Hi Everyone, The Sunday Challenge was held this past weekend at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) in Cocoa Beach. The event was organized by FSEC, FLEAA and the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). Saturday was a large demonstration of EVs, HEVs and other alt-fuel vehicles as well as a fun packed autocross. Sunday was a road rally from FSEC in Cocoa to FIT's campus in Melbourne about 34 miles away.
On Saturday, several companies and individuals had vehicles on display. Hybrid Technologies had 3 of their vehicles on display (a PT Cruiser, Smart EV and a Mini Cooper), Andrew Roddy had his shiny new eBox from AC Propulsion on display, Patterson Cycles had their beautiful electric motorcycle, Charles Whalen had his RAV4EV and sleek new Vectrix cycle, and South Plantation High School brought their solar car. There were several EV conversions and lots of Hybrids from almost every manufacturer there on display. After tech and safety inspections, the autocross started with approximately 18 vehicles in the staging area to compete! The autocross was ran by Cliff Rassweiler of ProEV (The electric Imp couldn't make it...so everyone else had a chance at first!). Bob Salem was down in the area and was happy to jump in and help with some of the timing. The autocross field was made up of EVs and HEVs. Andrew Roddy's eBox was the EV to beat that day and there was definitely a battle of the hybrids going on as well. There was a new Saturn Aura, Honda Insight and first and second generation Prius' on the course. In the end the Prius' were battling for first and second with a Gen1 taking first and Gen2 in second with the eBox a close 3rd. (There was only one 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophy for the autocross, regardless of class). There was lots of great competition and fun by everyone. Sunday brought some lousy weather and rain...and flooded roads. Not enough to drown the spirits of the drivers though! The road rally commenced as scheduled with everyone leaving FSEC on set intervals to rally down to FIT's campus in Melbourne. The objective was to make each checkpoint on the route on the exact time interval without speeding or going to slow. There were vehicles from 3 classes enter: altered EV (conversions), Production EV and Alt-fuel (hybrids/bio-diesel). Out the field of cars, electric and hybrids, a cycle came in first. None other than our own Charles Whalen on his new Vectrix took first place overall. There was a winner of each class and one for overall. Complete results of the autocross and rally can be seen on the FSEC website: http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/media/events/sundaychallenge/pdfs/SC_07_Scoring.pdf More info ont he Sunday Challenge and agendas can be found on the main page: http://www.sundaychallenge.org Congrats to everyone who made the event a success and helped out, but chiefly to Bill Young of FSEC & FLEAA who made the event a reality and huge success! (Pictures will be posted soon...) Thanks, Shawn Waggoner FLEAA www.floridaeaa.org _______________________________________________ Florida EAA mailing list [email protected] http://www.floridaeaa.org
