The University of Waterloo Formula Hybrid team traveled to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway last month to participate in the Formula Hybrid International Competition. This competition, regarded as the most challenging of the various competitions the Society of Automotive Engineers Collegiate Design Series holds, has students “collaboratively design and build a formula-style electric or plug-in hybrid racecar and compete in a series of events.” There are three car categories: Hybrid in Process, Electric Drive, and Hybrid Drive, the class in which the Waterloo team participated.
When Waterloo Hybrid left for New Hampshire, they brought with them the product of thousands of person-hours, months of intense design and fabrication, and a lot of technical skill: their submission to the competition, a single-seater hybrid/electric car. Equipped with a 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250 gas engine and a PMG 132 electric motor, the car has the ability to operate as either a hybrid or pure-electric vehicle. Its makers hoped that their machine would have what it took to compete.
And compete it did. The Waterloo Hybrid car beat out 26 teams to take first place in the overall competition, being the only car capable of completing the autocross event (an evaluation of each car’s maneuverability and handling qualities) as well as setting a new endurance record for the competition—an impressive 33 laps around the track. Other categories of scoring included presentation and design.
While excited by their success with the current design, the team is already looking forward to the next competition. On their website, Team Lead Rishi Chatterjee says that “the focus for 2016 will be design and implementation of state-of-the-art systems such as hub motors, a new motor controller, more batteries, and less fuel.” It would seem that the Waterloo Hybrid is not satisfied with just being great; they need to be better than before as well.
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