TdS Report #58: Comments from the Awards

TdS Report #58: Comments from the Awards

NESEA Safety Award was awarded to the "DC Cruiser".
Gary Carr spoke to the teams as he presented the award.

"We want everyone to go home safe and happy.
I am going to remind you of a little yellow booklet that we start off with."
He held up a Technical Testing folder that includes all the sign-offs that the
teams must acquire before they are allowed to compete.
"This is very important to us.
Seth Murray and Mark Murray got their booklet signed off on the first try.
And I would like to read some of the things in this booklet:

Are all Energy Storage System (ESS) packs fused at
the most positive and most negative terminals?

Is the ESS located within the chassis or frame of the vehicle?

Is the ESS restrained by an insulated material?

Is the ESS enclosed within an insulated material to prevent accidental contact?

You could keep going down this list.

We give the NESEA Safety Award to a car that, yes, had an incident along the
way.
But because of the design of the car,
which was very well done,
and because they followed all the rules very nicely
there was no accidental spill of any materials,
the battery pack stayed intact,
the frame and structure absorbed the energy it supposed to,
and nobody was seriously injured in this incident."
Seth rubbed the back of this head, which had hit and broken the rear window
of the truck cab.
"Serious injury!
So, teams, next year when you come and attend the Tour,
these things do happen.
They put a lot of effort into their vehicle and that vehicle really saved them.

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Rob Wills, the Technical Director of the Tour de Sol,
had these comments as he handed the Most Innovative Vehicle Award to
AVS22 Hybrid-Electric Bus.
"There is little doubt in my mind that the AVS22 bus with the Capstone
micro-turbine is the most innovative technology in the Tour.
It's practical, it's fully integrated, it's running really well.
A big hand to the AVS team."

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As "Electric Blue" was given it's
award for "Prototype Hydrogen Category", Rob Wills said,
"We don't have a category for externally solar-charged vehicles.
This vehicle did 44 miles in the first two days of the Tour using their
charging station photovoltaic array. We want to acknowledge that really
great effort."

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The complete set of Tour de Sol Reports for 2002 can be found at:
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002
The complete set of past Tour de Sol Reports can be found at:
http://www.FovealSystems.com/Tour_de_Sol_Reports.html
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The above is Copyright 2002 by Michael H. Bianchi.
Permission to copy is granted provided the entire article is presented
without modification and this notice remains attached.
For other arrangements, contact me at +1-973-822-2024 .
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For more on the NESEA Tour de Sol, see the web page at
http://www.nesea.org
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Official NESEA Tour de Sol information is available from the sponsor,
the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) at
413 774-6051 , and 50 Miles Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 , and
[email protected] . All media enquiries should be addressed to ...
Jack Groh
Groh Associates
[email protected] email
401 732-1551 telephone
401 732-0547 fax
401 952-0886 cell/pager