Updates

General updates to the Solar Car Team page

Thank You OG Racing

Posted Fri, 02/26/2010 - 2:19am by blaine

The team would like to give a special thank you to Matthew Yip and OG Racing. OG Racing will be providing the team with some of the materials needed to make Infinium safer for its drivers and meet American Solar Challenge Regulations.

OG Racing Logo

OG Racing is your source for motorsports saftey equipment

Visit OG Racing at www.ogracing.com

Team Begins to Prepare Infinium for ASC 2010

Posted Mon, 02/22/2010 - 11:10pm by Rachel Kramer

The Team's semi trailer and crate returned to Ann Arbor late last month from it's long journey back from Australia. Since its return, team members have been emptying equipment out of the semi and using some of it to finish work on a mule car project. Infinium has been brought into the Team's workspace where race crew members who participated in the World Solar Challenge last fall have been helping new members to become acquainted with the car and its subsystems. 

A Race Committee has been selected to head the race preparation efforts as the Executive Committee elected for the 2011 project will continue focusing on designs for the next Michigan Solar Car. Team members from every division have applied to be part of the race crew heading to the American Solar Challenge this coming June. Race crew member selections are expected to be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Thank you InkHead!

Posted Tue, 11/24/2009 - 2:07am by blaine

The University of Michigan Solar Car Team would like to thank Jason Miller and Inkhead for their generous sponsorship of the team. Inkhead has provided the team with promotional items, including foam fingers and pocketknives.

Emily Tischer and Brian Pak with new Foam Fingers from Inkhead

Inkhead also makes many other promotional items, including: Promotional Products, Personalized Pens, Promotional Tote Bags, and Promotional Calendars.

Once again, we'd like to thank Jason Miller and InkHead for their generous donation.

 

 

Nuon Solar Team Sponsors Michigan Solar Car Team

Posted Wed, 11/04/2009 - 12:22am by Julia Hawley

As promised...

Last week as the team was packing the semi for its return trip to the United States a very surprising new sponsor was found in the Silver Sponsor section of the semi trailer, Nuon Solar Team! As the Business Director for the team, I naturally set out to find the money owed for such exclusive semi-trailer realestate.

It didn't take much convincing for the Nuon team to decided they did indeed want to be a sponsor of the Michigan team in order to have their name on the website as a Crew Sponsor. Unfortunately, the Crew Sponsorship will not reward Nuon a placement on the semi trailer, but until the trailer returns home in December, it will sport a Nuon Solar Team decal. Bon Voyage!

On behalf of the Michigan team I would like to say thank you to all of the solar car teams for making this experience so amanzing. We all had a great time getting to know you over the past few weeks. We wish you safe travels home and hope that we meet again some day. If you are ever in Michigan, you better let us know!

Scrutineering Update

Posted Thu, 10/22/2009 - 9:05am by Steven Hechtman

Infinium arrived with the semi trailer on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after when race officials publicized time slots for scrutineering. We were scheduled for Thursday (Today) at 2:30 PM, giving us all of Wednesday to make final preparations for the inspection. On Wednesday morning, we swapped out many of our mechanical parts for our race set of parts--each part we design has a given fatigue life, so after over 3,500 miles of testing, many were in need of changing. After swapping out these components, we gave the car a shakedown by running some laps around the Hidden Valley Raceway track. We were impressed by Infinium's speed around the track, and feel that it should qualify much better than Continuum did.

On Wednesday evening, we enjoyed dinner with the group of parents and team supporters led by Chuck Hutchins (Chuck is following the team on his sixteenth race, and we are the ninth team that he has traveled with!). It is great to have such an enthusiastic group of supporters here, and a pleasure to have so many team parents around. After dinner, half of the team returned to the race track to prepare for scrutineering, including the installation of our concentrator system. Up until this point, we had been running without concentrators in Darwin, so no team had seen our new development in person. Many who had heard about the system had yet to see it, so the time for the unveiling of the system was near.

Arrival in Darwin

Posted Mon, 10/19/2009 - 7:28am by Steven Hechtman

The team arrived in Darwin this afternoon, after spending our morning at Litchfield National Park outside of the city. The morning was very enjoyable, as we got to swim in two different waterfalls at the park--quite a relief given the hot temperatures in the Northern Territory!

Only part of our team visited the Hidden Valley Raceway this afternoon, as Infinium and its trailer aren't arriving in Darwin until late tomorrow. In order to familiarize themselves with the race track where qualifying will take place, our track drivers got to walk and drive around the course in the afternoon. Tomorrow we will further acclimate ourselves in Darwin while we await Infinium's arrival. We will also learn the exact time on Thursday or Friday that we must pass through pre-race scrutineering, where our car is inspected to make sure it meets all race regulations. After two years of anticipation, it is quite a feeling to be in Darwin, and we are looking forward to the start of the race on Sunday.

More Travels

Posted Sat, 10/17/2009 - 6:16am by Steven Hechtman

Last night we didn't quite make it to Devil's Marbles, and were forced to stop in Barrow Creek due to a lack of 24-hour gas stations in the outback. Since our scout vehicle was low on diesel and would not be able to go any further without a fill-up, we set up our tent a mile away from Barrow Creek, then woke up early to fill up and make it the rest of the way to Devil's Marbles. Once there, we had a great time climbing the rocks! I should note that we had no injuries worse than a few scrapes and cuts.

Our drive north today took us through Tennant Creek, Dunmarra, and all the way to Katherine--all control stops in the race. On the way up, we ran into some members from the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team. It was nice seeing them once again, as we had not crossed paths since their last visit to Detroit over the summer. Tonight we will be camping at Katherine Gorge National Park, and tomorrow we will get a chance to enjoy the park.

Traveling North

Posted Fri, 10/16/2009 - 5:17am by Steven Hechtman
We started the morning at Uluru (Ayers Rock), where we again enjoyed seeing the colors of the rock change as the sun moved through the sky--this time for sunrise rather than for sunset. After this, we hiked around Uluru and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) as the day grew brighter and hotter. After spending the entire morning at the park, we hit the road, and arrived in Alice Springs for dinner. We are making our way out of the city (yes, there is civilization in the outback!) but are first surveying the route into the Control Stop in Alice Springs. We will spend tonight at the Devil's Marbles rock formation, and are all looking forward to climbing the rocks in the morning.

Testing and Travels

Posted Thu, 10/15/2009 - 8:08am by Steven Hechtman

On Tuesday evening, facing a new round of storms headed towards Adelaide, the team left its base in Adelaide for our final test day before heading up to Darwin. We trailered the car up to Port Augusta, which put us just north of the storms and wind in Adelaide, and readied ourselves to test on Wednesday morning. The goal for Wednesday was to run one more day at high speeds, since our mock race was plagued by such bad weather. Wednesday's route had us driving north to Glendambo and then south back to Port Augusta. We were lucky to finally receive some sunny weather, so our pace for the day was brisk--we spent most of the time at or near the South Australian speed limit of 110 km/hr.

We completed the Port Augusta-Glendambo-Port Augusta route in the early afternoon, before the typical end time of 5:00 PM. After packing up Infinium, the team and the trailer went their separate ways: while the team headed north for Darwin, Infinium was trailered back to Adelaide. Infinium will leave Adelaide on Saturday, and we will all meet on Monday in Darwin, where scrutineering and qualifying take place.

Today, Thursday, we arrived at Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in time for a gorgeous view of the setting sun. After taking many pictures, we enjoyed dinner and such unique meals as kangaroo and Aussie burgers (with beets and fried eggs). The next few days will take us to other scenic sites in the Northern Territory as we head towards Darwin. We'll be sure to post more pictures once we arrive!

Meet the Race Crew!

Posted Sun, 10/11/2009 - 6:34pm by Julia Hawley

We would like to invite you to MEET THE RACE CREW that will be racing Infinium in the World Solar Challenge. Follow this link to see pictures and read the biographies of the students that are currently in Australia preparing Infinium for the big race.

Go Blue!!!