: Unveiled! The car was shown testing at Bridgestone's test track on July 15th, and was formally unveiled on August 6th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
28: Neul-Hae-Rang
Status: Unveiled! The team unveiled Woong-bi on June 25th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
29: Siam Tech (Edison)
Status: Unveiled! Kinda. The team held a joint unveiling event for both Edison (Challenger) and Nikola (Cruiser) on August 14th - although Edison wasn't quite complete at the time.
Even though Edison sin't complete yet, it does drive.
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Even though Edison sin't complete yet, it does drive.
32: Principia
Status: Unveiled, and Shipped! There wasn't a formal unveiling event, but Principia took Ra X to Formula Sun in Texas, July 3-8. The team shipped the car to Australia on August 1st.
No news this week.
No news this week.
34: RVCE
37: Goko High School
Status: Car Complete! We've seen several photos of the completed car.
No news this week.
No news this week.
38: North-West University
Status: Unveiling scheduled. Public unveiling of Naledi is scheduled for August 22nd.
Not much news this week. It looks like unveiling is still right on schedule, so we should have some interesting photos to discuss in our update next week.
43: Australia National University
46: Jonkoping University
Status: Unveiling scheduled. The team has announced that Solveig will be unveiled on August 28th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
70: Sonnenwagen Aachen
Status: Unveiled! The team unveiled Huawei Sonnenwagen on July 20th.
It sounds like the team is preparing to ship the car at the end of next week.
It sounds like the team is preparing to ship the car at the end of next week.
71: Istanbul Technical University
Status: Unveiled! The team unveiled B.O.W İSTKA on August 9th.
It sounds like the team is planning a test drive for next week. They've also posted a pretty silly video...
77: Blue Sky
82: Kookmin University
Status: Unveiled, and Shipped! Kookmin unveiled Taegeuk on July 7th, and shipped their car to Australia at the end of July.
No news this week.
No news this week.
88: Kogakuin University
Status: Unveiled, and Shipped! Kogakuin unveiled Wing on June 29th, and shipped the car to Adelaide on July 31st.
No news this week.
No news this week.
Cruiser Class
5: SunSPEC
Status: Unveiled! Singapore Polytechnic unveiled SunSPEC 5 on July 21st.
No news this week.
No news this week.
9: PrISUm
Status: Unveiled! Iowa State unveiled Penumbra on June 2nd.
No news this week.
No news this week.
Status: Unveiled! Bochum unveiled Blue.Cruiser on July 5th.
The team recently took at trip to a wind tunnel.
They've also posted some fun facts about Blue.Cruiser. Interestingly, they claim the battery "has the energy content of about 30 pineapples" and "stores enough power to run a hairdryer for over 10 hours".
Assuming this website is correct and the average pineapple contains about 1904kJ of energy, 30 pineapples works out to 15.87kWh of energy. Hair driers come with a variety of maximum power levels, but a fairly typical one will be in the 1500W to 1800W range - yielding a value of between 15kWh and 18kWh for their battery pack. Any way you slice it, it sounds like Bochum is running a bigger battery than Eindhoven (who has a 12.5kWh pack).
The team recently took at trip to a wind tunnel.
They've also posted some fun facts about Blue.Cruiser. Interestingly, they claim the battery "has the energy content of about 30 pineapples" and "stores enough power to run a hairdryer for over 10 hours".
Assuming this website is correct and the average pineapple contains about 1904kJ of energy, 30 pineapples works out to 15.87kWh of energy. Hair driers come with a variety of maximum power levels, but a fairly typical one will be in the 1500W to 1800W range - yielding a value of between 15kWh and 18kWh for their battery pack. Any way you slice it, it sounds like Bochum is running a bigger battery than Eindhoven (who has a 12.5kWh pack).
14: Flinders
23: University of Tehran
A few more Instagram updates this week. You can see that the car has a large tunnel underneath. Based on the position of the steering wheel, we can see that the occupants will sit down in the bottom of the fairings on either side of the tunnel.
30: Team Arrow
No news this week.
33: Cairo University
No news this week.
35: IVE Sophie
Status: Unveiled! IVE unveiled Sophie VI on July 1st.
No news this week.
No news this week.
40: Eindhoven
Status: Unveiled! Eindhoven unveiled Stella Vie on June 21st.
This week the team did some teambuilding training.
This week the team did some teambuilding training.
42: TAFE SA
No news this week.
45: Lodz
Status: Unveiled, and Shipped! Lodz unveiled Eagle Two on July 14th, and shipped to Australia on July 17th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
Status: Unveiled! The team held a joint unveiling event for both Edison (Challenger) and Nikola (Cruiser) on August 14th.
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75: UNSW Sunswift
We don't expect an unveiling until September.
The team posted a few photos of progress on Facebook. Apparently the team has begun testing the car.
The team posted a few photos of progress on Facebook. Apparently the team has begun testing the car.
94: University of Minnesota
Status: Unveiled, and Shipped! Minnesota unveiled Eos II on July 11th, and shipped it out to Australia over the last weekend in July.
Not much news this week. A very brief team profile was posted on the Bridgestone WSC website.
Not much news this week. A very brief team profile was posted on the Bridgestone WSC website.
Status: Unveiled! KUAS unveiled Apollo VIII on June 29th.
No news this week.
No news this week.
Adventure Class
52: Illini Solar Car
Status: Shipped! The team shipped Argo out to Australia at the start of August.
No news this week.
No news this week.
53: Mississippi Choctaw High School
No news this week.
