The team didn't have the most souped-up solar cells or the fanciest carbon fiber.
But the University of Minnesota's solar car was reliable. And in a 1,100-mile cross-country race, that matters.
"We were running a car that produced less power than some of our competitors," said Jon Olson, a soon-to-be senior in aerospace engineering. "But we didn't break down. We didn't have to stop to fix things."
The students of the U's Solar Vehicle Project used solar power alone to race their 390-pound Centaurus II in last week's American Solar Challenge. There are other solar car races (the U team has nabbed first place in a few), but this is the important one -- the "honor and glory race," as Olson put it.
It involves some big names and big budgets. The U team, however, was making do.
"Our car is built to save money wherever possible," said Olson, who joined the project two years ago. The U's budget cuts meant that "we didn't have the money to build the car exactly how we wanted it."
But engineering projects come with price tags, and the 30 students who worked on the car were used to dealing with rules and limits of all kinds.
A solar car's design is inherently a trade-off: pulling in as much power as possible, while requiring as little power as possible to operate. Aerodynamics, electrical engineering and solar technology all come into play.
