ACE Racing Team Looking for Sponsors
The Formula Hybrid competition is hotting up. Illinois Institute of Technology’s entry into the 2007 SAE Formula Hybrid competition, Team ACE (Armour College of Engineering) is stepping up its game and giving it 110% commitment. Even Valentine’s Day brought more commitment and ‘love’ for winning the competition.
The team is working on building two cars for the competition. Both cars have two different systems. One system is called a series hybrid. As the name implies, the system works with a gasoline-engine and electric generator-motor system in combination. Both the systems power the propulsion of the car. The second system is a parallel hybrid. This system works by being powered both by the electric motor and gasoline-ICE in parallel. Each car has one of the above mentioned systems. The first car is being built directly of the drawing board.
Well, as we are a tech school, we are better than a drawing board. Few of the team members were proficient in software called Pro-E. The chassis was designed and sent to the manufacturers to build professionally. The chassis of the car has been shipped to IIT from the manufacturer and it should be in the SAE Garage by this week. The mechanical team has to test the car for safety requirements that have been set up the international standards of Formula SAE. A test called Impact accentuation should be performed to test the car’s strength in the unlikely event of a crash. This is important to protect the racing driver in the car from any possible high impact collisions. In international racing arena, the safety standards set on the driver are extremely high, kind of like in the Formula SAE. In Formula 1, the pinnacle of motor sports, there are several impact tests done on only the nose cone of the car’s front section to determine if it can take an impact of a 250miles an hour crash. This is possible by making the car as breakable as possible. ‘Breakable?’ you ask. By ‘breakable’ it means the car absorbs the maximum impact by ‘crunching’ itself and dissipating the energy. When you see a Formula 1 car or Indy car crash into a wall, you will notice that it breaks itself down (spectacularly you might add.) This has the sole purpose of absorbing the impact and thus protecting the driver’s cockpit from high energy impact. Thus, the mechanical team is working on the testing of the body of the car.
The electrical team has been working on obtaining the correct batteries, transformers, converters and control units. Their main task is generating the power required for the electric motor to power the propulsion of the wheels. This power is supplied by the set of batteries which are part of the car. Next, they are also to control the flow of power from the batteries to the motor based on the velocity of the car, required acceleration and the power being supplied by the ICE. This will be implemented using a Digital Signal Processor.
Of course, the main aspect of this article is to highlight the fact that the team, team ACE is looking for major sponsors. They have developed a sponsorship drive which aims to reach out to sponsors and request generous donations for the car-building and competition. In return, each of the sponsors will get tons of publicity and advertisements on the team’s car(s). Also, the drive who will be wearing a racing suit will have sponsors’ logo on the suit and helmet. This kind of sponsorship is usually also followed in the real racing circuits like NASCAR, Formula 1, etc. If you know someone who would like to sponsor an amount of money, anywhere from 1000 dollars, to over 25000 dollars, you can ask them to contact the team leader Sanj Wirasingha or Abhishek Gundugurti. Look for details on http://formulahybrid.iit.edu
There will be regular updates and advertisements in TechNews on the Formula Hybrid competition and TEAM ACE’s progress.
