Progressive Automotive X-Prize [Final] Round

[NeilBlanchard]

[Edit: the Finals are now under way -- and I am adding links to new pictures at the end of the thread!]

Okay, I am at the Michigan Speedway, as a volunteer member of the Edison2 team -- Oliver Kuttner made this generous offer and I was all too happy to accept. I have a fair number of pictures, which I am starting to upload. I arrived Sunday (which I calling Day 1, even though it was just setting up; and I'll be here through Friday! :-)

We have been very busy so far, prep and cleaning up loose ends -- two of the four Edison2 cars go in for technical inspection today, and two go in tomorrow. The first Edison2 Very Light Car tandem (#95 which was the one without wheel pods at the Shakedown) passed this morning and the first of the two mainstream cars was in the process. The weight of the #95 car was 702 pounds. I not sure how this is figured, but it will be required to carry 99 pounds of ballast weight.

I saw the Aptera for my first time in person, it looks very good "in real life". And I got to sit in the driver's seat -- there is almost too much leg room, and I fit well, though there is not a lot of "extra" head room. (I'm 6'-4"). For that matter -- obviously, this is the first time I have seen any of the vehicles: the Illuminati Seven, the FVT eVaro, the Twike, the X-Tracers, etc., etc. Pretty cool stuff all of it!

The cars that had not completed all the tests in the Shakedown were here earlier last week and they are taking runs on the (very large, high banked) oval track. Other events will happen on the road track.

Tomorrow (Tuesday the 22nd) will be more tech inspections, and the "biggie" economy runs that are the raison d'être are on Wednesday and Thursday! And actually there will also be economy runs on Friday, which is the Public Day, but that schedule has not been fully settled yet.

Pictures will come in a later post, because the wireless network is not too quick.

[Daox]

Awesome, post lots of pics!!!

[MetroMPG]

This is great, Neil. Front row seat for us!

[Patrick]

Great info Neil. I was watching on the live feed and it was very slow. If you get a chance to talk to the Progressive guys, could you ask them to see what they can do about speeding it up? The live data feed was still showing one car on mile 27 when it had already completed all 30 miles and the webcam was only running at about 5 frames per second. Overall it was great to see it all live, but would have been better if it were a little quicker. Thanks and have a great time!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Patrick

I was watching on the live feed ...

Live feed! I didn't know about that. Thanks for the heads up.

Here's the link: LIVE COMPETITION TRACKER | Progressive Automotive XPRIZE

For tomorrow:

Efficiency Test: Highway

The highway portion of the test is 90 miles (45 laps) at an average speed of 45 MPH with one (1) stop every 10 miles (5 laps).

Average speed of just 45 mph? They should be knocking out some pretty ridiculous numbers there. Even my car will get 70+ mpg (US) driving with load at those speeds in summer weather (rural driving, including stops).

And they only need to beat 67 mpg-e to avoid elimination!!! Wonder why the bar is set so low?

[MetroMPG]

Also: here's the full schedule of events for the week:

Competition Schedule | Progressive Automotive XPRIZE

[RobertSmalls]

The really hard test is the City one, with four complete stops per mile and an average of 22mph. To complete that one in time, you'd probably have to accelerate up to 45mph in a hurry, then immediately jump on the brakes.

Maybe I'll lay out a course in Buffalo that mimics the X-Prize courses, and see how the Insight does. But it's really hard to measure energy consumption when you don't have an Amp-hour meter.

By the way, how many Insight-based cars are there at the X-Prize?

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

And they only need to beat 67 mpg-e to avoid elimination!!! Wonder why the bar is set so low?

It's 2/3 of the ultimate goal. That gets them into the next round. They have to get at least 100 MPGe to win the prizes.

[NeilBlanchard]

First round of pictures from the first 2 days (Sunday and Monday) -- if you want to see more of anything in particular, just ask. My limiting factor is the slow upload speed of the wireless network, here in the motel.




















(more to come...)

[Patrick]

Neil, where is the Very Light Car's 10 cubic feet of "trunk" space? Will it have to tow the emissions testing equipment?