Thursday May 26th was the first day to make official runs. The day started with a long waiting line and after a few hours, we had to leave because of problems when starting the engine. At around 16:00, the car was finally able to get on the track. In a hurry to make a score, we did not verify that the speedometer was working well and therefore, we could not know at what speed the car was going. Furthermore, the engine had several starting problems during the run. Even with all these troubles, we only used 20.3 ml of gas which gives a fuel consumption of 1237 km/l putting us temporarily in 11th position. With this result, we hope to make a much better score when everything will be fixed.

Tuesday morning, the team arrived at the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe site, EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Unfortunately, the vehicule only arrived at the end of the afternoon. During that time, we installed the tents and visit the site. At the evening, we made sure that the vehicule would be ready for the next morning's inspections.

Wednesday morning, technical inspections were passed without any major problem. That way, we were able to make a practice run on the circuit the afternoon. Our pilot (Audrey) was therefore able to analyze the path and try some strategies. This year, to add up a little challenge, the path has chicanes that have to be avoided. Besides that, it is a pretty straight circuit, but it is much longer than the one at Shell Eco-Marathon Americas

During the evening, some adjustments were made in order to be able to make another practice run the next morning before the official runs start.

You can see Anthony, our team captain, being interviewed at www.eco-marathon.de

Following a really long plane trip, the team arrived in Dresden, in Germany, yesterday at 3 p.m., where we were able to enjoy the warm weather visiting the city. The EuroSpeedway site opening tomorrow morning for the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe, we will try to use a night of sleep before moving over early in the morning tomorrow. We will try to keep you informed daily of our experience of the event.

After several hours of labour, the new shell was finally unmoulded this last Friday at Composite Atlantic’s, our partner for this project, which we would like to thank warmly for all the support and hints they have provided throughout the process. Made of prepreg carbon fibre and autoclave cured, the new shell weighs only 7 kg (15 lbs.), comparatively to 18 kg (39 lbs.) for the old version, leading to a 60% reduction! It came out a little too late to be used at Shell Eco-Marathon Europe 2011, but it should be up and running for SAE competition in Michigan, happening on June 9 and 10. The team is really proud of the result and can’t wait to try it out!