St. Thomas Academy's Experimental Vehicle Team Sees the Light

Resting in the corner of the room, it’s not hard to see why they call it “the coffin.” Right now, it’s just a skeleton–a few long, metal poles, a black bed composed of carbon fiber and nomex honeycomb and three wheels (one is flat). Some cords drip off the edges.

Senior Noveem Delaram hops into it, reclines and holds his hands out in front of him, gripping empty space.

“This is where the steering wheel will be.”

Members of St. Thomas Academy’s Experimental Vehicle Team (EVT) are creating their 15th vehicle. The EVT program started in 1997 with a super-mileage car and students have continued to create environmentally savvy and interesting-looking vehicles every year since then. After creation, the team competes in different national experimental vehicle races. This year, the team plans to create a car that can not only win the Hunt-Winston Solar Car Challenge in Texas, but also bear some neat physical differences from cars of years past.

Already, the coffin doesn’t look like anywhere one would want to spend an eternity of residency, but this year, the goal is to make it the smallest of them all. Contest restrictions require that the car is, at minimum, one yard tall which means that the boys tentatively plan to make the car exactly one yard tall, though they debate adding on an extra inch of height just to be safe. The short stance will provide the least wind resistance so require the least energy to propel.

Not only do they plan for this car to bear an especially svelte body, its skin will differ as well. Unlike years past, where the cars have all had bright, flashy décor, emblazoned with flame or stripes, this year the outer frame of the car will be composed entirely of solar panels. The more space open to receiving the sun’s energy, the more power potential.

Finally, the team has one more goal for this year’s car.

“This’ll be the cheap car,” Westlake said. Last year the team spent $14,000 to create their vehicle, dipping into the budget for this year’s car. This year, they plan to keep the total cost at around $5000.

While the “coffin” isn’t much to see right now, they’re well at work, with each member of the 12-teen team spending about an hour or so after school each day working on the car. Each person on the team has his own special skill that he brings into the project. Some students specialize in electronics, some in brake systems and, for the lowly first-year team members, there is a lot of cutting that needs to be done.

Westlake supervises the boys as they plan and create the car, but remains largely hands-off when it comes to most of the production.

“Half of the time, I don’t even know what they’re doing,” he said.

The boys work year round on the car, planning the build, strategizing about the competition and, more frequently than not, trying to fix their mistakes.

“A lot of it is re-trying to do something that didn’t work out,” said junior Ken Mannuzza as the boys slip into tales of accidentally dropped solar panels, cars that didn’t fit out of the classroom and a half-dozen other “great” ideas that turned into failures. Still, for the EVT, it’s part of the game.

“If everything went perfectly, we wouldn’t learn anything,” said Mannuzza.

In July, the 12-man EVT team, along with Westlake, will travel down to Texas to compete in the Hunt-Winston Solar Car Challenge. This 4-day closed course competition will take place on the Texas Motor Speedway. The competition is not about how fast the cars can go, but how far they can go. The three seniors on the EVT will take turns driving the car for the competition and they’ve already been working out their strategy. 

“It’s going to be about getting the right pace,” said senior Tom Grojean. The car isn’t likely to be able to move quickly for any extended period of time, so the students estimate that they’ll maintain a speed of about 30 mph. Either way, they plan for success.

“I feel really confident about it,” said senior Noveen Delaram.