Picture Update!

Although the results of the race are in and the team is back in the U.S., I'll start off with a few pictures from scrutineering and qualifying. Eleanor was scrutineered on Wednesday 10/21. Race officials verified the car's dimensions, weight, and array size. All drivers were weighed so we could be ballasted up to 80 kg. The entire caravan and all of our safety equipment was inspected. We demonstrated Eleanor's turn signals and brake lights and our battery pack was tied shut so that any tampering during the race would we obvious. Below some of our electrical team members, Alex, Robert and Kelly, discuss the car's electrical system with the scrutineers.













After completing scrutineering, we applied our nice 3M stickers to the trailer and then set out for a test drive.














We got in a few practice tire changes and experience on the left side of the road before running into an issue with the mechanical brakes and a problem with seizing lug nuts. Chris took this picture of the entire caravan while we were stopped.

















We were able to completely resolve the brake issue later that day, but the seizing lug nuts would come back to haunt us on day 2 of the race when a driver change turned into a tire change and then turned into a hub change. We finally worked out this issue that night and had no problems on subsequent tire changes.

Our awesome tire changing crew, lead by Alex Arambula (pictured awesomely below), performed awesomely during the race. The University of New South Wales team, Sunswift, took a video of a 3.5 minute rear wheel swap on day 4. We will try to get a copy of it and post it here for posterity.















Each day of the race we had at least one control stop. Control stops are 30 minute or 10 minute mandatory stops at various towns along the route. This allows the teams to switch drivers, fill up the support vehicles with gas, and go to the bathroom without worrying about other teams catching up while they do so. Control stops also allow you to get a little extra charge from the array. Since every watt-hour counts, we sometimes held the array tilted towards the sun if the stop was early or late in the day. The Alice Springs control point is pictured below. We pulled in to Alice Springs in the middle of day 3 and therefore could leave the array on the car. Because the cells get hot and produce less power when hot, we spray the array with de-ionized water when charging but not driving (while driving the convective cooling of air over the array keeps it cool). Ethan and Rachel are quickly wiping water off the array so we can get back on the road at the end of our 30 minute stop.
















Late on day 3 we pulled into Kulgera for a short control stop. Unfortunately there was no time to visit the pub.















On the evening of day 3 we took this group picture with Eleanor and the southern stars. I thought we had grabbed our whole 15 person caravan for this picture (our observer, Wendy, is wearing the telltale yellow shirt), but upon close examination it looks like Pete managed to escape.
















Although we reached the end of timing on day 5, we had to wait until the next day to pull into the Victoria Square finish line. Sunswift also had to wait, so we arrived just a few minutes after them although they completed the race about 90 minutes ahead of us. Sunswift is a really friendly team, and they wasted no time in encouraging us to jump into the Victoria Square fountain. The entire team was soaked when we posed for our finish line picture.














I hope you've enjoyed following our race on this blog. We will continue to post updates as we begin work on our next vehicle. Eleanor was shipped home from Adelaide and should be returning in mid December. In the meantime, a few final pictures by day and by night.





























Fiona

In Adelaide

Thursday:
We crossed the end-of-timing control stop in the afternoon. However, the finish line in Adelaide was closed by the time we got there, so we put Eleanor in the trailer for the night.

We finished 2nd out of the Challenge Class silicon array cars :)

Friday:
We drove the car up to Victoria Square, crossed the finish line, and jumped into the fountain. The team spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the city.

We'll pack up the trailer tomorrow and head to Sydney on Monday.

kelly

In Darwin

It's 9:30PM on Wednesday here in Darwin. We (the regular crew) arrived on Monday after spending two days in transit.

Seen on the way to the track on Monday.

Track homestretch.

Rachel's mom made this sweet cover.

Things have been going well. We went through scrutineering today and will test drive tomorrow.

kelly

First Day at the Track

Late crew arrived last night, so today was our first full day at the track. We got to the Hidden Valley Motor Sports Complex around 8 am and began working on Eleanor and the caravan. In addition to getting Eleanor ready to race, we have to prepare the lead, chase, and trailer-hauling vehicles for scrutineering. Yesterday early crew began wiring up the radios, GPS, “crazy lights,” and laptop power in the lead vehicle. Today we worked on getting chase ready to go, while the Land Cruiser visited the rental company for some repairs.

By the afternoon we had Eleanor ready for some test driving around the track. Kelly, Ethan and I each drove around a few laps. We are scheduled to go to scrutineering on Thursday morning, but will try to get everything ready in order to scrutineer tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to test drive on actual roads on Thursday and Friday. Saturday is the qualifying round which will determine our starting position on Sunday. We will post pictures soon.

Fiona

Pictures from the drive

A few pictures to go with Alex's update from last night.....

We camped in Camooweal Caves National Park on Friday night.  We had it a lot rougher than the night before, no electricity and no internet.  We could see a ton of stars though.  Here's a long exposure picture of the trailer by night.  It's hard to make out the stickers on the trailer because we have not yet put on the new stickers kindly printed for us by 3M.  Late crew is bringing the new stickers with them and we'll be putting them on before the end of the week.

In the morning, we visited two of the Camooweal Caves, the Little Nowranie and the Great Nowranie before taking off for Katharine.  You can get an idea of the size of the Great Nowranie from this picture.  Annette and Alex are standing on the far side of the cave.

While camping in Katharine on Saturday night we saw many smaller kangaroos.  We thought this one was a baby until we noticed that it had a joey in its pouch.  The pouch is positioned such that the joey can reach the ground and pick up food when the mother kangaroo is picking up food.  The University of Michigan Solar Car Team was also camping in Katharine. 

We got up early in order to see the Katharine gorges before sending our lead car ahead of the trailer to Darwin.  Chris pieced together this panorama taken from the edge of the gorge.

We sent the lead car ahead so we could figure out the details of renting our chase vehicle.  After visiting 3 different rental companies, we ended up with a 12 passenger van that should have no trouble holding the people and gear needed to support Eleanor. 

Last night, Alex hung out with the Cambridge University Eco Racing Team. We're looking forward to meeting all the teams and checking out Eleanor's competition.



Fiona

(photos: Chris Pentacoff)

After leaving Barcaldine, we drove a long time, and then stopped for the night in Camooweal National Park, which is famous for having a bunch of caves.  The camping spots were 12km off the main highway, on a dirt road, which was a bit of an adventure.

In the morning, we briefly checked out the caves, and then drove for a long time.  We stopped for the night in Katherine.  Specifically, we camped in Nitimiluk National Park, which is famous for gorges.  In the morning, we woke up, briefly checked out the gorges, and then took off on the final stretch for Darwin.  Our two vehicle caravan split up, the van sped ahead to work out some car rental issues, and the trailer chugged its way to the track.

The early crew is enjoying a night of peace and relaxation, after 4000km of driving, before late crew arrives tomorrow afternoon.  It should be considered an accomplishment that no kangaroos were killed during this 4000km drive, no flat tires, no break downs.  I am very thankful, and glad to be back in Darwin.  Pulling into the pits brought back a lot of memories.  After four long years, we are finally poised to bring MIT back into the solar car racing community.

Alex

Toowoomba to Barcaldine

Day 2 of our trip is complete. We are at a campsite in Barcaldine, Queensland which happens to have free wireless internet. The rolling hills and trees we drove through yesterday changed to mostly flat roads and scrub bush.  But it's getting hotter as we get closer to the outback and we had to keep the heat on in the Land Cruiser during the afternoon to prevent it from overheating.  There's much less traffic on the roads, but we are seeing a lot of  road trains. 

We also saw a fair amount of live wildlife today in addition to the frequent roadkill. When we were stopped in Miles earlier today, we saw a small herd of emu.  There were about eight in total.

As the sun was setting, we began to see more and more kangaroos near the highway.  We really had to watch out after dark and honk the horn to get them to move off the road.

 Here's a picture of Alex.  He's dressed interestingly, but at least he didn't hit any kangaroos with the Land Cruiser.  Any live kangaroos, that is. 

 

In case you were dubious about the campsite with internet, here's picture of our internet hotspot around the picnic table.

And lastly, a picture from dawn on Coogee Beach.  Alex, Andy and Annette stayed in Coogee Beach while Chris and I were in Sydney.  We took a bus to meet up with them the morning before we left for Darwin.

Tomorrow our goal is to get as far as Camooweal.  If we have time, perhaps we'll get to visit Camooweal Caves National Park.


Fiona

(pictures: Chris Pentacoff)

On the road

We're stopped at a public library in Miles, Queensland. We left Sydney yesterday morning and drove along the New England Highway to Toowoomba. The road was a littler hillier than anticipated, so Andy and Alex had a fun time driving in first and second gear. Today the road is much more flat and we're averaging 100 km/h. By tonight we should be in Barcaldine or Longreach, which are almost exactly on the Tropic of Capricorn. I'll keep this short because we have a long way to go today.

Fiona

(photo: Fiona Hughes)

We have the trailer...

and Eleanor is fine!  Alex and Andy went to the customs inspection and then spent most of the day re-wiring the trailer lights and replacing the deflating trailer tires.  We'll be leaving early tomorrow (Wednesday) and should make it about to Toowoomba by tomorrow night.  Our exact route is still undecided.  Alex said the Land Cruiser seems to be a little slow when hauling the trailer.  If this turns out to be a problem we'll try to exchange it for something more powerful when we get to Darwin.

While waiting for news on the trailer, Chris and I went to Sydney's Night Noodle Market for Thai food. 


Fiona

Carnet Inspection Tomorrow

Our shipping container is scheduled to be inspected by Australian customs at 10:30 am tomorrow.  We'll be tagging along for the inspection and will get to see Eleanor for the first time in about a month.  If all goes well, we'll be able to take possession of Eleanor and the trailer and will be off to Darwin.  Today we picked up our chase vehicle, an eight passenger van, as well as a six passenger Land Cruiser that will haul the trailer and be our scout vehicle. We have a few more items to procure before we can hit the road.  One of the trailer tires needs to be replaced and we have to get a ball hitch so the Land Cruiser can tow the trailer. 


Last night around sunset we walked around Circular Quay and part of the way across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  They are really serious about security on the harbour bridge, as you can tell from these pictures....

 

We were too late to climb up to the top of the pylons, but we still had an excellent view of downtown Sydney:

Since we can't do too much until we get the car through customs, we are going to check out Coogee Beach this afternoon.


Fiona

(photos: Chris Pentacoff)

Sydney!

It's now 12:30 pm on Sunday in Sydney.  We've been in Sydney for about 30 hours and have spent more than $100 each during that time, mostly on food and public transportation.  The exchange rate is about $1 USD to $1 AUD.

After arriving yesterday morning at 6:45am and taking the train to a friend's downtown apartment, we went for a walk to the Sydney Royal Gardens.  There we had a great view of downtown Sydney, as well as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  We also saw some unusual birds.

We haven't been able to pick up the trailer yet, so we don't know what state Eleanor is in after her voyage from Boston.  Due to a customs mix-up, we might not get to see her until Tuesday and will likely be in Sydney until at least Wednesday.  Then we'll be heading north to Darwin and should arrive there on Sunday.  The rest of the team will fly in on Monday.

Fiona


(photos: Chris Pentacoff)

Batzer Blog

Rachel's parents will travel with us in Australia. They have a blog that might be of interest to you.

Greening MIT

On September 14, MIT held its annual community fall break in Killian Court. The theme was "Greening MIT," and we were invited to host a table.

Although we couldn't display Eleanor (she's being shipped to Australia!), people were still pretty enthusiastic. Mike and I talked with students about the team and solar car racing, and we picked up quite a few potential recruits. President Hockfield stopped by for a few minutes to inquire about WSC, which was nice.

We've been busy with teaching new members and prepping for the race. Less than a month to go!
kelly