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Michigan Wins 2008 North American Solar Challenge
An anonymous reader writes "The University of Michigan Solar Car Team won the 2008 North American Solar Challenge, crossing the finish line in Alberta, Canada on Tuesday after more than 50 hours of racing over nine days. The team successfully defended their title from 2005, the last year the race was held. Final results have been posted on the North American Solar Challenge website and will be officially announced at an award ceremony later today."
I hate the team already.
- some guy from Ohio
I am officially gone from
Bah, little secret: Michigan gets a ridiculous level of help from industry. Most of the other teams don't have it so easy.
Sorry, but this race is not like Lemans.
It looks like they scheduled it in stages (city to city) over 9 days. I'm sure that they had all teams complete the stage each day before starting the next stage. They probably gave themselves plenty of time to deal with cars that broke down and what not.
The race is set up in multiple stages, so that cars can travel more or less together. The winner is determined by the total elapsed time between stages. The final stage was only 200 miles, so the finish order was pretty much determined by then.
another little secret: Michigan has a business team (yes, team as in many members and its own command structure) that courts that industry help. Most of the other teams don't have the manpower or organization to do that.
The cars raced for 50 hours. It wasn't nonstop. Hence the "nine days". The average speed was 45mph on a 2200m course.
.. It used to say.. ..And you don't need the last two!"
" To win the race you need:
1. A Lot of Money
2. A Good Design
3. A Great Team..
I've done solar car racing. It isn't a poor man's sport. Michigan gets more help from industry and more money than 70% of the rest of the teams out there combined. They regularly spend *millions*, in a 'collegiate' sport where small donations from local sponsors are the norm. It usually costs somewhere in the $250k+ range to field a minimal team. In addition, the rules are arcane, about what you can and can't do to gather energy, use for materials, etc. - in attempts to balance the teams. ..It isn't like there is enough energy in the equation to make a practical solar car..and there certainly isn't an economic argument yet. It's a weird, and highly unbalanced 'sport'.
Kind of hard to give them kudos for being the ones who spent the most money.