Wednesday, April 30, 2008

More Photos from Australia!


Our team had an amazing opportunity to go to Australia last fall. We competed in the Panasonic World Solar Challenge against some of the world's best solar cars. We would like to share the experience with you through the pictures that we took while we were there! :)

Friday, April 18, 2008

RESULTS

The trial run did not turn out at all the way we planned. Sorry we have not updated the blog in a few days telling about the results. We have been very busy repairing the car. Our damages included a collapsed frame, a splintered array, and a warped rim. We have decided to play it on the safe side by designing a heavier, more reliable frame and array. This will add about 4oo lbs to our original design, but we should be okay since we are only around 1200 lbs. We hope the law of inertia will be in our favor. We will be updating the blog daily so our fans can keep up with our progress.

Monday, April 14, 2008

On the Road Again

Today will be the first time that we drive our new car on the highway!! We would like to thank the City of Houston for providing us with a police escort and the use of their radar to test our speed. Since this is our first time out in this new car, we will all be required to wear a helmet (just in case things do not go as planned). We all are extremely excited about taking this car out for the first time after months of hard work! It is finally paying off. We will let you know how it turns out!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Shout-Outs and Thank Yous

This summer we will be racing in multiple divisons. We will be using Schott Solar Cells at the speedway race. We would like to thank Schott for all of their help in making us successful. Over the years, our relationship with Schott Solar has grown into what we feel is like an extended family. We would also like to send a big shout-out and thank you to Tim Cook at NTN Bearing Corporation of America. Without his generosity and interest in what we do, our program would simply not "go"!

Upcoming Events

We are very excited about the upcoming race this summer! It will be held in Dallas, Texas, and will take place at the Texas Motor Speedway. We have been working on building a new car, Sundancer II. With all of our hard work, it is almost completed. We are working extremely hard to get a different kind of solar car in each of the different divisons this year.
Besides getting ready for the race this summer, we are also doing a few things around our hometown. The Flywheel Festival is coming up the last weekend in April. We are planning on having a booth there and selling our "Sundancer water". We are also bringing the car along for pictures. We hope that everyone will try and attend the festival. We would love to see you there!

NEW MEMBER!

Josh Davis, the newest addition to the solar car team, is in his first year of electricity. He has worked very hard on helping build our new car, Sundancer II, and we're extremely proud of all of his accomplishments so far!