Posted on June 26: Solar car team ready to race with the sun
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/solarcarteamDN.jpg” caption=”Solar Car Team”]
It's shaped like an airplane wing, and covered in 450 foil tiles. It runs on batteries that cost $21,000. Its driver cannot be taller than 6'2″ or lighter than 176 pounds. It's based on the principles of how a normal car works, but is anything but normal.
What is it, you ask?
This extraordinary vehicle is Fireball II, McMaster's second generation solar vehicle, and it's about to cruise across the United States along historic Route 66 in the American Solar Car Challenge.
Before it heads south, Fireball II makes its debut Friday, June 27, 2003, at 11:30 a.m. outside the John Hodgins Engineering Building (JHE). This event is an opportunity for sponsors, media personnel, and any other interested people to get acquainted with McMaster's new second generation solar vehicle.
Fireball makes its last Canadian public appearance July 1 from noon to 6 p.m. at Downsview Park when it joins in the Canada Day celebrations.
After that, the team has only five days to put the finishing touches on the car before it leaves for Evanston, Illinois of July 6. In Evanston, Fireball will endure the final qualifiers for the American Solar Challenge, which kicks off Friday, July 13.
A bi-yearly event, the 2003 ASC Challenge welcomes approximately 30 teams from all over North America and Europe to compete in a 10-day race from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California.
McMaster's introduction to the race happened during the 2001 race. With Fireball I, the first solar car ever built at McMaster University, the team qualified for the challenge and started the race. However, technical difficulties later forced them to withdraw.
This year, the McMaster Solar Car team has high hopes. Tammy Hwang, marketing co-ordinator for the team, believes a top five finish is an ambitious, but realistic, goal.
And this team is nothing if not ambitious. Building a solar car takes two years of gathering sponsorship, creating designs, manufacturing parts, and building the vehicle. Hwang estimates that the final cost of the project could be more than $100,000. It is thanks to sponsors and volunteer mechanics that Fireball II will soon be rolling out of the garage.
During the challenge, about 10 people, including three volunteer drivers, a lead vehicle, and a chase vehicle will support Fireball II, and the volunteers racing across the United States are looking for a lot of support from home.
“We really want this to be a University-wide project,” says Hwang. Students from engineering, arts & science, business, and nursing are members of the team, and professors from several faculties also provide support. Says Hwang, “We want to make McMaster proud.”
The Solar Car team will be providing regular updates to their hometown fans, so stay tuned to the Daily News for more details.
Photo Caption: The McMaster Solar Car team, (from left to right) Tammy Hwang, YanHan An, Avery Yuen, Emad Fahem, Tim Van Boxtel, Ash Bhardwaj, Amin Ahmadi, Claire Braden, and John Bracken.
