[NeilBlanchard]

From Illuminati Motors blog:

It’s been 2 years and 10 months to the day since the members of Illuminati Motor Works threw their collective hats into the international competition known as The Progressive Automotive XPRIZE, a competition to build the worlds first 100 MPGe consumer viable vehicle. On Monday June 28th at approximately 6pm, our Battery Electric vehicle, Seven, experienced mechanical failures while trying to complete the 0-60 acceleration event, our shift linkage broke, leaving us stuck in a single gear, third, and we…I burnt up the clutch while trying with all my heart, and everything that Seven still had left in her, to accomplish the task laid before us. As I took my final run down the track at Michigan International Speedway, the high-pitched whirring sound from the transmission, the lackluster feel of the acceleration, but mostly the look on the faces of all the teams and judges that had gathered to cheer us on told me all I needed to know long before the final words were sent down, “I’m sorry, you didn’t make it.” I’d failed.

And so today, for the first time in 1033 days, we are home. After endless nights and weekends, lost vacation days, lost sleep, and lost time with my wife, I am now lost. Or am I?. “What now?” was one of the first questions I was asked by another team member after our final run, and at that time I didn’t have an answer, but now I do. I’ve never known an XPRIZE not to be awarded, and with only one team left in the mainstream class I’m not sure if all the criteria will be met this time around. So my answer to, “What now?” is fix what broke, improve on our already record-breaking efficiencies for a full size car, for all the stats see the X PRIZE web site and download the PDF with the tallied data, and be ready with a fully armed and operational Death Star….I mean Seven for the next round. How am I so sure that the X PRIZE will continue the event if there is no definitive winner this time around? Simple, the X PRIZE exists to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity thereby inspiring the formation of new industries jobs and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck. The answer is right there in their mission statement; they do not give up and neither do we.

See You Soon!

Kevin Smith

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