Seattle Times, Living:
Monday, March 05, 1990
Hill Williams
It's a major scramble to get ready, but a student-built car from Western Washington University in Bellingham will race on solar power in Phoenix Saturday.
The car may also be the only entry in the Arizona Governor's Cup Solar Challenge that actually will be operating on the sun's power.
"The problem is that many of the universities are behind schedule," said Jim West, race organizer. "They're still testing motors and batteries. Entries will be uncertain until race time. Some cars may just be on display and not run."
Entries are from universities building cars for a major solar race in July. Eight cars had been entered in the Phoenix race by the end of last week, but West was still hoping for a few more by race time.
"Our car will definitely run on solar power in Phoenix," said Michael Seal, director of WWU's Vehicle Research Institute. "But it will probably be more of a demonstration than a race."
Western students, still installing and connecting 2,000 solar cells on the car's array late last week, hoped to test the car on solar power at the campus - if the sun comes out in Bellingham before they load the racer tomorrow for the drive to Phoenix.
If not, testing will be on the 2 1/2-mile race track in Phoenix. West said the solar race, part of the U.S. Grand Prix for Formula 1 race cars in Phoenix, will run either 7 1/2 or 10 miles.
"There'll be thousands of people interested in cars at the race, and the Arizona State Energy Office thought it would be an excellent opportunity to show these folks and the media what solar power is all about," West said.
For the WWU students, the Phoenix race presents a chance to test the car they will enter in an 1,800-mile race from Florida to Michigan in July. With an innovative car design, they are confident of winning that race. If they do, it will be on to an international race in Australia in December, with expenses paid by General Motors, sponsor of the July race.
Seal believes the WWU car, named Viking XX, could reach 50 miles an hour in Phoenix at noon when the sun is high. (The race is scheduled for 11:45 a.m.) But Seal won't allow it to reach top speed.
"Thirty or 40 miles an hour is as fast as we ought to go until we conduct more tests to be sure the car is safe," he explained.
Viking XX is unusual in that its fixed top solar array is sloping, like one side of a house roof. In the morning the car, with reversible propulsion, will run with the array angled toward the rising sun. At noon, the car will be turned end-for-end so it will run with the array sloped toward the setting sun.
The car will have two student driver-navigators, seated back to back.
The project includes several departments at the university. Geography students helped assess terrain and weather expected along highways on the Florida-to-Michigan route. Computer students designed a program that will determine racing strategies in a van accompanying the racer.
And right up to the weekend, welding students in the university's technology department were building an aluminum trailer. If the trailer is completed, tested and licensed in time, the solar racer will ride it to Phoenix. If not, the racer will make the trip in the back of a university truck.
Students have raised $120,000 to pay for materials to build the car and for transportation to the races. But Sage McCallum, a graduate student from Vancouver, B.C., one of the driver-trainees who heads fund-raising responsibilities, said fund-raising is continuing to pay for the trip to Australia.
And Seal would like to upgrade the racer's solar cells, designed for use on Earth, to the more efficient cells used in space applications. The price tag would be $200,000.
"I think we can win the Florida race with what we have," Seal said, "but we'll need better cells to meet the competition in Australia."
Viking XX is assured of a trip to Australia even if it is not a winner in Florida. John Paul Mitchell Systems of Los Angeles, encountering difficulties in building its entry for the Australian race, awarded its entry slot to Western along with a donation of more than $10,000.
"A friend at Boeing told me about this incredible solar car the students at Western were building," said John Paul Jones DeJoria, chairman of the hair-care-products firm. "It sounded like one of the best in the country."
Seal hopes to use the time after the Phoenix race to fine-tune the racer and perhaps build a new body. He thinks he and the students know how to pare 8 pounds from the 130-pound shell.
"That may not sound like much of a weight gain, but in these races it could be important," he said. "Besides, it will give us a spare body. We already have spares of everything else."
Weight of the car with solar array, batteries, motor and controls will be 370 pounds and, with the drivers, about 700 pounds.
The body is carbon fiber, a composite material used extensively in aircraft manufacture. Weight for weight, its stiffness is at least three times that of steel or aluminum, said John Kutz, project consultant.
Kutz, 26, a 1986 graduate of Western, earned a graduate degree in material engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia and became head of that school's team building an entry for the July race. But a few months ago, Kutz deserted Drexel and returned to Western where, as an undergraduate, he helped build two experimental cars powered by internal-combustion engines.
"Considering downtown Philadelphia and downtown Bellingham, it wasn't a tough decision," Kutz said. "But, more than that, I really believe in what we're doing here. There's no place like this anywhere else in the country where the school and faculty are as interested in innovative student projects."
Copyright (c) 1990 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.