Eco Illini ready to hit the road

Last year the Eco Illini's “Blue Lightning” took first place in the ethanol category and 10th overall in the the Shell Eco-marathon, thanks to its 871 miles per gallon fuel efficiency. A second car, “Orange Thunder,” finished eighth overall with its 900 mpg efficiency.

This year with a larger staff of 40 students, a carbon fiber-based monocoque body design and more powerful engines donated by Horizon Hobby, the team will look to do even better.

“We should win the ethanol (division) again, it would be silly not to,” joked Michael Philpott, an associate professor of mechanical science and engineering, and the team’s advisor. “It would be nice to be in the top three in the unleaded gas (division), it’s certainly doable.”

Helping the team will be the newer engines. The new 57cc 4-stroke gas twin engines will need to be modified, but the team is optimistic about the potential they bring.

“(The engine) is twice as powerful as last year’s and it only weighs a few pounds,” Fred Scholcoff, the team leader and driver, said. “The power to weight ratio is really something else.”

As far as actually driving the car, the layout of the course, wind and driving strategy can all make a significant difference. In the team’s first year, the strategy was to have a small number of large acceleration bursts but it found out on it’s first place run last year that having many small bursts was a much more efficient strategy.

“On the last run we did a lot more accelerations and just kept it in a constrained speed,” Scholcoff said. “Every time we did more accelerations, lower speed helped our mileage.”

Among the challenges the team will face this year is having a more complex vehicle with less time to construct it. Scholcoff said that since the team started participating in the competition two years ago, it has been moved up a full month. In addition to that, many of the team’s members are participating for the first time.

“They don’t have any experience, they don’t know what to do yet, which means they don’t know where to put their energy,” Philpott said. “Part of it is getting everybody to work together and be constructive, and we’re getting there.”

Regardless of how well the team does in this year’s competition, the students will be getting a hands-on education by designing and constructing the cars. To Philpott, that’s what matters most.

“To my way of thinking, the best way to teach design is to do it,” Philpott said. “I could stand in front of a class and show them how to do CAD modeling, but when you actually design and build something it’s better. When there’s a competition involved, the competition brings it all to a meaningful result.”

Scholcoff already believes that his experience will help in the long run.

“Usuallly when you do engineering, you’re so busy with class, and you never get to get your hands dirty, you never really get to do any machining,” Scholcoff said. “This is a good way to get you ready for the real world, get you some good ‘engineering common sense.’”
___________________________

Writer:  Gregory Zeck, Engineering Communications Office.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.