TdS Report #59: Teams That Dropped Out

TdS Report #59: Teams That Dropped Out

"Hybrid Challenger II" had to drop out of the Tour after the stop in Sandy
Point State park. Rob Wills told me that "Clarence Ellers is one of the grand
old men of electric vehicles, with a lot of interesting ideas. But he had a
lot of trouble with technical testing. His vehicle is like 12 years old. He
had some problems with contactors in the system that failed. He could not find
replacements. So he decided to pack up and head home. He tried really hard
but it was just too much."

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"Viking 23" had several occurances of broken parts during the Tour. Rob Will
said that Michael Seal, director of the Vehicle Research Institute of WWU,
"likes doing that in some ways. Their technology is always astounding. Did
you see the photographs of the engine their making with a carbon-fiber
composite crank case? They have joy with making things where every is of their
design. It's astounding work they do."

"They realized they had a few design flaws in the car, but they also said they
had never pushed it as hard as they did in this Tour de Sol or the Autocross.
That's the place to learn these things, rather than have something happen on
the road. What a great place for students to learn things!"

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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
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