WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-UVM Students Develop High-End Hybrid Car
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Colchester, Vermont - May 15, 2009
Hybrid cars have become more popular on the road, but what about seeing them on the race track? The concept is gaining momentum and a group of UVM students are on the cutting edge.
The UVM AERO club showed off the car that turned heads at the Formula Hybrid SAE Competition in New Hampshire last week.
"It was the only car of its kind at last year's competition, and it's the only one of its kind at this year's competition," says Brian Leach, a member of the UVM AERO Team.
The competition pits hybrid racecars against each other. UVM's Alternative Energy Racing Organization, (AERO), designed and built a car like none-other. It used an electric motor that was able to keep the car going at top speed, even after the gas-powered engine gave out during one of the races.
It took a full academic year for the group of mostly engineering students to design and build the car. Nearly another year was spent preparing it for the competition.
AERO members worked an average of six hours a day to perfect the hybrid engine.
The design was so solid, that a team of Chrysler engineers gave it the most outstanding hybrid engineering award.
"It feels a little different than every other car, because it's got power coming from two different places at the same time, but it's easy to learn and a lot of fun," says team member Dave McCloskey.
In the end, it wasn't able to finish the 24 lap endurance race because the engine overheated.
But it can go zero to 60 in four seconds -- hit top speeds of 65 miles an hour -- and was the second-fastest car at the competition.
"It's a big deal to everybody that's there because these cars, there's a lot of people that dedicate a lot of time to them and it's sort of proving yourself as an engineer in trying to prove the car," says Leach.
While the club is certainly proud of this car's accomplishments, they've already worked out a new, better design for next year and say they're coming back from the 2010 competition as number one.
Bianca Slota - WCAX News
