Here are the preliminary specifications that must be met according to their draft guidelines.
Quote:
All vehicles or products must be designed to achieve AXP energy and emissions requirements, i.e.:
Fuel economy: at least 100 MPGe
Total (wells-to-wheels) Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions expressed as equivalent grams of C02 per mile: no more than 200 g/mi
Criteria emissions: no worse than Tier II, bin 5
GHG emissions from vehicle production: no worse than typical vehicles in production today
All vehicles will be required to have a minimum set of features. Those features include but may not be limited to:
• Enclosed cabin (or convertible), with windshield and windows
• Windshield wipers and washers
• Seat belts and restraints
• Rear and side view mirrors
• Feedback mechanisms to provide essential data to the driver (speed, fuel remaining, range, etc.)
• Lamps, lighting, horn, indicators, brake lights and reflective devices consistent with safety regulations
Furthermore, the following features are required to accommodate AXP requirements for vehicle testing and monitoring:
Sufficient ground clearance, cooling and attachment points to facilitate dynamometer testing
Marmon flange for connection to emissions sampling equipment
A standard, AXP-supplied on-board data acquisition and telemetry package that captures and transmits at a minimum: fuel-flow (for liquid and gaseous fuels), amp-hours (for electrical fuels), GPS data (for location and speed)
MAINSTREAM CLASS REQUIREMENTS
Capacity: 4 or more passengers (95th percentile adult male) and 10 cubic feet of useful cargo space
Wheels: 4 or more wheels
Performance: 0-60 mph acceleration in less than 12 seconds, minimum top speed 100 mph, minimum range 200 miles, 60 - 0 MPH braking in no more than 170 feet, lateral acceleration (300-ft-dia skidpad) 0.70 g, 600 ft slalom (Motor Trend) speed 55 MPH, gradeability 55 MPH on a 7.5% grade, noise levels within drive-by standards (74 decibels max)
Features: Heater, air-conditioner, audio system, real-time eco-feedback display5
ALTERNATIVE CLASS REQUIREMENTS
Seating Capacity: 2 or more passengers seated side-by-side (95th percentile adult male) and 5 cubic feet of useful cargo space
Wheels: No minimum requirement
Performance: 0-60 mph acceleration in less than 12 seconds, minimum top speed 80 mph, minimum range 100 miles, 60 - 0 MPH braking in no more than 170 feet, lateral acceleration (300-ft-dia skidpad) 0.70 g, 600 ft slalom (Motor Trend) speed 55 MPH, gradeability 45 MPH on a 7.5% grade, noise levels within drive-by standards (74 decibels max)
Features: Real-time eco-feedback display
The AXP reserves the right to modify and expand these requirements while preserving their basic intent.
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As you can see most of the other teams will automatically be only able to compete in the highly competitive alternative class (Apteva and other 3 wheel cars) We will compete in the Mainstream. I anticipate the cars will most likely be hybrid drives and efficient fuel consuming technologies. I am eager to see if the compressed air vehicles will be able to compete in the mainstream, as I feel they have the best chance to be able to make a case for a wide spread re-fueling infrastructure.
95% Percentile man is a lil hard to determine.. but I think they mean that the car will have to be able to hold 4 215lbs men. I am assuming that the other specifications are with only 1 driver. these are very challenging goals, especially the accessories... We have solutions for all of these including a very lightweight electric air conditioner. Ideally we would like such a modular system that if a user wants an air conditioner, they would just install one in the summer time and take it out in the winter and replace it with a heater coil... we have several ideas about everything... but simplicity is our main goal. Unfortunately I feel that even with the best engineering and number crunching we will just not be able to totally determine the exact specifics of braking, acceleration, and handling until a prototype is made. I know the major car manufactures now mainly rely on computer models and crash testing that we will simply not be able to afford or design in time.
We have already thought up some very interesting ideas for replacing the electrical system of the car... one that we hope will leave the judges thinking "why didn't anyone else think of this?" All of which is current technology that everyone already understands. Once we get the green light from our legal guy that our original ideas are protected for this competition we will post a website where many of our ideas are will outlined and we will be asking for comments for each accessory and component.
BTW I love the idea of using hemp plastic since hemp is such an amazingly fibrous plant... but our concept would be taking different types of plastics that typically don't like to play and mix with each other and using them in the design. This isn't main stream technology yet because it has been too cost prohibitive due to the high research and development. All of the other American car manufactures have been looking and experimenting with this concept for years, but all but Ford have abandoned their research... probably due to poor sales.
Like I said about the aero dynamics earlier... we would like the car to be very aero dynamic to be able to get an edge over other vehicles on the actual course... but the technology we are planning on using.. which is a radically different type of regenerative braking... means that we will hopefully only be compensating for the loses due to friction, heat, and drag... The technology is scalable but we feel that one of the major reasons people don't work on their own cars is because they are dangerous to work on due to the cars weight mainly.