As a metaphor for life, solar-car racing is non without merit. “The goal is to striking the complete delineate alongside zip ability remaining,” says Clayton Dailey, applied scientific discipline manager for the University of Michigan’s Solar Car Team, which finished mo inward the Bridgestone World Solar Car Challenge final October—the best complete always for an American pupil team. The route is a barbarous 1877-mile haul across the Australian outback betwixt Darwin together with Adelaide, during which the teams race for nine-hour days on populace roads using solely the ability of the sun. The 70-student-strong organization’s locus is its 420-pound carbon-fiber auto called Novum, which is Latin for “new thing.” It’s the smallest, slipperiest solar auto inward the program’s 29-year history.
The squad won’t grade exactly how slippery it is, except that the drag coefficient is nether 0.10 together with the car’s frontal expanse is smaller than 10.8 foursquare feet. As a oil comparison, nosotros measured a 2012 Tesla Model south equally having a 0.24 drag coefficient together with 25.2 foursquare feet of frontal area. But Novum carries a crew of solely 1 nether its bubble canopy inward considerably less comfort than the Model S.
We drove the auto final summertime earlier it was shipped to Commonwealth of Australia together with earlier it was create to race. With one-half the ability it used inward the race—only 1 of its ii in-wheel motors was operational inward our test—it took 38.7 seconds to brand the run from zip to lx mph. We’re told that fourth dimension is some halved alongside both motors inward play. But one-half ability was simply fine past times us because—in its early on state of tune, at least—Novum was nearly equally stable equally Kim Jong-un later on a weekend of amphetamines together with Pabst. Which is to say, nosotros accept tremendous honour for the students who kept it on the route during its trek across the isle continent.
But this hand-built one-off, which is registered inward Michigan equally a roadster alongside no VIN, gets a last past times on concern human relationship of all the pilus splitting together with adventure taking that went into its blueprint together with construction. The three-part trunk together with chassis are made of prepreg carbon-fiber components. The pause bits are gloriously minimalistic CNC-machined aluminum pieces supported past times ZF coil-over dampers. Brembo motorbike calipers produce the stopping. Even the steering yoke, a removable undertaking festooned alongside switches, buttons, together with accelerator together with regenerative-braking paddles, is made from carbon fiber. And the fully shrouded front end wheels actuate windows inward the bodywork that popular out to adjust full-lock steering. Aero, man.
Novum’s decisive resource, however, is its multijunction gallium arsenide solar cells made past times the High German trouble solid Azur Space. They yield a 10 to 12 percentage efficiency payoff over less costly silicon cells together with correspond a disproportionate amount of Novum’s total expense. And it is a wildly expensive thing. The solar array lone is some a $200,000 proposition. Add inward the residue of the components, together with Novum represents nearly $800,000 inward parts. The program’s budget is $1.2 1000000 all in, but that doesn’t include the to a greater extent than than 30,000 pupil hours it took to build it.
Next upward for Novum is the American Solar Challenge inward July betwixt Omaha, Nebraska, together with Bend, Oregon. It’s an result Michigan has won ix times, half-dozen of them consecutively. Odds are adept Novum volition complete alongside no ability remaining.
Source : caranddriver