Team New England

Team New England is a solar car racing team based in the Boston, Massachusetts area. It is probably the most controversial solar car racing team in the world. The Team New England solar race cars pioneered the use of folding, stored solar arrays, which were extremely controversial due to the apparent competitive advantage they might exploit under certain conditions.

History

Team New England was initially a friendly branch off of from [http://www.mitsolar.com MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team] and the [http://web.archive.org/web/20061011152000/http://solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/spirit.html UMass Lowell Solar Car team] . Initially, it was formed in June of 1993 to create a revolutionary entry for the 1993 World Solar Challenge in November. Then, it raced a completely new car in Sunrayce 1995 under the Northern Essex Community College banner when both MIT and UMass Lowell had their own entries.

Several Boston University students joined forces in 1995, and subsequently launched their own solar car team.

Races and accomplishments

*1993: World Solar Challenge with [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142539/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tneII.html TNE II] . Very controversial car
*1994: Mount Washington [http://www.climbtotheclouds.com Climb to the Clouds] . [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142539/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tneII.html TNE II] was the New World Record for an Electric Powered Vehicle: 16:10:11.
*1994: American Tour De Sol - [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142539/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tneII.html TNE II] First place
*1995: American Tour De Sol - [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142539/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tneII.html TNE II] Most Efficient Vehicle (Open Category)
*1995: Sunrayce 1995. [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142521/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tne3.html TNE III] First Vehicle never to be passed while driving, First vehicle in Sunrayce History to exceed 50MPH average on a leg of the race. Penalties were levied for being "too competitive"
*1995: Pikes Peak Hillclimb solar car race to peak - first place. [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142521/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tne3.html TNE III] Most of the competition dropped out when they discovered Team New England was entering
*1995: Pocono Speedway EV race. First Place, GM's Impact (EV1) showed up to the race but dropped out when [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142521/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/tne3.html TNE III] was rumored that it might go over 90 mph.
*1996: World Solar Challenge - Adjunct Team in California raced [http://web.archive.org/web/20060908142554/solar.caeds.eng.uml.edu/pumpkin.html Pumpkinseed]
*1997: American Tour De Sol - 1959 Berkley EV conversion - Most Efficient Vehicle, all legs of the race.

References