MIRA’s Greenpower Racer Takes the Chequered Flag at Goodwood
MIRA’s graduates and apprentices recently took to the track at Goodwood for the national finals race of the 2013 Greenpower Corporate Challenge, having successfully navigated their way through the Midlands and Eastern regional heats earlier in the year.
This year’s corporate competition was hotly contested by ten of the UK’s leading engineering firms and academic institutions, and was a chance for young engineers to put their skills to the test in a competitive racing environment.
MIRA’s entry for this year’s race had been developed over the past twelve months using some of the engineering consultancy’s state of the art design, engineering and test capabilities. The racer was constructed with an aluminium chassis and fibreglass bodywork and featured two 12V batteries as well as a 24V electric brushed motor supplied by Greenpower, enabling it to reach a top speed of approximately 20-25mph. MIRA’s vehicle also uniquely benefitted from an on-board data acquisition system consisting of a GPS to measure the speed and location of the vehicle, an accelerometer to measure G-forces for chassis load analysis, and a volt/current meter to inform the team of how much power they had left to use. MIRA’s on-board data acquisition system also enabled the car to have a soft start by managing the motor controller.
The highlight of the event involved MIRA’s racer taking part in an arduous 1.5 hour endurance race which ran despite some extremely wet and difficult conditions. The length of the race required the teams to use two sets of batteries, meaning they had to carry out a pit stop after every 45 minutes.
The Corporate Challenge was eventually won by Silesian University who were able to complete the most laps during the race, with MIRA’s team finishing a credible sixth.
More information about MIRA’s Greenpower racer can be found on the team’s twitter page:
www.twitter.com/MIRAGreenpower
Information about the finals day event and next year’s Greenpower Challenge can be found here:
www.greenpowerfinals.com
www.greenpower.co.uk
