SYRACUSE – Sacrificing test driving time, the Wawasee High School Supermileage teams are trying innovative things on their cars this year. “We haven’t had enough time to test them this year. We’ve done a lot of inventive and new things this year. The gas car has so many inventive things on it, and then we get a fire today,” engineering and technology teacher Allen Coblentz said Tuesday afternoon. “I would say we’ll do all right. We have the potential to.” Coblentz, retired teacher and volunteer Larry Pletcher and 19 students started working on their Supermileage cars at the start of the school year. They will travel to Houston, Texas, April 4-7 for the Shell Eco-marathon Americas. Shell Eco-marathon Americas is a competition that brings together teams from across the Americas to battle for ultra-energy efficiency on the road, according to the website. Using their creativity and ingenuity, participants design and build futuristic vehicles that are then driven on the streets of downtown Houston. Wawasee is taking three cars again this year. At the 2012 Eco-marathon, Wawasee placed second with its electric car at 250 M/KwH; eighth with its gas vehicle at 933 mpg; and first with its diesel at 1,290 mpg. Senior Nick Rozow is the electric car captain. He said the electric car is only running on a hub motor, which allows more room for the driver to sit. It’s powered by a 48-volt lithium ion battery, the same type of battery found in a scooter. Junior Kevin Carpenter is the driver for the electric car. Rozow and Carpenter will be communicating during the race via hand-held radios. “We’re trying to figure out what to do. We’ll probably get up to 18 mph, then coast to 14 mph and try to do that as often as possible. We’ve been testing it, driving around the track and getting comfortable with it,” Carpenter said. Wawasee’s edge, he continued, will be “the new design and all the work we put into the motor and steering and stuff.” Carpenter said the car was pretty set. “We just have a few adjustments and attachments and we’re ready to go,” he noted. The Wawasee students have put a lot of sweat and blood, literally, into the cars. Carpenter said when he was reworking on the bearing casing, he cut his fingers and chest. He had to get 13 stitches. Pletcher said for the diesel car they are shooting for a four-minute mile. At The Eco-marathon, Pletcher said cars need to average at least 15 miles per hour. Junior Austin Yoder is driving the diesel car this year. “It’s definitely different,” he said. “The visibility is nothing compared to a car. If these were street legal, there would be a lot more crashes. You have to forget about comfortability of a regular car. You have to scrunch in. Other than that, it is a blast to drive.” Yoder said he only got in about two days worth of driving so far and needs the rest of the week for practice. “For a quarter mile, you have to start it up about three times and get it to speed and then shut it off,” Yoder said. To get the best mileage, most of the race is a matter of coasting. Since the diesel car has done so well the past two years at Houston, Yoder said there is some pressure to do well. “I think we can meet that same standard if I get practice in,” he stated. “It’s just fun hanging out with the guys. It’s definitely going to be a new experience and hopefully a memorable one.” Coblentz told his two classes Tuesday afternoon there were 140 cars registered this year for the Texas competition. “It’s the most they’ve ever had, so it’s a premium to get on the track. They only put 20 on the track at a time,” Coblentz said. Senior Dylan Cousins is the gas car captain. “The biggest thing we’ve done this year is we fuel-injected it. They’ve tried before but they couldn’t get it to run until this year. Like the electric car, we got a new body for it,” Cousins said. Senior Andria Millberg redesigned the car’s body, Cousins said. Jasper Plastics, Syracuse, helped with the molding and donated it. “We have the nicest cars just because of the quality of the molds, so we are very grateful,” Cousins said. This year, he said the goal is to exceed 1,500 mpg. “With the fuel-injection, that will definitely help over the traditional carburetor,” he said. “We’re not intimidated. We put a lot of good hard work in it. We got some good expert advice. I just hope it all pays off,” Cousins stated. Millberg is the only female in the class. She said she wanted to take the class this year because of the engineering aspect of it. “I want to be an architectural engineer so the engineering aspect of it has always been an interest of mine,” she said. In designing the new car body, she said they laid up a model. They took all sorts of dimensions off Yoder because he was the smallest guy in class. They also took dimensions off past cars. With the new body, Millberg said there’s less resistance in the air flow. “I’m really happy with it,” she said. “We had a few things that were difficult that we didn’t foresee, like the steering, so we had to modify that to make it comfortable for the driver.” Millberg concluded, “There’s a lot of engineering that goes into it. I didn’t understand how much, but there’s a lot of engineering that goes into it. I love it.” Coblentz said the car bodies are carbon fiber with sandwich core material on it to give it thickness, which in turn also gives it rigidity. “The process just makes everything extremely light,” he said. Wawasee is able to use the resin transfer method, also known as vacuum resin infusion, to create the carbon fiber. A mold is put into plastic, and then a vacuum pulls the air out of the plastic while a hose puts a two-part apoxy in over the mold. After the apoxy hardens, the end result is the really hard carbon fiber used for the cars’ bodies and wheel covers. “We’ve been doing it three to four years. Each year we learn bit by bit. We’re kind of self taught,” Coblentz said. “There’s stuff I’ve learned this year, which was really helpful. Putting everything in a vacuum presses your material so there’s no air gaps. That makes parts really strong with the compression. Also, the nice thing about this is everything is enclosed so you don’t have all the fumes.” Besides Jasper Plastics helping with the molds, Indiana Vac Form Inc. helped with the windshield. Rinkers helped with the car, as did Technical Services. Adventure Glass assisted with the mold work as well. “Those companies being involved was very helpful, not only in getting things done but also students learning to interact with people in the community,” Coblentz said. “In every job, you have to deal with people, so there’s some real value in that part of it.” Coblentz also said he appreciated Pletcher volunteering his time for so many years to help with the cars. “He’s great,” Coblentz confirmed.
