In the spring, they traveled to Palmer Motorsports Park in Palmer, Massachusetts, to practice various components of the race. They drove the car in the greater-Boston area, up to Salem, Massachusetts, and to Cape Cod. (The ASC was scheduled for 2020, but it was postponed until this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.) They spent countless hours in the MIT Edgerton Center’s machine shop in Building N51, making, building, and iterating. Leading up to the three-week event, the team devoted three years to designing, building, refining, and testing Nimbus. Bringing up the rear are the transport truck and trailer, a media car, and “Cupcake,” a support vehicle with food, supplies, and camping gear. Nimbus is third in the caravan, trailed by a chase vehicle, in which the strategy team manages tasks like monitoring telemetry data, calculating how much power the solar panels are generating and the remaining travel distance, and setting target speeds. A scout vehicle is at the front, monitoring road and weather conditions, followed by a lead car that oversees navigation. Indeed, Nimbus travels with an impressive caravan of seven vehicles manned by about two dozen SEVT members. “It’s not like we drive the car straight down the highway during the race.” Nimbus’s performance at the Formula Sun Grand Prix and ASC is a manifestation of team’s proficiency in not only designing and building a superior solar vehicle, but other skills, as well, including managing logistics, communications, and teamwork. “It would be fun to see if we could beat that time at the next race,” she says with a smile. She’s not one to rest on her laurels, though. In the process, SEVT member and rising junior in mechanical engineering Cameron Kokesh tied the Illinois State driver for the fastest single lap time around the track, clocking in at three minutes and 19 seconds. Nimbus placed second, completing a total of 239 laps around the track over three days (equivalent to 597.5 miles). First, vehicles had to perform a series of qualifying challenges, called “scrutineering.” Cars that passed could participate in a track race in hopes of qualifying for ASC. Two weeks before the ASC race, each solar car was put through its paces in the Formula Sun Grand Prix at Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas. The car worked beautifully, and - more importantly - the team worked beautifully and we learned a lot.” “We were all hopeful, but I don’t think you ever go into racing like, ‘We got this.’ It’s more like, ‘We’re going to do our best and see how we fare.’ In this case, we were fortunate enough to do really well. “It’s still a little surreal,” says SEVT captain Aditya Mehrotra, a rising senior in electrical engineering and computer science. Nimbus surpassed the closest runner-up, the University of Kentucky, by over 100 miles. But teams could drive additional miles within each of the three stages - if their battery had enough juice to continue. Each team followed the same prescribed route, from Independence, Missouri, to Las Vegas, New Mexico. This year, however, the race was based on the total distance traveled. Held every two years, the ASC has traditionally been a timed event. During the five-day race, their solar car, Nimbus - designed and built entirely by students - beat eight other SOVs from schools across the country, traversing 1,109 miles and maintaining an average speed of 38.4 miles per hour. After three years of hard work, the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team took first place at the 2021 American Solar Challenge (ASC) on August 7 in the Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) category.
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