Car may be stalled even before start

After finishing 26th two years ago, there is much room for improvement. In 1990, 22 mechanical engineering students and 38 electrical engineering students, led by Electrical Engineering Professor Martin Wolf, designed and built a solar-powered car and then raced it from Epcot Center to Detroit in ten days. In 1993, Wolf said he hopes to race an improved version of the car from Texas to Minnesota, but waning students interest has made the immediate future of the project very bleak. In April of 1989, the University submitted one of 32 proposals chosen by the General Motors Corporation from a pool of more than 60 to particpate in a cross-country race, scheduled for the following July. GM gave each team $5000 and the U.S. Department of Energy gave each team $2000 as kick-off funding, leaving the rest of the fundraising to each team. The University's car cost approximately $125,000. After working all year on the design and construction of the car, and actually finishing construction in Florida just days before the race, the team had little time to test the car for bugs or to train drivers effectively. This proved to be the beginning of the end. The morning of the first day, during the two and one half mile drive from the team's hotel to Epcot, an inexperienced driver lost control, hit a curb, and damaged the frame of the car. The team spent the entire day repairing the car while the other teams took off for Detroit. Racing from nine each morning until six-thirty each night at an average speed of 25 to 30 miles per hour, it took the team about ten days to reach Detroit. After the initial experience, Wolf said he feels he now knows what the students need to do to improve their chances in the next race. Engineering School senior Parris Wellman, a mechanical engineering student, is less optimistic about the future of the project. Currently, only between 12 and 15 students have expressed some interest in the project, and unless Wellman can get at least nine others besides himself to commit, the car will be impossible to complete and the project will have to end for this year. Wellman and Wolf's original goal was to race the vehicle in May, but for now, that will be impossible. If their proposal is accepted by GM this year, they hope they can participate in the 1993 race. But as of now, the prospect of that also appears faint. Wolf said that because the basic car is already built, this year's team would be able to spend the year working out the kinks and "de-bugging" the vehicle. Wellman and Wolf last semester formed the Solar Race Car Club in order to bring students from all four undergraduate schools together to work on the project and to add an element of continuity to the project. Theoretically, Wharton students would be involved in the fundraising end of the project, and Wolf would gather other students to look at environmental and safety concerns, examine the legal liabilty of the University, and help with organization and manangement. He would also bring in art students to design banners and T-shirts to publicize the project. The club now has between five and ten active members, and will remain intact even if there is not enough interest to go ahead with the project this year. Wellman said they will attempt to gather enough interest for future years. Wellman said that he feels the project is a good way to practically apply the theory that engineering students learn in class.

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