OT: World Solar Challenge - Day 5
Day 5 - Conclusion (but no recap)
The team must be in the process of celebrating their fourth place finish as well as packing up and getting ready to return to the US. They have not yet released a Day 5 recap. When they do, I'll be sure to get something up. Based on the splits from Day 4, not too much changed on the final day of competition:
1 - Innoptus Solar Team - Infinite (BEL)
Location: Adelaide
Distance covered: 3022 km
Finish day/time: Oct 26 10:44:41
Avg. Speed: 88.2 km/h
2 - Solar Team Twente - RED X (NED)
Location: Adelaide
Distance covered: 3022 km
Finish day/time: Oct 26 11:04:58
Avg. Speed: 87.4 km/h
3 - Brunel Solar Team - Nuna 12 (NED)
Location: Adelaide
Distance covered: 3022 km
Finish day/time: Oct 26 13:02:07
Avg. Speed: 82.7 km/h
4 - U of M Solar Car Team - Astrum (USA)
Location: Adelaide
Distance covered: 3022 km
Finish day/time: Oct 26 14:37:05
Avg. Speed: 79.3 km/h
5 - Tokai University Solar Car Team - Tokai Challenger (JPN)
Location: Adelaide
Distance covered: 3022 km
Finish day/time: Oct 26 16:58:53
Avg. Speed: 74.6 km/h
The top four places did not change and the time splits remained relatively static. The one big change was that Tokai University managed to pass Sonnewagen Aachen for fifth place overall.
Congratulations to the Belgian Innoptus Solar Team and their car Infinite.
UM Solar manages yet another Top 5. Well done and congratulations!
I do have to wonder how much the dragging seals cost Astrum time and energy. And, I also wonder if the engineering team isn't looking back and wondering why they didn't rip out all of the seals when the issue first popped up. I have no connection to the Team but I may reach out to see if they'll respond.
Thanks for reading & responding! Happy Bye Week.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:22 PM ^
If you're asking questions, could you also inquire about driver cooling? After yesterday's colloquy, I'm still curious. I suspect that your hypothesis is correct. If dragging seals mean the difference between finishing on the podium and coming in fourth, a cooling system would add too much weight and sap too much power. That was my suspicion before my last question and your answer. Still, the consequences of sitting in a sealed bubble in the Australian outback give me pause.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:27 PM ^
If I can get a Team member to respond, I'll be happy to ask. I also don't think that the car is as sealed up as you think. While it does need to be aero efficient, it may also be 'leaky' enough that air does circulate. And, there may be duct(s) for bringing in fresh air for the driver. I'll be happy to let you know, if I ever find out.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:39 PM ^
I saw an interview on one of the WSC videos with one of the competing teams. They talk about this. The drivers have no AC, it would consume too much battery power. They have a couple of liters of water with them and they rotate among drivers (I think 3) .
It gets 10 degrees Celsius hotter in the cockpit than the outside air. Given that it is the Australian Outback, it's already mega-hot. When you see them stepping out of the cockpits, they are balls of sweat.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:28 PM ^
I do have to wonder how much the dragging seals cost Astrum time and energy. And, I also wonder if the engineering team isn't looking back and wondering why they didn't rip out all of the seals when the issue first popped up.
Ay, there's the rub.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:46 PM ^
Thanks for posting these!
Finishing 4th in the world after starting 32nd is an amazing comeback.
ASTRUM finished about an hour and a half behind 3rd place Brunel, so I don't think their having to start 32nd kept them off the podium. They were not delayed that much time on their start, only 30 minutes or so. The dragging seals did not help, but Michigan Solar may have just reached the maximum level they could against the best competition in the world this year.
Michigan was the only American team that qualified for the Challenger Class, the top class in the world.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:52 PM ^
This was a relatively calm race. The last World Solar Car Challenge they had (before Covid) in 2019 had a lot of drama. The lead car caught fire and burned to ashes. Michigan ELECTRUM held steady, but had to serve a 1 hour penalty. ELECTRUM still held on to make the podium in 3rd place:
Fun thing: The Michigan Solar Car names all end in UM:
ASTRUM
ELECTRUM
NOVUM
etc.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
Fun thing: The Michigan Solar Car names all end in UM
That is an actual thing and done on purpose (not sure if you're aware or not and I'm not trying to be a pendant).
October 26th, 2023 at 6:42 PM ^
I was a member of the '93 team and "I been down that road", as they say.
Rubbing of wheel fairings against the wheels is one of the great scourges of these races. We had problems with it too, just attempting too tight a tolerance for the abuse the car gets over the race. It's an aerodynamic cost to widen the opening around the wheel, but the bigger loss is power from the unplanned rubbing and then the time you have to take to stop mid-race and basically cut pieces of the car off to stop it.
The last place starting time cost them officially 30 minutes (caused by an electrical problem in qualifying) but the time lost to passing other cars might not have been trivial since all 3 vehicles (lead, car, chase) have to pass all 3 of the other team's cars at once. At least in 1993 the Stuart Highway wasn't all that wide and you had to contend with road trains (18 wheelers with 3 trailers) coming the other way. Maybe different now, not sure.
Overall this team had once of the best chances to win this race as any team Michigan has had. The Dutch are a juggernaut in this event and it was good to beat at least one of their teams (Top Dutch was 7th), and see the Belgians win.
Great kids, great result. Go Blue!
October 26th, 2023 at 11:33 PM ^
Good to beat Tokai too. We are almost always a position or two in front of them or behind them.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:04 PM ^
Thanks for chiming in. I was hoping that a former team member, or two, would reply. The insight former team members can provide is invaluable.
Any chance you can provide some insight regarding the cooling system(s) that are not available to the drivers? Too much weight? Too much power drain? We'd really like to know. TIA.
And, yes, I really liked finishing ahead of Tokai, too. =)