Purdue Solar Racing Team wins solar car competition
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 05/01/2009
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For some Purdue students, electric motors turn them on.
The Purdue Solar Racing Team’s vehicle, PULSAR, took home the Grand Prize for the second-consecutive year for the Shell Eco-Marathon in Fontana, Calif., bringing home $2,500. The Boilers beat out schools such as Penn State and UCLA and competitors from India and Mexico, taking the prize for the two years they’ve competed.
PULSAR is powered by solar energy, making PULSAR a gas-free vehicle. But if it did use fuel, it would have 4,916 miles to the gallon, equivalent to a trip and a half across the United States on a gallon of gas. The car won last year as well; the team beat their own record by increasing the car’s fuel efficiency by 72 percent, and the miles per gallon by 2,051.
“One of our goals as a team is that the electric motor becomes a viable option for today’s car,” said Ted Pesyna, a junior in the College of Engineering and president of the Purdue Solar Racing Team. “It’s one of the most efficient ways to conserve energy. Look at all the talk today about gasoline and use of energy. A lot of that has to do with efficiency of today’s vehicles.”
The seven-foot long, five-foot wide smart car-looking vehicle can cruise at 30 mph and hold one compact passenger.
“I sit in a reclined position, almost laying down,” said Mimi LaBerta, a senior in the College of Engineering and one of PULSAR’s drivers. “It’s a pretty small compartment. Potholes are pretty bad, and pieces of gravel can make it shake a little. On the track it’s usually pretty smooth.”
Though the car may have renewable energy resource, the members of the team tend to run out of gas.
“I’ve definitely passed out on the garage floor,” said Pesyna. “Then I’d wake up a few hours later just to be passed out on the floor again.”
Falling asleep at the wheel was not uncommon either.
“We came back once at three in the morning and one of our drivers was asleep at the wheel in the garage,” said Pesyna. “We just woke them up and told them it was time for a test drive.”
Though there were late nights in the car and on the floor of the garage, it was not a waste of the team’s energy to ultimately save it.
“When we won Ted pulled me out of the car and high fived me,” said LaBerta. “We were jumping and yelling, everyone was gathering around the car. We could barely contain ourselves at the awards ceremony.”
Next year, the team will be entering a new car into the Urban Concept Category, integrating an electric engine with a street legal car, aspiring to get it to go up to 70-80 mph and to promote mainstreaming the electric motor.
“Our goal is to go and break the record in that category,” Pesyna said. “The miles per gallon is pretty low compared to what we achieved this year so we want to go and blow that out of the water. It’s a big step in the right direction, but one that we are definitely able to take. We want to go back and turn some heads.”