Student-Built Future Car Makes Pit Stop in Chicago This Friday; Mayor's Office Gets Preview of Next-Generation Automotive Technologies
17 July 1997
Student-Built Future Car Makes Pit Stop in Chicago This Friday; Mayor's Office Gets Preview of Next-Generation Automotive Technologies
CHICAGO, July 16 -- Coast-to-coast on 50 bucks (in gas) and
three electric charges. That's the goal set by students from the University
of California Davis this week as they roll through Chicago Friday morning with
a new twist on the concept of road-tripping.
"AfterShock," a hybrid electric vehicle developed by a team of UC/Davis
engineering students, is scheduled to stop in Chicago at 10 a.m. on Friday,
July 18, at the Thompson Center Plaza. There, members of the group dubbed
"Team Fate" plan to discuss their design philosophy and give Chicago
Environmental Commissioner Henry Henderson a brief "loop" around the city.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is also tentatively scheduled to attend.
After touring the Chicago loop, "AfterShock" heads down I-55 to Argonne
National Laboratory for electrical recharging and to be on display to
employees. Argonne is the country's lead laboratory organizing advanced
vehicle technology competitions for government and industry.
Chicago is one of two scheduled stops en route to Washington, D.C.
Earlier this week the students left the Davis, Calif., campus and visited
Denver, Colo., to showcase their winning design. In Washington, the students
will visit with Vice President Al Gore, who has challenged U.S. automakers to
develop more energy-efficient vehicles.
The students of Team Fate are winners of the 1997 FutureCar Challenge --
the second of a multi-year collegiate competition to build a midsize passenger
car with up to three times the fuel efficiency offered today. AfterShock is a
parallel hybrid-electric vehicle which combines the best of both electric and
gasoline power systems.
The FutureCar Challenge
In June, 12 of North American's top engineering schools competed in the
1997 FutureCar Challenge at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren,
Mich. The overall goal of the competition was to push the fuel efficiency of
a midsize American family car to the limit by using a variety of advanced
automotive technologies. To better mirror the challenges facing professional
auto engineers, however, the competition also required that the student-
designed cars meet the safety, consumer acceptability, low emissions,
performance and affordability standards found in today's production vehicles.
The FutureCar Challenge is sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) and the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) --
a research venture of Chrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corp.
The goals of the Challenge parallel those of Partnership for a New Generation
of Vehicles (PNGV), a cooperative research and development program between the
federal government and USCAR.
Program administrative support for the FutureCar Challenge is provided by
Argonne National Laboratory and the American Society for Engineering
Education.
The UC/Davis team rode to victory by transforming a 1996 Ford Taurus into
a reformulated gasoline- and electric-powered hybrid. This strategy not only
earned the team top marks for developing the most energy-efficient vehicle,
but also garnered UC/Davis first place for both application of advanced
materials and advanced technology.
UC/Davis' computer-controlled strategy allows an electric motor to provide
driving power below 10 mph, at very high speeds and during hard accelerations.
The reformulated gasoline engine provides power at cruising speeds. Based on
industry standard automotive testing, AfterShock reached an overall fuel
economy of 49.14 mpg (41.72 city/62.8 highway).
According to Professor Andrew Frank, UC/Davis faculty consultant to Team
Fate, AfterShock is built with fewer moving parts than a Model T, and the
student-designed propulsion system weighs less than the drivetrain it
replaced.
Illinois was represented in this year's FutureCar Challenge by The
University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC). The UIC team used an oxygen-
enrichment membrane developed by Chicago-based Argonne National Laboratory to
help improve engine combustion and reduce hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.
Next year, the University of Illinois at Champaign joins the field of
competitors.
"The goal of the FutureCar Challenge is to give tomorrow's engineers
first-hand experience with the technical challenges facing the next generation
of vehicles," said Bob Larsen, competition director of the FutureCar Challenge
and staff member of the Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory.
"The designs created by UC/Davis, UIC and other schools could well serve
as the prototypes for the vehicles we'll see on our nation's highways in the
future," Larsen said.
Additional support for the competition comes from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, Natural Resources Canada,
Detroit Edison, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, and AlliedSignal.
With more than 200 different research programs in basic and applied
science, Argonne is one of the nation's largest federally funded scientific
laboratories. Argonne is an affiliate of the University of Chicago, which
oversees operation of the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.
SOURCE Argonne National Laboratory
