Just a few days ago, the newest and best hope in American solar car racing improbably rested atop four laundry baskets.
Quantum, the newest creation of the University of Michigan’s solar car team, was designed for the World Solar Challenge in October. If it wins that event, in Australia, it would be the first victory for an American entry since General Motors’ Sunraycer in 1987.
But Quantum would go nowhere until its 16-inch aluminum wheels were delivered to the Wilson Student Team Project Center on the university’s north campus. So for the time being, the laundry baskets, flipped upside down and reinforced with bright yellow tape, supported its carbon-fiber chassis. The structure weighed just 52 pounds even when outfitted with suspension components, disc brakes and custom-made rack-and-pinion steering gear.
“I’m really pleased to hear that they’ve gone back to pushing the weight down to the minimum,” said Robert P. Larsen, an early proponent of solar car competitions who is a senior technical adviser at the Center for Transportation Research of the Argonne National Laboratory. “The U. of M. cars always had the reputation for being very well done, and they also brought a lot of resources to the table that other teams never had. But they tended to be on the massive side.”
“The name Quantum is appropriate because it makes you think of something very small and precise, and that’s what we had to do to be the best in the world,” said the project manager, Rachel Kramer, a junior neuroscience major from Ludington, Mich. “We have to refine and optimize every single system on the car.”
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