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About the car

  1. What is it?
    • A solar car
  2. How fast does the car go?
    • The fastest the car has traveled was 55mph, but we estimate it will go about 65 mph. But, remember that the faster you go, the more energy you waste.
  3. What type of motor does it use?
    • It is a NGM (New Generation Motors) 96 volt DC brushless motor that generates 8 horsepower at approx 6KW. The motor also acts as a generator when braking so that we waste as little energy as possible.
  4. What is that popping sound when the car moves?
    • Brushless motors move because of pulses that the motor controller (the black box behind the driver) sends to it. Those pulses produce the AWESOME popping sound that will eventually progress into a hum as the car speeds up.
  5. What type of batteries does the car use?
    • Lithium-polymer. They are very similar to what is found in laptops and cellphones.
  6. How much does the car weigh?
    • With a 176 lb driver, the car weighs 645 lbs, or 470 lbs without the driver.
  7. Why don't you put a small person in the car to save weight and make the car more efficient?
    • The rules say that ever driver has to weigh approx 176 lbs. If he/she is under that weight, ballast must be added so that every driver from every team weighs the same.
  8. Why are the shocks horizontal?
    • The horizontal shocks increase the handling and make it easier for the chassis to absorb the loads delivered from the surface of the road, similar to Indy-style cars. This design is unique to our team. No other solar car team has this design.
  9. Why don't you use wind turbines to generate electricity while you are driving?
    • This simply violates the law of conservation of energy. So, say we attach wind turbines to our car and use 20 watts of energy due to the drag of the turbine. The maximum amount of energy that we could get back would be 20 watts which would make the turbine 100% efficient. So, even with a turbine with an efficiency of 100% (no mechanical device has been created with this high of an efficiency), the amount of energy that we get back would not be larger than what we used.
  10. What is the shell made out of?
    • It is a foam and fiberglass composite. This makes the shell very light, strong, and inexpensive to build.
  11. How does solar power work?
    • A solar cell produces power by converting sunlight into electricity. When sunlight, which is composed of photons, strikes a solar cell, the photons are either reflected or absorbed. The absorbed photons' energy is transferred to an electron which is contained inside the solar cell. With the new energy, the electron is able to "escape" its original position and become part of the current produced by the solar cell.
  12. How does the car work?
    • The power comes in from the solar cells and is sent through a wire to the motor. When we drive, we try to operate the car with just this energy. If the solar cells cannot provide enough power (accelerating, fast driving), then we have to get the extra energy from our batteries. If we don't need all of the power the solar cells are producing (braking, sitting at a stoplight), then we charge the batteries. This is all controlled by the car's onboard computers, so the driver can focus on driving.
  13. What is the motor on the rear trailing arm?
    • It is the gap adjust motor. The gap adjust acts in a similar fashion the transmission on gas cars. It changes the gap between the magnets of the motor to either increase speed/decrease torque or increase torque/decrease speed.
  14. Why does it have three wheels and is it safe?
    • This configuration is more efficient than four wheels because you have less aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance by ditching one wheel. It is also much easier to design and build. As for its safety, yes, it is safe. If a three wheel car is designed correctly, it can handle well enough to deal with what you would encounter on the roadways. Our drivers say it handles as well as, if not better, than many gas-powered cars on the road.
  15. Does it have air conditioning?
    • No. Air conditioning wastes a lot of energy and has no place in our vehicle. Instead, we have well-placed vents that keep the driver cool when moving. If needed, we can add fans to cool the driver when stopped.
  16. How many solar cells/batteries are on/in the car?
    • 472 solar cells and 168 batteries.