Solar stickers

This filing cabinet may get tossed, so I'm documenting a few solar stickers that are on it. Sorry for the crazy orientation.

Cy!

I'm baaaaaack

7 years seems long enough, no?

20,000 Leagues Pop-Up Book

After reading the Boing Boing post (10/23/2008) about a new 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea pop-up book being published, I took it upon myself to find the one I remember from growing up

My most treasured book from my childhood was a pop-up version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. My incessant reading of it led to long-lasting obsessions with: submarines (sated with frequent visits to the U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago); octopi, preferably of the gigantic variety (never really sated, but I once got a nice rubber octopus toy from Sea World); the Lost Continent of Atlantis, and whirlpools. So I visited the used-book stalwarts of the Internet, and finally found a copy, in pristine condition no less, at some tiny Canadian place online. I paid whatever it was they asked, including that crazy VAT stuff. And now I read it to my kids, share it with them, and keep it on a shelf where it can survive for them to read to their kids.

Model A Club

One of the fun things about being on a solar car team were the opportunities for outreach. Mostly this means taking the car to a school and explaining solar power, the benefits of an engineering education, or some such. But on occasion, you had groups of adults. In this case, the Central Iowa Model A Club drive their vintage Model A's to Ames one sunny day and pulled right into the parking lot next to our garage in Old Sweeney Hall. They got the nickel tour of the facilities and whatever car we were working on at the time (PrISUm Cynergy, our Sunrayce 95 car, most likely). And then I got a free t-shirt!

National Road Solar Car Rally

Sometime in 1998 (I think?) I participated in a small race called the "National Road Solar Car Rally." This event was mostly arranged by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a venerable solar car team. They were joined by Ohio State, with observers from Purdue University's team tagging along. I got asked to come as something of an official, even though it was mostly the teams who kept the timing, etc.

U.S. 40 apparently has a long history as a road, hence the designation as the "National Road." This race went from Terre Haute, Indiana (Rose-Hulman's home), through Ohio, and ended in Wheeling, West Virginia. Or maybe it was the reverse...anyway, it was a good time, with a scenic route. At the end, we arranged an impromptu pit stop competition, to see how long it would take the teams to change tires, change drivers, and maybe a few other things. Good times.

PrISUm Phoenix '99 team shirt

As an alum of this school and this team, it was so gratifying to see them finish a solid 5th place in Sunrayce 99 (best finish ever for Iowa State). The car was fantastic, the team was polished, and their "Phoenix" logo looked great. I was lucky enough to snag a team shirt. It was tough trying not to be biased on this race!!

Mizzou '99 shirt

The University of Missouri - Columbia ("Mizzou") was a good competitor in many races. They had a built in rival with cross-state University of Missouri - Rolla also competing in many of the same events, and in the case of Sunrayce 99, winning the whole shebang.

I remember some, if not most, of the "Sun Tiger" cars had a little stuffed tiger tail trailing from the back of their car, which was a nice touch.

Solar Bike Rayce 98

Solar Bike Rayce was an off-shoot of Sunrayce, the solar car competition for college students. In Solar Bike Rayce, high school students competed on a closed track with a modified bicycle, making it both safer and cheaper to compete. The competitors would be good cyclists, but could tap into the solar panel and battery pack for bursts of speed or at least maintenance of speed while they rested their legs.

Some of the sample people that organized Sunrayce would help put on Solar Bike Rayce events on the off years, or whenever. I got to see it just once, but was impressed with the teams. It looked like a lot of fun.

University of Michigan generic shirt

just your basic shirt.

University of Illinois team shirt

This shirt was one of my favorite designs. The car name was "Photon Torpedo" which is just awesome, and the Star Trek reference rocks.

Messiah College Team Shirt

I don't recall much about Messiah's entry into the race. They were number 77. Their car looked pretty good for a rookie entry. They seemed nice, like most other teams. I'll see if I can remember something else and add to this.

Sunrayce 97 "poster" t-shirt

This is the Sunrayce 97 shirt that is just a copy of the poster used to promote the event.

I remember being in a review meeting with the designers when they unveiled the poster draft. I was not particularly happy with the font, but my opinion counted for squat at that point. Looking back on it, the font's not so bad. The "car" image is from a model of computational fluid dynamics that event sponsor EDS would run for all of the teams.

Map of the route on the back side of the shirt.

Principia College Sunrayce 99 team shirt

Principia College Sunrayce 99 shirt. Such a small college, with no engineering program, but they did sooo good! Great people, too, friendly and great senses of humor.

Sunrayce 95 Finish Line T-Shirt

They gave these out at the National Renewable Energy Lab (Golden, Colorado) finish line. Very nice!

More to come...

I just dragged out two full rubbermaid tubs of my solar crap, and took about 180 photographs of the t-shirts and hats. Myriad of posts coming soon.

General Motors Electric Vehicle program polo shirt

This one will be a struggle to remember where I got this from.

In college, I was an ardent follower of GM's Impact electric vehicle (later renamed EV1), and was on the mailing list. Little did I know that of the public relations-type materials that I received came not from GM, but from a tiny PR firm named TRIO, located (at the time) in Clarkston, Michigan, halfway between Detroit and Flint.

After college, I applied for a job with the solar car race. Turns out, again it was not with GM, but with TRIO, who had been hired by GM's head of R&D to run the race marketing and operations. So I ended up in GM electric vehicle central, but not the technical part, just the marketing part.

So for Sunrayce 93, the GM Impact served as the pace car, which was awesome - it burned rubber every morning, leading the cars out of the start. I snagged a ride in it, and a ride in a Geo Storm that was serving as a mule for an advanced electric drivetrain. There were a few TRIO people who came along and handed out PR materials for the Impact.

So somewhere between 1993 and 1997 (I think) I snagged this polo shirt. Despite the stain, I kept it. Not too common anymore, considering the EV1 is dead, and this dates from the Impact days.

So there you go.

Sunrayce 99 backpack

Handed out to all participants in Sunrayce 99, featuring logo from sponsor EDS, and Sunrayce website, which I used to write for (but not code - - Mike White and the awesome crew at EDS took care of that).

I don't recall if this one was stuffed with goodies or not. I recall the 1995 backpacks being chock full of good stuff (or was that '93?). I suspect this '99 one had a few things.

Western Michigan Sunseeker T-shirt

This is one of the team t-shirts from the venerable group from Western Michigan Univeriity. For some reason, they had awesome t-shirts, and in a ton of different colors.

I hired Steve Hunt, their one time team captain, to be part of Sunrayce HQ staff one year and did not regret it.

Doraemon / Soraemon solar powered car model

Doraemon is a Japanese cartoon character who is a robotic cat. As a promotional stunt, an actual solar-powered car that looked like Doraemon was built, and dubbed "Soraemon" and then entered into a smaller solar car race in Japan (The Grand Solar Challenge, on the beach in Noto).

I bought this Tamiya model of Soraemon when I was in Japan. It has an actual solar panel on it and an electric motor that will move it in sunlight. I did a crappy job of painting it, but had fun doing it so I guess that's something. This isn't really a great photo...I'll post better photos later.