austraLasia #2662 Don Bosco Tech's Team Grigio ready for KL Eco-Marathon
MANILA: 18 June 2010 -- Palm trees and cosmopolitan high-rise
buildings served as backdrops for three student-made vehicles of blue,
white, and black.
With exactly 30 days left before the first Shell Eco-Marathon in Kuala
Lumpur in Malaysia, the expansive streets of Fort Bonifacio became a
practice racetrack for Team Philippines as they unveiled their
prototypes for the competition.
Team Philippines is composed of students from the
country's top engineering schools: the Mapua Institute of Technology,
the University of Santo Tomas, and the Don Bosco Technical College.
These schools were chosen by Shell Philippines for the first Asian
edition of a marathon that has long been organised in Europe and the
Americas. Currently, the highest record set in the competition was
3,777 kph for a litre of fuel.
"This is not about the race for speed. This is
coming out with the longest distance with the least amount of fuel,"
Shell Philippines Chair Edgar Chua explained. "Renewable energy is used
to the maximum and this is our way of minimising the impact of climate
change and promote sustainable development," he added. The students
were given 7 months to create a vehicle that will run "the most miles
with the least amount of fuel," the main mechanic of the marathon.
After a series of seminars provided by Shell Philippines on fuel
efficiency, safety and the likes, the teams designed and made their own
vehicles. The feat was lauded by Philippines Energy Secretary Jose
Ibazeta, who graced the first public run. "The youth are the only
people we can look forward to," Ibazeta said. "It is good that the
renewable energy laws are initiated at the micro level," he said.
The test run, however, bore different results and
learning experiences for each team. Don Bosco’s Team Grigio, with a top
speed of 55 kph, sped off eagerly, frequently leaving behind the other
2 vehicles. Closely following was Mapua's Team Atalanta while Team UST
Engineering's Tiger 400 failed to complete the stretch.
For Team Grigio, the race went as a breeze. Team
leader Edmund Angeles told abs-cbnNEWS.com that the vehicle still
lacked a shell when they did the test run in Batangas. With the vehicle
complete, they expect the vehicle to run longer and faster. "Fifty
percent of the mileage comes from the aerodynamics," he explained.
Don Bosco's Team Grigio is a wedge-shaped vehicle
coloured in blue. It used bigger but slimmer bicycle tires and allotted
more space for the driver. In an interview with the team before they
came out with the final design, team manager Mark Lester Arrieta said
they envisioned Grigio to be lightweight and with very minimal drag.
The vehicle was designed to look “pogi” (handsome) but without casting
aside fuel efficiency and safety measures. According to team leader
Edmund Angeles, they made 2 versions of the car. The first one became a
"lab rat" and the final vehicle was the improved version. "We already
corrected all the mistakes we did in the dimension, the alignments, and
the ergonomics," says Angeles. Last Wednesday, Angeles said they did a
test run of the vehicle around school to see additional improvements
need to be done. Construction of the final vehicle only began 3 weeks
ago. Although it only has a top speed of 55 kph, the vehicle is
expected to run at 100 kph with 1 litre of fuel, says Angeles. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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