The first week of the X Prize finals is complete and the results are in.
Of the 12 teams that came to the finals 4 have been eliminated or have withdrawn (Amp, Tango, Tata and Spira). Very Light Cars now comprise almost a third of the entire field. It is now us against the X Tracers in the Alternative Tandem class, and us against ourselves in the Mainstream class.
Our cars did well in very challenging circumstances. Our #95 tandem car got a combined 110.8 MPGe (including almost 130 in the highway cycle), but the mainstream cars ran later each day, in windy and very hot conditions. The #98 achieved 101.3 MPGe and the #97, 95.6 MPGe.
The #97 car had to deal with a traffic situation during the test that resulted in using turbo boost to stay within lap time requirements: frustrating, given that this car already made 101.4 MPGe in the Knockout stage, and is about 5 MPGe better now because of emissions mapping improvements. This car did meet the X Prize requirement of 90 MPGe; these efficiency results will be averaged with results to come in August at the Argonne National Lab on the dynamometer (ie, no wind or heat).
We also expect to pick up another 1 – 3 MPGe because we now know there is evaporation of E85 from the X Prize supplied fuel tank. This problem was discovered by PIAXP staff, for which we are grateful. We willingly installed this tank for transparency but have had trouble due to its required location in the engine compartment.
Monday the 26th are the dynamic safety events (lane change, acceleration and braking) and on Tuesday the combined performance and efficiency event. This combined event is the actual race. It requires cars to exceed 100 MPGe within a maximum and minimum speed range on a course with turns. The car in each class that completes this course in the shortest time is eligible to be an X Prize winner.
The end of the week will be coast-down testing, to collect data necessary for the dyno tests at Argonne. Then the cars will be taken by the X Prize to the Argonne Labs in Chicago for emissions and efficiency testing in August.
Winners will be announced in September.