| Dear partners and hydrogen enthousiasts, Spoiler alert: We have won the Shell Eco-Marathon! From all the UrbanConcept cars with the energy type Hydrogen, we have set the most efficient attempt! If you are wondering how the race works or you have forgotten it, we have made a summary about it at the end of the newsletter! |
| Yesterday, we set one attempt, with the highest efficiency of that day in our class, and we were very happy with that! Although we would have wanted to set an attempt in every time slot, because there were four and we also have four attempts, we could not drive in the second time slot yesterday. This was because of some mechanical problems and after they were fixed, the line was too long to start an attempt within time. Check out how our first competition day went in this video! After this, we made some adjustments to make the car even more efficient, for the next attempts. And this worked out well! So last night, we worked until late, and we where ready for another racing day! |
| TODAY The first time slot: 9:00 until 10:30 In the morning, we started our second attempt. Everything went really well in the beginning! All the stuff that we worked on yesterday, behaved really good! Besides, we chose to have a small hydrogen bottle, because that saves 1,5 kg. Until the last round, everything went really smooth. After this, the hydrogen bottle was empty. We had only used 43 litres during the drive, while the bottle contains 80 litres in total. This means we do not know what went wrong, though we know something did. However, in our attempt yesterday, we used a lot more than we did today, so we know our efficiency went up! The only thing we needed to do, was to do the same thing in a valid attempt! Side note: we were still on the top of the ranking! |
| Because we had set only one attempt yesterday, we had three attempts left to divide over two time slots. We decided to set two attempts in the second time slot of the day, if it would be possible. So after this, we stood in line very early, so we would be the first car to show on the start. This way, we would have the most chances to drive two attempts after each other! The second time slot: 13:30 until 15:30 In this time slot, we drove two attempts, because we could start right away, when the time slot started. The first attempt went really well and we had increased our efficiency from 229.80 km/m3 (which was the first attempt) to 242.49 km/m3! We were really happy with that, and still at the top of the ranking! In the picture below, you can find the final results of our competition! |
| After this, we started another attempt. Because we had driven very efficiently in the morning, we tried to stay on that course, just like the attempt we had just driven. Because the fuel cell had now warmed up, there was a chance it was more efficient than in the first attempt of this time slot. This attempt went very well too, and the calculations showed that our efficiency was almost the same. In the end, the results showed that is was 241.12 km/m3, so we were right, almost the same efficiency! No higher efficiency in the last attempt, but still really good, so we were happy! After we waited for the results of the others, we knew for sure that we stayed on top of the ranking and we were European Champions! With an efficiency of 242 km/m3, we are the most efficient car of the UrbanConcept Hydrogen cars! We are very proud of our work from this week and the whole year! Thanks all for your support and special thanks to the team of last year, for standing at the base of this car. You can find our results on the result website of Shell! |
| Drivers World Championship (DWC) Because we won today, we may drive in the DWC! This competition will start in the afternoon! We have to be very early at the inspection that is needed for this competition. So, after we will celebrate our victory, we will focus on our big game tomorrow! After the inspection, we can drive some practice rounds. In the afternoon, we will start alltogether with nine cars. From 15:30 (GMT) – so Dutch time: 16:30 – the race will start. The race contains only UrbanConcept cars, with three cars from every energy class (Battery Electric, Hydrogen and ICE). Keep an eye on our channels to stay updated! (Facebook, Instagram, Twitterand LinkedIn, YouTube) Or check our website! |
| Some side information! While we are racing here in England, we want to take our own country with us on this journey! Therefore, our new and old team will be handing out mugs with cold green tea(m)! Besides, a sneak peek of our paddock and a big thanks has been send to our partners at home! 🇳🇱 💌 We will wait with telling more about this, in order to be sure it has arrived everywhere first! |
| Addidtion: How our race works As promised, here’s our summary about the race! The Shell Eco-Marathon is all about efficiency. The rules state that we must drive eleven laps on the circuit in a maximum time of 39 minutes. Since we participate in the UrbanConcept class, we have the added rule that we have to stop and start each lap, since we’re simulating a real city car. Before our start and after our finish, our hydrogen flow data and capstack voltage get measured. If we fulfilled all requirements, our attempt becomes valid and our data gets logged. We get four time slots and four attempts to finish all eleven laps. The team that has consumed the least amount of hydrogen is therefore the most efficient and wins the race! |
| A special thanks to all our partners! |
