HAN-students are really economical
That is to say, at the circuit. Last Friday, six teams of students of Car Engineering (Autotechniek) proved at the Midland-circuit near Lelystad that they can deal with fuel very economically. Six self-designed vehicles battled each other in the HAN Eco Marathon. The winning vehicle had an average of 1 to 195.
No breakfast
Not the speed, but the lowest energy consumption of the self-designed low-weight-vehicles was important during the HAN eco Marathon. On 12 June, the six students-teams of Car Engineering battled each other at the Midland-circuit near Lelystad. Each with the intention to be the most economical. The racing driver of the winning team had gone so far as to skip breakfast and lunch, to carry as less weight as possible ...
A buckled wheel
During the morning the first test rounds were driven at the tortuous track. It didn’t go spotless, because after too short a bend, one of the teams had to rush to the bicycle mender to get a buckled wheel repaired.
Busy fiddling
About 1 o’clock the marathon started. Each team had to drive four heats of several laps. Between the rides the teams were busy fiddling with their vehicles to get them ready for the next heat. After every completed heat, the surplus of the fuel was accurately measured by the measure-team, from which the precise petrol-consumption could be calculated.
1 to 195
The team which had the lowest fuel consumption on average, in all completed heats was the winner. None of the teams managed to complete all heats. Team 5, which had completed just one full heat and did this extremely economically with a consumption of 1 litre per 195 kilometres, was therefore the winner. Team 1, which managed to complete 3 heats with a reasonably average of 1 to 156, was one of the losers. But this team got comforted with an at least as attractive ‘originality-prize’: one day karting with the whole team.
Lap of honour
Preceding the prize-giving ceremony one minute of silence was held in remembrance of Michiel Campagne. He would have driven one of the eco-vehicles but he died one week before the marathon, owing to the effects of an accident. Therefore did his team not participate eventually, but drove a lap of honour for him at the Midland-circuit.
Update #1 A video-impression of that day
Lex Eggink/Sensor
