# evGrand Prix at Indy 2012



## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

Cool, thanks for posting!


The Shell logo in the back is kinda funny


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## mizlplix (May 1, 2011)

Awesome! Thx for e thread

Miz


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

major said:


> The evGrand Prix was run May 12th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is the second year the electric go-Kart race has been run at IMS in the infield. It is a 100 lap race and competition for university and college teams. I work with BGSU teams. We built karts #9 and #19. With about 25 karts starting the 1/4 mile course, #9 placed second and #19 came in 6th. Not too shabby.


Don't be such a miser with the details, major! Did all of the karts finish? How many times did your karts have to make a recharge pit stop? Was that significantly different from the other teams? Any specs on the drivetrain you can share? Etc. and so on...


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

Tesseract said:


> Don't be such a miser with the details, major! Did all of the karts finish? How many times did your karts have to make a recharge pit stop? Was that significantly different from the other teams? Any specs on the drivetrain you can share? Etc. and so on...


Hi Tess,

I talk about the kart here: http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=247313#post247313

Our 2 karts were pretty much identical, 48V, AC15 drives. Rules limit race energy to 8640 Wh and peak power to 14 kW. Wide variety of systems and battery types, all Li and mix of AC & DC motors.

Track was very bumpy so rattled the poorly constructed karts out early. I think maybe only 8 or 9 still running at end. Lots of action (yellows and a few red flags). I think all karts used the pits. A lot for repair. Not all did battery hot-swap, but we did. I don't think anyone did more than one swap. Our #19 lost the chain on-or-abouts lap 75 and retired.

I was volunteered to do technical inspection and therefore had to let the student teams run the race by themselves. They did good and learned a lot I'm sure.

BTW, this competition is open to all secondary education institutions (colleges, universities, trade schools, etc.) worldwide. Two from the UK raced, Coventry and Warwick. Anybody out there interested? Go to http://www.evgrandprix.org/ 

So last week, in between the Infineon and Indy evRaces, I presented a session on the evGrandPrix at EVS-26 in LA. Nice show out there.

I'm beat.

major


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

major said:


> ...
> Our 2 karts were pretty much identical, 48V, AC15 drives. Rules limit race energy to 8640 Wh and peak power to 14 kW. Wide variety of systems and battery types, all Li and mix of AC & DC motors.


Sounds like a blast and those limits help make it more challenging where it counts (though it might give the participants the wrong idea that good engineering will trump an unlimited budget every time...  )


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## DIYguy (Sep 18, 2008)

major said:


> The evGrand Prix was run May 12th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is the second year the electric go-Kart race has been run at IMS in the infield. It is a 100 lap race and competition for university and college teams. I work with BGSU teams. We built karts #9 and #19. With about 25 karts starting the 1/4 mile course, #9 placed second and #19 came in 6th. Not too shabby.


Major, you are one busy guy. Good on ya to help for such a great youth involved, fun, green, educational activity. I just read the other thread with the kart info. . . geez! I have way too many "extra" EV parts looking for another project... that I don't have time for. As much as I love those karts, I really like the idea of a small e-dune buggy or sand rail. Getting enough amp hours in one could be a challenge tho..


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