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Ann Arbor News, June 15, 1997

U-M's solar car heads for the starting line

By DAVID WAHLBERG
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
After major last-minute repairs, the University of Michigan solar car team headed Friday for Indianapolis, the starting point of this year's national collegiate solar car race, which begins Thursday.
   The 21-member team discovered a couple of weeks ago that the solar panels covering their 20-foot-long, lemon-yellow car, the "Wolverine," weren't producing enough power, said Aaron Bragman, race manager.
   "So we rebuilt the entire solar array," he said, referring to the flat surface on the tear-drop-shaped car that carries some 3,000 shimmering solar cells. "They told us it would take two weeks; we did it in a week."
   He said the $10,000 restoration should put the U-M team in good shape for the 10-day "Sunrayce 97," which goes from Indianapolis to Colorado Springs.
   "Hopefully, that will be our only problem," Bragman said. "We are an extremely viable team. We're dangerous."
   The U-M won the first two solar car races, in 1990 and 1993. In the third, in 1995, the team quit halfway through because of faulty wheels and other mechanical problems.
   Designers of this year's car kept the same basic 1995 model but with a few changes: lighter suspension parts, a motor attached directly to the rear axle and aluminum disc wheels instead of the three-spoke, magnesium-case wheels that failed in 1995.
   At the Eastern Regional Qualifier for Sunrayce 97, held in May at the General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford, the U-M team qualified, finishing 10th among 18 universities that made the cut. Bragman said that part of the reason the team didn't do better is the faulty solar cells.
   Because the solar array has been completely redone, the team will likely have to qualify for the race again on Tuesday in Indianapolis, Bragman said. Any team making significant changes to their car is required to requalify, he said.
   Today through Monday, inspectors will look over the cars of each of about 40 teams, checking that they meet race specifications.
   Bragman expects George Washington University, the University of Minnesota and Massachusetts Institutes of Technology to be among the top competitors this year. George Washington won the Milford qualifier in May, and MIT won the overall race in 1995.
   "We're tired and we're busy," Bragman said Friday morning before heading to Indianapolis with other team members in a group of vans. "But we're ready."