FRIDAY MORNING 2010-05-07

Competition started and during the morning both Vera and Smarter lined up for a 2nd attempt. And sorry for me misguiding you but both vehicles have from 2010 4 attempts and rolling start. Smarter in Urban has to make pitstop every lap though and Vera just drives the compelte distance.

Smarter increased her distance to 154km and right now she is in the middle of all vehicles that noted a distance; 9th of approximately 20 – BUT there are distances being noted all the time.

Vera did 1012km and now Veras Vänner has been in a problem finding and solving mode; regarding mapping and driving strategies and is now lined up for their 3rd attempt – will drive at lunchtime approximately.

The Smarter subteam is working with installing the 3rd version of the powertrain that was finished during the morning and will then line up for the 3rd attempt too.

Since both KTH and Luleå has not recorded a distance in the urban (Smarter) class so far and get shorter distances in the prototype class (Vera), we’re still best Swedish teams. But with a lot of teams not done all of their attempts and new distances being recorded as we speak, we never know what will happen. Hold your thumbs!!

THURSDAY 2010-05-06
Bad luck and not a good contact with the weather gods made Thursday to a fixing and modification day. The rain poured down, it was even more wet and cold than previous days, and the competition management never opened the track for driving.

Instead the team put some time into work on the vehicles. Smarter’s powertrain version 3 was put together and evaluated. Version 3 has 2 electric motors and is a bit more powerful so that there won’t be a need to drive the ICE on full throttle. For Vera a complete investigation and evaluation of the systems, both mechanical and electrical + the engine management, was done to find out why the distance was only 1056 and where the major problems were.

Veras Vänner was up all night to Thursday to map the engine and discuss driving strategies.

And Friday morning the team awoke to a bit dryer environment…

WEDNESDAY 2010-05-05

THE TRIP and TUESDAY 2010-05-04
7.30PM monday evening 2 minibuses and a truck rolled from Chalmers, only 1 hour late start, on their way to EuroSpeedway Lausitz 150km south of Berlin to defend Chalmers name and reputation in the Shell Eco-marathon competition of 2010.

Project leader and associate professor Sven Andersson and 16 students, divided into two subteams, one for our prototype vehicle Vera and one for the urban vehicle Smarter, had a long journey ahead via Helsingborg-Helsingör and Gedser Rostock ferries.

The trip went very well and the party arrived at Lausitz ~9AM in the morning. Now the team had to be registered, the cars and equipment to be set up in the pits and the camp site to be built up.

One car headed back to Schönefeld airport in Berlin to pick up the driver for Vera, Melanie Despeisse, who has driven for Chalmers since 2007, and at noon the whole team was gathered at Lausitz.

Approximately 200 teams on spot, 2500-3000 students and teachers, 200 vehicles in the two classes, makes a big crowd and a lot of things to look at and learn from. There are vehicles built by teams with low budgets as well as high; with very expensive materials and design solutions.

Chalmers installed the vehicles in the pits and during Tuesday afternoon the team lined up for scrutineering for both Smarter and Vera which was passed without any remarks. The vehicles were also weighed and Vera ended on 29 kg and Smarter on 78 kg. The team thought Vera was heavy and the marshals at the scale was surprised about this reaction since they only met one vehicle so far that was lighter than Vera.

The team had dinner, made some small adjustments to the vehicle, looked over all parts and systems and then it was a full day. After having spent a night in a crowded minibus, everybody slept well more or less, even though it was a bit cold.