SunStang Solar Car Project

Scrutineering

2007-10-18T17:46:00.000-04:00

Thursday, the team headed over to the Darwin Showgrounds for the first set of scrutineering activities. Scrutineers check the car to ensure it meets all rules and safety standards. There are several stations that the car must pass through before being issued a permit to drive in the race.

Stations:
Body And Sizing- At this stop, the car is measured and weighed. The vehicle must be less than 5 m long and 1.8m wide. There is no weight limit on the cars, but in a race where efficiency is important, the lighter the car the better. Our car came in just shy of 5m long, and 1.705m wide with a weight of 250kg.

Driver- This station tests the driver eye height and ingress/egress maneuvers. Each driver must be able to enter the vehicle unattended in 15 seconds, and then egress from the vehicle in 15 seconds. Our drivers did exceptionally well with all of them completing this test with time to spare.

On Road- On road scrutineering ensures that the vehicle has the safety features necessary for road travel. This includes signal lights, head lights/daytime lights, brake lights, reverse, tow hooks,and horn. We had a fuse blow just before scrutineering and due to that, we had to reprogram some of the control nodes in the car. Unfortunately, due to a shortage of time, our brake lights and reverse couldn't be reprogrammed. However the signal lights, amber flashers, head lights all worked well. Our horn woke everyone up in the scrutineering hall. We left our tow hook hardware behind in Canada and so I rigged up something quickly this morning. The rear tow hooks are fine, however the front need to be moved further forward. It seems like a silly rule to most of the teams but we must do as they say. I have a 5 minute solution and a 2 hour solution to the problem. I'll let you know which way I go :).

Mechanical: The car was given a shake down by Transportation Ministry representatives. They checked every nut and bolt and made sure they were on nice and snug. Their main concern is safety and hence were focused on the steering and suspension points and linkages. After some discussions, they were satisfied by our design methodology and implementation and moved us along to the next station.

Electrical: Similar to the mechanical station, electrical scrutineering is focused on the safety of the car. They want to ensure the systems are well layed out and wired to minimize accidents from shorting. They were especially pleased with the layout of the car and the battery pack isolation. The battery pack is completely self isolated hence, all the control relays and fuses are within the pack. This ensures that if there is a short circuit in the pack, the pack will disconnect itself from the car and save the rest of the sensitive vehicle electronics.

Battery: The battery scrutineers ensure that we have not exceeded our battery weight limit and that we came to competition with what we said we would :). Some teams seemed to be stuck here for nearly and hour. Our battery pack layout was very easy to follow. We were once again pleased to hear that they liked our battery pack design. The scrutineers added security tabs to keep people from tampering with cells and replacing them without approval.

Support Vehicles/Safety Plan: This station checks all the support vehicles for compliance. The support vehicles must have proper signage and communications available. Also, the on road safety equipment is checked. We passed this test after replacing some batteries in our radio and fixing our flashing amber light on the top of the car.

All in all the process went well. We still have to fix the tow hooks, reverse, and brake lights. We can have those checked right before qualifying on Saturday morning.

And we're Rolling!!

2007-10-17T05:22:00.000-04:00

Today has been the first good day for us in a while. After much modification, we were finally able to get a full day of useful track testing in at Hidden Valley Speedway here in Darwin. After Tom preparred an on-the-fly telemetry system using our old Fluke Hydra data logger and a couple of very impressive wireless modems, we finally have reliable data to work with from our power system.

We have most recently been having difficulties with our motor controller and it's apparent difficulties with driving enough current from a stand still to generate enough torque to accelerate. That being said, aside from a few minor modifications to suspension linkage by Imran, the car has been running well today. Joe posted our fastest lap of the day @ 2m 56s on the 2.9 km circuit.

The array has been delivering a reliable 800 W on a mostly cloudy day, and power was not a problem for us today. Power will likely be a sticky issue once we set out on the race this Sunday (scrutineering and qualifying aside), as we expect fairly consitent cloud cover while in the Northern Territory, and >100 km stretches of highway where the smoke from brush/forest fires will obscure the skyline. Telemetry and strategy will play a very important role if we are to successfully complete this challenge.

As a result of the days' "successes", the team's morale is improving somewhat. Tension is still high and growing taller by the day as we approach our scrutineering appointment Thursday afternoon at Darwin Fairgrounds, and with qualifying and the race looming on the horizon. We hope to get in a solid afternoon of track testing Thursday, and arrange for temporary vehicle certification so we can get in some highway testing Friday Morning out on the Arnhem Highway [SE] of town.

We are hoping our friends at Elmo Motion Control can provide us some assistance in improving our acceleration to acceptable levels. Otherwise the overly generous Belgian Team, Umicore, has offered us their old motor controller to make the full 3000 km trip. This generous spirit speaks volumes to the nature of this event, and is an example of the sportsmanship most of the teams share with each other. I am proud to have the opportunity to work alongside so many great teams.

Umicore, Michigan, Aurora and Nuna were all on form yesterday at the track, as they all posted splits down in low 2:10s, apparently effortlessly. I was watching ( albeit briefly) from Pit road with admiration.

On the Canuck front, we are sharing a 2 door pit garage with Queens, and Calgary and Montreal are only 2 doors down. U of T is just a short walk away and Waterloo arrived today to round out the squad. It just goes to show that no matter how far you travel, you might as well be stuck in gridlock on the 401 ;).

I will try to post as often as possible leading into the race start this Sunday, October 21st, but reality/scheduling may get the better of me. Failing that, for the "official" word stay tuned to WWW.WSC.ORG.AU and WWW.SUNSTANG.CA. Pictures/video will follow... I promise!

Cheers from the land where rain falls up, they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people!!

Working Away

2007-10-10T08:08:00.000-04:00

Most of the team has arrived and have been tirelessly working away at the car. Overall, the car is complete but there are many little things that need to be fine tuned until we can consider ourselves race ready. We will be driving the car over the next few days and collecting some telemetry data so to develop a strategy plan for the race.

Race strategy will be extremely critical to the success of any team at the Panasonic World Solar Challenge this year. The cloud cover and forest fires will keep essential sunlight from reaching the car. Each team will have to manage their power to optimize speed based on the weather conditions. Fore example, a poor strategy may result in a team using up too much power early, without saving enough for cloudy periods later in the day. I'm working out some different scenarios and hopefully we will have an answer to all the weather mother nature has to offer.

Imran

Pictures

2007-10-08T02:47:00.001-04:00

Sydney Harbour (both shots taken at the same time but some adjustments with the camera)

Sydney Harbour Bridge
Just outside of Port Augusta at around 7am. The view was absolutely amazing.

On top of a high plateau coming near Glendambo Road House
This was the most expensive fill up on our trip at the old Wycleff Well, the UFO capital of Australia. The prices were out of this world.....
Controlled burns on the side of the road. There is a high risk of forest fires all throughout Austrlia. We saw several of these fires during our trip and hundreds of km's of burnt land along the way.

In Darwin:

2007-10-08T02:11:00.000-04:00

Well, we've made it to Darwin. Jim and I travelled 1500 kms Sunday and arrived at ~10pm. We're both tired but excited to finally get on to the business of racing a solar car.

The beta team is on route in Sydney and will be arriving in Darwin later tonight. We dropped by the hidden valley raceway to check out our pit areas (We're in pit 16, so feel free to drop by and say hello :). Umicar (from Belgium) and Stanford have both arrived at the race track. Nuna is somewhere in town. I'm sure there are others who are working away in their secret Australian headquarters. Peter Drescher is coordinating the teams once again in Darwin. We spent some time catching up and talked about our adventures in 2005 with the old motor. Peter was a huge help in us securing a spare motor for that race and provided us with valuable advice about surviving the outback.

And for all those who want pictures, a bunch of my photos did not turn out well in Sydney (wrong camera settings I suppose). Below are some pictures we took along our travel up the Stuart Highway.

Cheers,
Imran

Somewhere in the middle of Nowhere

2007-10-06T07:46:00.000-04:00

Imran and I have made it to Alice Springs, the unofficial half way point on our truck trip from Adelaide to the start line in Darwin. We have been cruising steadily at 110, logging >1200 km today, and have arrived in Alice Springs in need of a quick night stop before setting out on the next leg. I saw my first 2 non-roadkill kangaroos today, and 3 Lizardy looking things on the Stuart Highway. The heat in the outback is finally living up to all the Hype ;).

The stress of sweating all the details that were left to be sorted, and those we thought had already been dealt with, is taking it's tole. We are very much looking forward to arriving in Darwin, so we can do it all again, but backwards.

There will be further updates to come, Monday night.

Cheers,

Jim

Into the Outback

2007-10-05T07:51:00.000-04:00

Jim and I covered nearly 1000 kms today through NSW, Victoria and Southern Australia, ending in Port Augusta. Port Augusta is the last stop before the barren outback lands. There is very little between here and Alice Springs other than desert and a few gas stations and a mining town. This is the most remote driving we will do so i'm somewhat anxious before heading out. We're just packing extra food, and water containers in the truck to ensure that if we do get stuck somewhere, we have enough gear to keep us going until help arrives. There is some road traffic, but it can be far and few between.

Hopefully I'll be able to write from Alice Springs, but there is a good chance we won't have Internet access there. At the latest, someone will post messages Sunday night (EST) or Monday morning (EST).

Imran

Road Trip

2007-10-03T13:49:00.000-04:00

Jim and I are rolling out this morning (5am or so) towards the outback. Our trip will take us through Adelaide and then up to Darwin. Even though this is my second such trucking trip, I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing. It's a long way to go, and to assume there will be no vehicle troubles would be wishful thinking. It is very remote out there, and as much as you think you've planned out the journey, anything can happen.

I've decided to take the long route there as it is somewhat more "familiar" to me. The route will follow the official race course during our stretch through Adelaide to Darwin. Today we hope to make 1100-1200 kms reaching Mildura outside of Adelaide. We'll drive into Adelaide on Friday and end our drive somewhat early in Port Augusta 3 hours north on the Stuart Hwy. Our next stop will be Alice springs on Saturday, and Hopefully Katherine by Sunday night arriving in Darwin by noon Monday. That's the plan. I hope to be in touch from the road, but there are no guarantees that we'll have online access.

We have a team phone number that will work sporadically through the outback until we hit Darwin. Feel free to contact us at 011 61 (0)4 15756913. This net kiosk won't let me upload pictures so you'll have to wait a few more days :). I hope the suspense is killing you all :).

Cheers
Imran

We've Arrived, and so has the car

2007-10-01T21:00:00.000-04:00

So good news, the car got to sydney earlier than expected (relatively speaking). Jochem at Airlift is having it transported out to his warehouse for customs clearance and quarantine inspection. So far, so good, and things seem to be on track after some leg work to get all the documents in order.

Quarantine is the biggest concern. Australia is pretty tight when it comes to goods being imported. Foreign Florae and Fauna are restricted into the country due to the impact it may have to the ecosystem (Simpsons fans think Bull frogs/Chuzwuzzers). They need to insure that there is minimal dirt on the car that may contaminate local areas.

The flight from Tokyo to Sydney was awesome. 3 seats for 2 of us meant lots of room. Food was decent and we got plenty of rest. Right now, we're heading over to the truck rental place to inspect the truck to ensure it will be wide enough for us to use for the crate. We'll run some errands and maybe spend some time in the city.

Need to go clean up and will write soon.
Feel free to contact me on my Canadian cell phone number while i track down a local cell phone.

G'day Mate

Imran

In transit....

2007-10-01T06:19:00.000-04:00

Jim And Imran writing to you from Narita International Airport in Japan. We're killing time waiting for our next flight. So far, we've been in transit for... (asking jim for time update........ 22 hours...... and we have atleast another 10-12 hours to go. The flight here was ok, although it was a bit tight on space.

Nothing to update on yet. We're both excited to be nearing the end of our journey and getting to the business of solar car racing.

Jim is presently standing unconcious so i think thats a cue for us to get on to waiting for an airplane. He wishes he understood japanese so we can understand the announcements and the crazy japanese tv shows.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.

Imran/Jim

Alpha Team Launch 2007 Style

2007-09-30T00:32:00.000-04:00

Well, it happened again! I'm in the middle of my second, once in a lifetime opportunity. Jim Eckert and I are heading out to Sydney via a few stops along the way at 8am Sunday. We should arrive in Sydney Tuesday morning via Chicago and Tokyo.

Things are looking good for SunStang 2007. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the team is working on all cylinders and has made great strides leading into unveiling and shipping this past week. I'll post some pics later on that. The team is preparing to race starting October 21st in Darwin, and ending 3010 kms later in Adelaide by October 28th.

Accolades:
This 2007 team is comprised of some key members who worked very hard through out the summer to get us where we are. Pranay and Dan are our managers and have worked tirelessly on the electrical systems, fundraising and logistics. They have been at it all day and night making sure we get to where we need to go! Jim is the other senior returning team member other than myself. He was instrumental in the construction of all the major mechanical systems as well as the development of the battery pack. Joe and Mig , Mike Auer have also lent their hand in the development of mechanical and electrical systems, with Mig providing design skills, Mike working on the high power electrical systems and Joe doing everything asked of him to get the car build. They all put their blood sweat in tears in to the labour intensive building of the car. Tony has done some amazing work of late, landing us some critical sponsorship and media attention over the last several weeks.

Greg W, Dave L, Mark C Mike H Laura D, Anita R, and many others have been significant help through out the last 12 months.

Thank You
Above and beyond the team members, we've once again received amazing support from staff, faculty, alumni and industry sponsors. They all have played integral roles in moving us forward. I have to personally thank all the guys at UMS who have gone above and beyond to help us out over the last few years. Chris Vandelaar and Kevin Barker helped us develop some of our most important systems. Chris developed the housing for our new in-wheel CSIRO motor. He spent countless hours on his own designing and manufacturing the parts. Kevin helped with manufacturing our composite chassis. He methodically wrapped our panels and got them in the oven for curing several times a week! With out their help, the car would be a shell of itself (no pun intended :) ). Also, I have to thank everyone else at UMS especially Bob, Clayton, and Peter for their patience and assistance on those last minute rush requests for help!

Ray Williamson and his crew up in purchasing once again pushed us through the hump of getting the car shipped. There is just so much involved in getting a car this big all the way over there in Australia. His expertise saved us days of grief and allowed us to get the car out just in the nick of time. Lonnie and everyone at engineering stores have always been huge supporters of our team. If there is a financial issue to deal with, they are all over it and quickly solve our problems getting us on our way.

Sponsors
None of this could have been possible without our amazing sponsors. They have provided us with cash and gifts in kind. Jack Cowin of Hungry Jack's is once again are our single biggest supporter. His support has single handily allowed Sunstang teams since 1993 to compete at the World Solar Challenge in Australia.

This year, we've had several major sub system sponsors. Alex of Elmo Motion Control provided us with state of the art motor controllers, with amazing capabilities in a compact package. Andrew at Solon AG hooked us up with an awesome SunPower array. The array will give us nearly 1.2Kw of power through 400+ 20.5% efficient solar cells.

We need to especially thanks Western for their generous support. The great inter university support has boosted morale and has excited everyone on the potential threat this SunStang team will pose. Support from Western Engineering, and the Presidents office (VP Research and Academic) have been the key to getting us to Australia this year.

We have many more sponsors to thank and will do so over the course of this blog. There is much more to come and I hope to hear from you all soon through commenting on the blog. I leave in 3 hours so i better get ready. We will continue on from here in a few days!

Cheers from Mississauga (on route to the airport!).

Imran

SunStang 2007 COMING SOON!

2007-05-14T23:12:00.001-04:00

Picture time!

2005-10-08T02:23:00.000-04:00

Imran has pretty much summed up most of the race details. There are a few things that I wanted to add to that:

A very special thanks to all the other teams that went out of their way to help us out. Specifically, thank you to MIT for loaning us a motor and controller. These guys are amazing. They rolled their car during qualifying, lost close to 50% of their solar array, and still managed to finish around 6th. I'd also like to thank Michigan for loaning us a motor for the race. They really came through in the end and really helped us out. Thanks to Waterloo for shipping us their spare motor from Canada. It didn't make it here in time, but we're still eternally grateful for the gesture. Finally, thanks to the Belgian team Umicore. They loaned us one of their spare motor controllers, which they had on loan from another team! Now that's trust!

I'd also like to thank everyone on the SunStang race team. It was a long hard battle, but they all pulled through in the end. Thanks go out to Brian Coulter, Saleh Osman, Rory McIntyre, and Chris Lohnes. A special thanks to Imran Atcha. He sacrificed more than anyone else, more than anyone should have, to get us to this race. Thanks Imran! A big thank you to Ken McLean, and Scott Cameron for joining us for the race. Their help during the race, and the rest of the time they were with us was amazing. We really could not have done the race without you guys! Finally, a big thanks to Dave Reed and Greg Iakovidis. They took the time off work to come join us for our journey, and helped us get to the finish line.

I'm sure I missed some people from that list... if so, please post in the comments, and I'll make some amendments.

Now onto the pictures!!

SunStang testing at Hidden Valley in Darwin. It was during one of these hot laps that we lost our motor. Amazingly, we were able to repair it. It was still a bit rough, though, so we still preferred to run on Michigan's motor for the race.

The damaged motor in all its glory. Note the missing magnets, and the scratched up coils.

The repaired coils, after a bit of "artistic" modification ;).

The car leaving the starting line in Darwin.

Charging at the side of the road.Doing some repairs, and running through checklists, during a beautiful sunrise.

Charging during a (mostly) sunny afternoon.

A quick road-side tire change. That's me under there acting as the human jack stand. And no, we are not in the middle of the road... this is a paved rest area (which was quite rare in the outback).

Just to prove that we actually did make it onto the road, here's a picture of us cruisin'.

An early morning Hungry Jack's breakfast in Port Augusta. Look at Rory devouring that Aussie Burger!

Our poor poor canopy after flying off, the solar car, and being crushed by the chase vehicle.

The finish line! Thanks Imran for giving me drivers seat for the final moment!

Imran, Rory and me in the fountain in Victoria Square in Adelaide. It's tradition that all drivers get dunked in the water after the race. C-c-c-cold!

That's enough pictures for now. I'll post more tomorrow. I may still be on Australia time, but 3:30 am is still pretty late!

SunStang Race info Day 6 till finish

2005-10-08T00:13:00.000-04:00

So sorry for not posting earlier. I spent the last week in transit from Adelaide to Sydney and then in the air to Toronto. Yes, that's right, I'm back at home and taking a break!!! :) I hope there are others still reading this blog!!! :)

So here is the rest of the story of what happened day by day:

Day 6:
So like I mentioned, we made it near Cadney homestead the previous day, driving at nearly 70 km/h for the whole time. However, the celebration was short lived when we discovered that our battery pack capacity was well below what was expected. We were at less than 20% capacity. The great thing about lithium batteries is that they have loads of capacity. However, the problem is that it's difficult to find out how much capacity has been used until it's too late. This is what happened to us. We noticed that the battery pack voltage was suddenly dropping quickly which was a sign of a failing battery pack.

All the hard driving over the last few days was the result of this. We had to make the tough decision to spend the rest of day 6 after reaching Cadney to charge the battery pack. This essentially put us further back and forced us to have to trailer the next stage of the race.

Day 7: We decided to trailer to Glendambo road house in the morning. With a nearly full battery pack, we went ALL OUT! The Glendambo to Port Augusta stage has some SERIOUS downhill stretches! It was a real thrill going down hill at 85 km/h!!! I slowed down on a few hills to maintain safe braking distances for the solar car. We covered 250 Km in 3.5 hours and made it just short of Port Augusta.

Day 8: The last day of racing of the 2005 World Solar Challenge! We made it into Port Augusta at 9 am. We had the trailer team go ahead and prepare our Hungry Jack's meals for our checkpoint stop! As Rory would probably say "there's nothing like an Aussie Burger for breakfast". We had lots of fun with the checkpoint staff. We even shared some of our meals with them! :)

Rory was driving for most of the day. We were about 200 km out of Adelaide when our canopy latch became loose. The roads were very rough for that period and so due to the vibrations, the latch finally came off! :( Combined with the large cross winds, the canopy came right off. Luckily, with our roll cage design, the canopy was able to fly over the driver, ensuring that the driver was not at risk. Rory did an amazing job at keeping control and pulling over safely.

At this stage, the team could have driven without it. However, our of safety for the driver from possible debris coming up off the road, I suggested to the team to pack it in. Everyone was onboard and I'm glad that we made the decision as a team to finish our driving at that time. We still made it to the finish line during race hours which allowed us to officially finish the race!

All the blood sweat and tears from the last two years finally came to an end at that moment. The team all signed the mangled canopy as a symbol of what this project was all about. Never give up was our attitude and we followed through with it right till the end. Not a single one of us are upset by our finish. Not many people thought we would have developed a car, let alone race it. Nobody ever imagined that we could have driven in the race, let alone complete it, driving over 2000 km on our solar power. This is an amazing accomplishment on all of the team members! We Made it!!!!

We could not have made it this far with the support of our sponsors. The support-material, monetary and technical service- were all instrumental in making sure we competed. We obviously would like to thank Jack Cowin and Hungry Jack's for ensuring we made it to the race. His support for all of the SunStang WSC teams were the only reason why we have been able to compete at this world class event.

Support from the local companies have also been amazing. UGS PLM solutions provided us with their state of the art Unigraphics NX CAD/CAM/CAE software as well as cash. With the use of UG NX, the team was able to develop the car in the same software as some of the largest engineering firms from across the world. Not only was this an advantage for SunStang, but it was an amazing chance for students to learn the skills necessary in a real engineering environment. These designers are using programs that they wouldn't have a chance to use until after they graduate. This head start will ensure our team members will have excellent opportunities in their future endeavors.

Meridian Magnesium has continually provided monetary and technical assistance to the team. They have been our largest monetary sponsor from the London Area. JMP engineering , General Dynamics, and Tesma International have all supported us with funds as well.

From all of this, I would hope a for a few things for SunStang. The blood, sweat and tears from the last few years has been hard on all of us, and very few have been able to maintain the rigorous duties needed to keep the project going. I hope that the success from this race will lead SunStang to a sustainable future, where the team can focus on the important duties of designing and manufacturing a safe and reliable world class vehicle, instead of working on the side 'projects' that we have come to get accustomed to which has eaten up valuable weeks, and months over the last year. I hope with our success in garnering significant media attention, the team will now be able to have people come to them to support SunStang, instead of having to reach out for everything! This in-turn will ensure that SunStang will always be in the public eye, and hence make things easier for the future leaders of this amazing project. By no means do I think this will be easy. However, the hard work by the teams from 2001 till present have ensured that SunStang is back and that people are watching!! Thanks must be given to Ben Esposito, Garrett Cole, Doug Binkley, Fallon Reid, Jessica Rodriguez, Tom Gwozdz Taha Amiralli, Ray Julien and all the others from the 2003 and 2004 race teams. The countless sacrifices( academic, family, monetary) made by these team members to race at those races made it possible for our 2005 team to have the will and confidence to compete at the World Solar Challenge.

Well I believe that is all from me! Tom will have more to add I believe and the others on the team as well. Plus, pictures should be updated soon as well!!!

Cheers, and G'day Mate!

Imran

Finish Line

2005-10-02T20:05:00.000-04:00

Hey all!

We made it! That's right, SunStang 2005 crossed the finish line at 3:23 pm on the eighth day of the race. It has been an absolutely amazing adventure for all of us! We covered over 2000 km on just the power of the sun! The team worked hard for the last week, camping out under the stars- covered in flies- but we hung in there and stayed optimistic right till the end. The resilience, the "never give up" attitude that our team is known for showed through out the race.

At this time, we still don't know our official standings in the race. However, no matter what, not a single one of us here really are worried about that. We knew going into it that things were going to be an up hill battle for us.

September 22: Scrutineering:
This was an interesting day for us! We spent most of the previous night trying to get the loose ends tied up on the car. However, we had suffered a blown motor during a practice hot lap for qualifying. While coming out of turn 5 on the Hidden Valley Raceway Circuit, I came around hard at about 65 km/h. Just as I was accelerating out of the turn, the motor seized and we pulled the car over safely. One of the magnets on the motor came loose (a common problem with Older NGM motors).

What always amazes me about solar car raycing is the sportsmanship between teams. Within hours of our blown motor, we had a spare motor and controller loaned to us by MIT for qualifying, a motor loaned to us for the race from University of Michigan, and another motor in the air headed for us from the University Of Waterloo! Now this is the stuff that excites me. Working with the other teams, getting to know the way they work and how they solve problems, and the lasting friendships made from these events will always be the highlight of the event for me.

So on to scrutineering! Scrutineering involves the car passing through various inspection stations; body and sizing, array, safety (egress), on road (mechanical), electrical, and support vehicle inspection. The team did a phenomenal job with improving the driver compartment in this car. We had some excellent times for egress and myself and tom were out in less than 7 seconds and Rory was out in about 12 seconds- well within the 15 second time limit.
The car passed through all the stations with flying colours and were clear to proceed to qualifying on the 24th.

Qualifying September 24th:
This was a hectic day! SunStang was one of the first cars on the track for qualifying. As we were using MIT's backup motor, the team decided to take it easy and not push the car through the qualifying laps. Before we blew our motor, we had been clocking close to 2 minutes and 30 second laps which would have been good for top 10. However, as we took it slow around the track on the backup motor, our time dropped off significantly and we started further back.

After completing the qualifying laps, we were onto stability and braking tests. The idea is you must get the car up to 35 km/h , then swerve around some cones while maintaining speed, and follow it up with a break test (stop from 35 km/h to 0 km/h in 12.5 meters). We had no trouble passing this test either. We were cleared to race at the 2005 WSC!! We even got a nifty license plate with our team number '96' on it!

The Race:
The race started from the Northern Territory Parliament Buildings, through Darwin, and onto the Stuart Highway which is what we would be traveling on for the next 8 days!

We started off slow, getting used to driving the solar car on the wrong side of the road! We maintained a decent speed of up to 60 km/h on our first day, covering nearly 200 km into our first checkpoint in Katherine. We had to trailer part of the way that day as we had some adjustment problems with our steering.

The next day was very hard on the team. We were all tired from working on adjusting the steering but things just didn't seem right. We continued on for about 50 km that day until we decided to pack it in till the next check point. The adjustments we made the car very difficult to handle on the road and so out of safety, the team decided that we should trailer to the next pit stop and reassess our plan of action. We were all quite down that day. At times we felt that there was no hope and we should just call off the race. But thanks goes out to Dave and Greg who kept a positive attitude and made sure we did everything we could to get SunStang on the road again.

Day 3 was Awesome! We made some modifications and we were flying. We all were feeling quite confident. The drive took us from the second control point at Dunmarra, right through Tennant Creek checkpoint (with 20 seconds to spare!!!) and on stopping outside of Elliot township. I drove nearly 5.5 hours that day, covering over 350 km on my own. We covered over 470 that day. We were regularly cruising at over 70 km/h! It was AWESOME!

Day 4: Another great day. We Started from Elliot and covered over 400 km, ending at the Tropic Of Capricorn for the night! We camped out there and promptly brushed our teeth, so we could say "we brushed our teeth on the Tropic of Capricorn!".

Day 5:
We went from Tropic of Capricorn and headed down to Alice Springs checkpoint and then onto Cadney homestead. We stopped just short of Cadney covering another 400 km...

Well that's all I can say right now... I'll add more when I have some time! We need to return Michigan's motor!

Seeya later!

Imran

Alice Springs

2005-09-29T12:45:00.000-04:00

Well, we've now arrived in Alice Springs, which marks nearly 1500 kilometers of our trip so far. Things are going well, we are now continuing at roughly 65-75 km/h. We are gaining considerable ground on the teams just ahead of us, and are expecting to pass a number of them later on today.

The team has done a great job working together so far, and putting up with the flies of the outback. We've finished the first four days of the race, and are looking forwards to the last 4. Weather has been phenomenal, and we are pulling in a great deal of power off our array, allowing us to choose the speed that we want to cruise at. Everyone is very pleased with the success of the car, and the speed at which we are able to drive. It has been a lot of fun for everyone, and we will be sure to post pictures as soon as we are able to. The next post will probably not be for another few days, as there are no towns between Alice Springs and Adelaide with more than 500 people, so any internet access will be very unlikely.

G'Day!

Darwin: Day 8 and Day 9

2005-09-20T09:22:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

This will be a very short post! The internet cafe closes in 10 minutes, sorry!

Ok so here is the deal! We have all been very busy this last few days now that most of the team has arrived. It's been great getting things on the go. We've regularly tested at the race track. It was quite fun driving at up to 70kph on only half throttle acceleration. Tomorrow we'll step it up some more in preparations for scrutineering on Thursday.

So that's all for now. I'll try to get back on here tomorrow night for a more detailed explanation of what's been going on!
Thanks for all your comments! Please keep on writing! The team enjoys your comments and appreciates all of your support! Knowing that people care about what we're doing here means a lot to us.

Cheers,
Imran

Darwin: Day 7

2005-09-18T07:51:00.000-04:00

Today was a long hot day at the pits. The temperature was 34 Celsius today. It hasn't' been less than 32 since we got to Darwin a week ago! The forecast for the next week: 33 32 32 32 32 . Should be fun! :(

Rory and Chris came into town last night. They went straight to work this morning and it was nice having some more help! With the two extra bodies, we were able to accomplish many tasks. Tomorrow Rory and I will be checking out more supply stores to pick up a few things.

We're hoping to drive with the 'top on' tomorrow afternoon. Should be an exciting few days until scrutineering begins!

The internet connection at this cafe is really getting annoying so I'll keep this blog short. More to come in the coming days.

Imran

Day 6: Testing and Media

2005-09-17T05:20:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone!
Well we did more lower body testing for the car. Worked out well, but had to get off the track when the top fuel dragsters started showing up :)

We will be testing components in the hotel tonight and will keep up the work tomorrow.... SunStang was featured on the Channel 9 Darwin news! They showed our car and a short interview. It was pretty neat! They mentioned that we were a stark contrast compared to the million dollar cars here. Showed that you can still race a decent car with out spending so much. It may be the wallet talking, but I think having such insane budgets for solar cars takes away from the fun and the excitement of the event. But then again, the World Solar Challenge is an internationally recognized race, and as such, you will get the biggest the best and in turn, the most expensive vehicles in the world. :) There is lots to learn! However, a few teams have complimented some of our systems thus far. Many have liked our simple chassis design! One of our new friends from MIT really liked our battery pack and protection system. He was asking Tom for pointers which made Tom a very happy boy! :).

That's all from Darwin! I'm guessing Rory and Chris will be arriving in a few hours! After that, I'm sure there will be more people posting blogs on here in case you are tired of hearing from me! :)

G'day Mate(s)

Imran

Darwin: Day 5- 1kw! woo

2005-09-16T09:10:00.000-04:00

So it's true, After some testing, and measuring, and cleaning, and calculating, we have a 1kW array (normalized to temperature and solar intensity). Finally! I've always wanted a 1 kW, and now I know what it looks like! :)

So today we obviously got the array set up. And did some array testing. We also set up the brakes. 1 of our master cylinders took less than 10 minutes to bleed and set up. The other backup cylinder is working, but not at top performance. Hopefully Rory can solve this problem!

I took the car on the track for a couple of laps. Too bad we had some sensor glitches, so we weren't' able to get up to speed sadly. However, Tom promptly fixed the problem but it was past 5 pm (which is when the track closes) so we will try our luck tomorrow now.

I guess the beta team is somewhere over the pacific ocean. I hope they are well rested, they have much to do! ;)

Just taking the evening easy. We're downtown in an internet cafe. Lots of people everywhere! It seems like Darwin is a big backpacker tourist location.

Ok... Just got the word that the cafe is closing in 10 minutes......... I might not be updating for a couple of days.. but if I do... you are in luck! ;)

Imran

Darwin: 4 Pictures Continued

2005-09-15T08:18:00.000-04:00

Array Setup in the pit lanes at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin, NT, AUS
Not sure if I'll be allowed to come back into the country after showing this! One of many signs we passed on the road telling us of the danger of traveling on the Stuart Highway :)....
The array in the sun! We have power!!!
The car being unpacked. It was a lot of work for two people to do, but somehow Tom and I made it and were on the road.

Darwin: Day 4 With Pictures!

2005-09-15T07:38:00.000-04:00

Well anther fun filled day :P Spend most of my day finding supplies to fix the aeroshell 'sag'. Tom and Ken kept motoring on with wiring up the batteries and array. We finally got it all hooked up and began testing the array. It looks like one of our MPPTs (Maximum Power Point Trackers) is dropping the efficiency of the array. (For those of you non ECE people, an MPPT is a smart DC DC converter.....errr... ok let me try this again, they take the power from the array, and regulate it to maximize their output with respect to the lighting conditions... ya.. i think thats what they do. Someone who actually knows how they work may want to respond! :)
We should have some power readings soon and will post them for the world to see..... or we might just keep it a well guarded secret... keep reading our blogs and you will see :)

Other than that, I tried to get the canopy together, but I can't do much until our adhesives arrive. I'll be repairing the aeroshell first thing in the morning and will move on to the dreaded brake bleeding process. Our goal is to run a few hot laps tomorrow afternoon!

Check out the pics: some of these pics were taken when we first landed in Oz.

Tom and I at THE Opera House. We considered going inside, but realized that most people don't care about Opera, so a picture outside was good enough for us!!!

Wow! This was an amazing spot. Just outside of Glendambo Road House (i think!! :)). There is absolutely nothing around here. At that time, we are on top of a plateau. Absolutely amazing view of our surroundings.
Oops, kind of out of order. But a little note left for us on the crate by Rory before we left.
In Mastercraft we trust! That drill press has seen it all! A tech teacher back in highschool told me that this drill press would never last ;). It's been through 5 Robotics competitions (highschool) plus attended the 2003 ASC qualifier and 2004 Formula Sun Race. I think it's the best $95 I've ever spent ;).

I think i'll have to post more pictures in a seperate entry.... stay tuned.....

Imran

Beta Team ready

2005-09-15T07:37:00.000-04:00

Well, Chris and I will be leaving London at 1:30 to catch our flight in Toronto to Los Angeles; we will stop there for 2 hours before our 14-hour flight to Australia. On the flight, we will be served a “snack”, so I hope it is a jolly good one. Once in Sydney, we have a 12-hour stop over before heading to Darwin, somehow I hope to see the harbour and the opera houses in Sidney. I am excited to be working on our car where there are so many other solar cars, I am sure there will be a lot for me to learn!!! However, I must polish up the details to my packing and decide how many textbooks I am taking as cabin baggage, with out going over weight. Goodbye until next time.

Rory on location: London

Darwin: Day 3

2005-09-14T06:16:00.000-04:00

Not much to report on today. We headed down to the track and started wiring up the array. That was taken care of quickly and Tom was able to debug most of the battery electronics. I spent some time looking for supplies around town.

The Umicore team was out on the track for much of the day. MIT came into town and set up their garage today as well. Apparently they took some damage during shipping. I'm sure they'll be able to get it all ready in time for scrutineering.

That's all I have for today. Will post more later...

Imran

Darwin: Day 2

2005-09-13T05:36:00.000-04:00

Today we unpacked our car from the trailer and took some time to asses the damage. So far, no major problems, however there is some damage to the aeroshell that will need some work. Thankfully, we were able to find industrial supply stores right behind our motel that had all the supplies we would need (electrical components, Fiberglas resins, tools, machine shops etc etc).

I'm taking the team 'mom' role (get food, get supplies, cook etc :) ) for the first couple of days while Tom and Ken get the electrical systems setup. They unpacked the batteries, soldered some capacitors onto the control circuits, and reassembled the battery pack as well. The high power box was removed from the car so we can work from the air conditioned hotel. Ken wired up some of the array cables on to the bus bar and installed the connector. A short day of work today, but we'll be at the track garage for most of the day tomorrow.

We're hoping the array cables will be connected tomorrow, and that a quick charge test on the batteries can take place. That will be a huge step for us over here. We have the Umicore team from Belgium next to us in the pits. They have been very kind in offering us help!

We're staying at the Leprechaun Motel. It's nice and I was able to pull a deal. Got the price dropped by $140 dollars for the rental!

Chris and Rory should be arriving this weekend and will be busy all this week. They have done an awesome job keeping things going at the home front, with machining parts, organizing supplies and sorting through a pile of stuff.

A great man once said, on to day 3....... So be it! On to day 3!

Imran

Pics!

2005-09-12T23:53:00.000-04:00

Thousands of KM's of Nothing!! No Cars, No Farms, No Kangaroos!!!
This picture doesn't do justice to the beautiful sunsets we saw in the outback!
Devils Marbles. Literally, in the middle of nowhere. It's like someone brought a crane and carefully placed the stones the way they are.

More pics to come once i find my first memory card! :S I think Tom must have it .. i hope! :)

Imran

Darwin at last!

2005-09-12T05:22:00.000-04:00

We finally made it. The first major leg of our journey is complete.

We arrived in Darwin around noon, and drove down to the race track to get ourselves a pit. We're in box 5, in case you're in the area and want to drop by ;).

We dropped off our trailer, and went to find some accommodations. We finally found something called the "leprechaun" motor lodge, where we found a cabin fairly cheap. Its got two bedrooms, kitchen-living room, and a bathroom. There's also a pool nearby, and some flat space to work on the car.

First people we met at the race track were two people from the Belgium team. They must have seen us pull in, and came down to say hi. Their car is in Darwin, but still passing through customs. U. Of Twente is here too, and apparently Nuna is around, but working on their car near their living space. I guess they don't want to give out too much details just yet.

We just came back from shopping for groceries. Today, Ken and I will be eating Kangaroo stakes. You can't go to Australia and NOT eat kangaroo ;). (P.S. Stay away from Vegemite!).

I should end this one soon, since our food is thawing in the back of our car. Its quite warm around here. Lucky our cabin is air conditioned.

-- Tom

Port Augusta!

2005-09-09T04:22:00.000-04:00

Well, so far traveled about 1800 kms through some of the wildest terrain I could imagine! Was a hard drive to Adelaide from Sydney, but Tom and I made it here safely. We picked up the first of 2 of our extended team! Ken from the Queens Solar Vehicle Project is joining us and lending us a hand. It's awesome to have help from fellow Ontario schools!

Just something I thought I would share. This weekend is a 10 year reunion from my senior public school (Fairwind SPS in Mississauga). Obviously, I'm going to be missing this one, but I'm hoping some of those folks will stop by this site and say hello! It's amazing that back then was when I first became involved with extra curricular activities. I was involved with the environment club thanks to a awesome teacher, Mitch Zuk. He actually could be the one to thank for me being involved in solar car raycing. During some tough years when I was a kid back then, he gave me some sound advice, he told me that no matter what happens, always stay busy, always stay active in sports, and clubs. His thought was that if you stay involved in activities, you always have somewhere to go to keep you out of trouble. I couldn't believe how right he was! He became a true friend to me during those years and it was the reason I am where I am today. I'm sure of it!!! Thanks Mr. Zuk!

That's all for now.....

Imran

On the road...still...

2005-09-09T04:20:00.000-04:00

We're now in day x (its hard to keep track) of our Australian odyssey. Currently in Port Augusta, about 300 km north of Adelaide. Tomorrow night we should be in Alice Springs, and then onto Darwin.

Its still surreal. It seems just like home, but not quite. I'm sure it will just get stranger the further we get into the desert.

We're hoping to find some kind of apartment inn in Darwin, so that we can settle in and be happy for the 12ish days we will be there. Last night we stayed at a motel near downtown Adelaide. They upgraded us for free (I think?) to a larger room. It was a whole apartment, with a kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, laundry... It was nice.

Imran has been having fun driving the trailer around. We seem to get stuck in parking lots. Yesterday, and today too, at our hotels, we've had to spend a while getting everything maneuvered in just the right way. He's getting quite good at it though.

Anyway, Imran is just next to me probably writing his own blog entry, so I'll leave this one short so we don't overlap too much.

Cheers from Australia!
- Tom Gwozdz

4:30 am ... Can't sleep

2005-09-06T15:11:00.000-04:00

Well I can't sleep. Not sure if it's something I ate, or I'm still having trouble adjusting to the time. Tom doesn't' seem to have a problem when it comes to sleeping! :) I think the only reason why Tom wakes up in the morning is to work on sunstang. If there was no sunstang, he would just sleep all day long :) .

It's surreal. I just can't believe that we are here. We go outside, see the cars drive on the wrong side of the road, talk to people with strange accents, and see indoor house plants everywhere.... Only difference is that they are outside :). Yet, it still just seems like we sat around in an airplane for 20 hours and ended up back in the same place. bizarro Canada :) .

Who would have ever thought that a few months ago that this would actually happen. I mean there was quiet optimism, and often quiet pessimism. I just remember my motivating factor was all (and there were many) who said this wasn't going to happen. I don't know why that drives me personally. I guess i just love to prove people wrong. And even if i can't, i've always had an ability to persuade people to change their minds, or atleast come up with a good excuse that satisfied me :D.

I never thought I would be so worried about hitting a Kangaroo. That's it! That's why i can't sleep! Never in my life did i think i would say that!

Lots of debate going on here on the news. Surprise Surprise, it has to do with Gas Prices, Sea King Helicopters, and The United States. Geeze, it's just like home *wipes tear from eye*. Somethings change.. but others, well they are just global constants! The price of gas is upto $1.60 in some places around Sydney, however the average is in the 1.25 range. Sea King Helicopters. Those things were a work horse for the last 40 years, i think it's time for everyone to announce that the Sea King belongs only in one place, a museum. Seriously, I saw one hanging fromt the top of the Science and Technology museum in Chicago! :) For the safety of rescuers, just get rid of those flying (only sometimes) traps!. On and why are the ozzies angry at the U.S? Well apparently they have a problem with having U.S big business men coming in to town, taking over large corporations, devaluing their shares, and then running from town. It's quite common from what i hear. weird.... Man.. enough about politics!! Back to solar car raycing!

So we'll be headed up in a few hours to the outback. How exciting! 4500 kms of nothing but nothingness! should be awesome! Apparently a few teams are already camping out at the raceway in Darwin. Nuna (2001 and 2003 WSC champions) are there, and University of Michigan(NASC Champs 2005), our friends down the 401, will be there in a few days. Should be neat to be around the best for a few days and hopefully teach them a few things on budget solar car raycing! These teams both have budgets nearing or surpassing $1,000,000. However, money never wins races, not even in solar car raycing. These teams are the pinnicle of organization, well planning, and experience. The money just makes things a little easier.

Well i'm not sure what to do with my remaining 14 minutes on this internet cafe machine. Might check out the toronto star online and see what i'm missing out!

Seeya around folks,
Imran

"The Alpha Team Has Landed!!" - Greg

2005-09-06T08:13:00.000-04:00

Greg is right! Tom And I (Imran) landed in Sydney at 6:09 am on Monday September 5th. What a trip it was! Took off from Toronto on Saturday afternoon around 5pm. The in-flight movie on our Air Canada Airbus A-320 was "Mr. And Mrs. Smith". Funny movie..... For a while, then it just got painful to watch! :) So we flew 5 hours and arrived at LAX Airport at 8pm local! No problems with U.S. Customs or any of that, which was awesome! .. Waited around for a few hours and then took off from LAX to Sydney on our 14 hour flight, on the smallest 747 known to mankind! It was packed to the limit and Tom and I were in the rear cabin, in the two middle seats. Lets just say, it was an experience I will never forget! I can't sit in one sport for more than 1 hour... What in the world was I going to do for 14 hours!!! And all 14 hours were in the dark!! Thankfully, we were told there would be plenty of movies on........ Movie # 1, ""Mr. And Mrs. Smith" :( Joy. Movie # 2 " Herbie, something or another" the Lindsey Lohan movie. Well... Thanks to the fine folks at United Airlines, the sound barely worked for that movie... So 1 hour into it they went into some movie about the first U.S. World up soccer team movie. Joy. Movie # 3 was probably the most interesting of them all, however we were too tired to care at this point. They showed "The Interpreter". Pretty interesting film, but again, too tired to care!!!

So now that the movie review is done... On to SYDNEY! .. So 6:30am in an airport, and nowhere to go! Well just one stop.... Aussie Customs! They picked me out of a crowd of 500 and decided I was going to be the only "bloke" to have any trouble! Thankfully, we were wearing our SunStang Golf Shirts (recognized all around the world, probably has something to do with Greg ;) ). The gentleman who was supposed to inspect our baggage says "solar cars? You have sun in Canada??" At that point, we knew it was all going to be clear sailing! Few minutes later, and some X-Rays too, we were on our way. We picked up a cell phone from the VodaPhone Outlet at the airport. I'll list my number on here some time when I get a chance :).

So we headed down to the rental place. First thing I noticed is how polite all the Aussies are around here! Friendly Faces everywhere, willing to lend us 'mates' a hand! We picked up a kickin' Mitsubishi Pajero 4X4. Man is this thing big! Just one problem, I've never driven a right hand steer vehicle or for that matter, driven on the wrong side of the road!!!! Lots of learning to do!

All this, without sleeping much for the previous 36 hours! Well, one again we made it! Now seeing it was noon in Sydney, (10 pm the previous night in London Ont., ) we felt the best thing to do was to stay up till the evening in Sydney and hit the sack. That way we can get accustomed to the time difference. Tom and I headed out to see the world! We needed to find a Hungry Jack's! On to the trains we go! Amazing rail network here in Sydney and surrounding areas! Toronto has much to learn! We were in the downtown core in less than 10 minutes from where we started (near the airport). Sydney is an absolutely beautiful city. Parks EVERYWHERE. Public Squares for shopping and just hanging out all through out the city. We walked around and finally made it to Sydney Harbour and took some pictures of the opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Today, we started up and took care of some shipping stuff. Our freight Forwarder here is awesome! Jochem at AMI Wholesale Freight really helped us out with sorting out our customs and quarantine clearance! It took less time to get the clearance of our car and equipment, than it took me to get through the airport customs! The car is cleared for us to pick up and we are ready to get it! We picked up our trailer rental today as well. Another learning experience since I've never pulled a trailer before.. And all on the wrong side of the road!!! Took out a few curbs :D... And maybe some stray kangaroos ;) ... Which reminds me, I can't believe the number of people that have warned us about Roo's jumping in front of cars!! Apparently, just like deer in Canada, 'Roos tend to jump in front of vehicles and stare into the headlights!

So onto Adelaide for us two blokes! We'll be headed out west on Wednesday afternoon (local time of course - we're 14 hours ahead of you all ). Will pack up the trailer in the morning and head out.

that's about all I got to say about that. I'll keep in touch and please feel free to forward this along to your friends and family!

Imran

Another day closer

2005-08-30T21:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm in the middle of packing and was busy talking to my sister. We couldn't believe the team made it so far! There was always optimism, but there were always set backs as well. But after 2 long years of hard work, we finally did something that hadn't been done in 9 years, compete at the World Solar Challenge.

The competition isn't just about building a solar car. There is so much more to it. The project is a massive undertaking of engineering, business, logistics, marketing and good old fashioned wheeling and dealing! After all that, none of the team members really thought much about the final standings. Our goal has always been to build a solid, reliable vehicle to race. Man, have we learned our lessons over the years. Our last car; "The millennium Project", almost took a millennium to work on! Starting in 1998, the vehicle was suppose to be ready for racing in 2000. This project was spear headed originally by the remaining members of the last World Solar Challenge team, SunStang 96, and members of SunRayce 97. Unfortunately, those team members graduated all around the same time. This void of knowledge led to the "millennium Project" not being completed till 2003, for the American Solar Challenge. That vehicle taught the team several lessons. It was the first composite chassis design developed by SunStang. Previous generations of SunStang used a magnesium space frame. The composite chassis proved to be a very difficult thing to engineer. Engineering hard point locations for the suspension was the hardest part of development. Several times we had significant failure of our rear suspension due to the chassis weakening due to uneven loading. We noticed the problem from the day we installed the suspension but it was too late for us to do anything with it. That vehicle did pass all scrutineering at ASC 2003, however, during qualifying, one of those failures occurred and we were forced to retire.

Lessons Learned....
The team, now together for a few years, decided that we would stick with the composite chassis design for the 2005 vehicle. It was something the team had experience working with. We spent a great deal of time researching various joining techniques for the chassis panels. After talking to professors and industry professionals, we finally felt we had something! Plus, we improved the hard point design for the suspension. The new design allowed the loading to be distributed over a large aluminum plate placed on the composites. This prevented localized failure due to torsion and bending of individual suspension mounts. The downside of this system was that it added close to 30 lbs of weight to the car. But the team made a decision long ago. We knew that the weight, the aero dynamics, the efficiency of the vehicle was not important unless the car was reliable and safe.

Hardships...
The team worked hard through out the last year or two. No matter what our situation was with respect to workspace, funds, and overall support, we knew that "if we build it, they will come!". And Boy did we ever build! The team has worked so hard over the last year manufacturing so many of the systems from scratch. Brand new aero shell, new array, new chassis, new suspension, new telemetry, new battery system... Everything developed by the team! We did it. There were many who said this could not be done, many who suggested we were just dreaming, but dreams is what started solar car raycing, and that is what drives our project. Dreamers are the leaders of our world, the inventors, the innovators. I have no doubt that the people involved in this project, will go on to doing bigger and better things for us all.

Appreciation:
In continuation to yesterdays theme, We gotta thank a whole bunch of people still! How bout we start with the financial/purchasing folks! Man, I don't know where we would be without the help of Lonnie and Katherine! They are the ones who give us money! We're always asking for things in the last minute (like today, I ran in there asking for a cash advance, 2 days before I leave! :)). They always go out of their way to help us out. Also, Jim and Stephen in stores! They get "stuff"! If we need it, they will find it! Plus they take care of much of our shipping and receiving that is so critical when we're dealing with the last minute schedule we work on!!! Then there's Ray in purchasing at Stevenson Lawson. This guy is awesome. I'm not sure how he gets any work done with me calling him every 20 minutes with new questions regarding shipping! He took care of all the details for getting our car to Australia (and hopefully back! ). Let me tell you, I would hate to have his job! There is so much to know about shipping something like our car overseas. The amount of redtape with international law, customs, rules and regulations, and haz mat shipment, it's amazing all of that was done on time and with out a hitch! I know that without Ray's expertise, the car would still be sitting on the front lawn of the staging building!!!! All and all, there is no way we can repay Ray for his help! He saved us big time!!!

OK.. Well back to packing.. And more to come tomorrow.......

From London (still for a few more days)..
Imran Atcha

SunStang Live!

2005-08-30T00:43:00.000-04:00

August 29th 2005: SunStang is Officially Blogged! So here is the deal! We will be reporting from the road via this Blog. Our aim is to keep all of our friends, family and fans up-to-date with all the happenings of the team, before, during, and after the race.

So a little update:

The car was shipped from London Ontario on Thursday August 25 by truck to Toronto. That was an adventure on it's own! It took the team almost 30 hours straight to tie loose ends and pack the crate! It was an adventure on it's own to pack the crate and manage to get 900 kgs of car and gear into one box. By 12 pm Thursday afternoon, the team finally put the last screws in the crate and took a well deserved break until the truck picked up the crate. From Toronto, it will head to Pearson International and be loaded on to a Korean Airlines Freighter. From there it's headed to Incheon South Korea, and then transferred to another plane headed to Sydney on September 1st. The Crate was picked up around 6 pm from the University Machine Services dock.

A special thanks goes out to all the guys at UMS. From Kevin Barker who machined our A-arms and did several composite lay ups, to Chris who machined the Suspension mounts. Jack, who is always willing and able to weld parts up for us. Cody, who got the axles and kingpins ready for installation. Doug, who machined some steering components in a hurry! Also, can't forget Bob who has had to deal with me for the last 2 summers working for him while trying to manage the SunStang team. He has been flexible with me all the time and has supported us whenever he could. Peter gets a special mention just cause we've always given him a hard time!! He always comes through whenever we need something ordered or borrow a piece of equipment and we probably don't thank him enough for his time and effort. Special thanks to Clayton who has been a huge help in getting things done for us like setting the axles (which is a nerve-wracking experience) to assisting in loading our crate. Finally, Gary and Garvin! They were awesome enough to stick around a few hours after work to load the crate on to the truck! It was a lot of hard work and they hung in there for us to make sure it was done right! Without them, the crate would have NEVER made it into the truck and we would be stuck with a car and nowhere to go!!! All in all, the guys at UMS are some of the greatest people you will ever meet! I'm not just saying that because I work there! They are genuinely interested in helping all the teams out without hesitation and have made our lives that much easier! Without their help, much of what we do, could never have been possible! We could only wish to have their whole team with us at the race to help us along our way! Again thank you to them!!!

More to come, more to thank as the days go by!

From London (for another few days!),
Imran