Featured Prius Challenge Looking For Hyper-Milers

Tomorrow's the big day!

Wish @3PriusMike and I luck as we attempt to get the best mpg at Sonoma Raceway and beat out some of the smartest data people Silicon Valley has to offer!

We'll do our best to represent !

 

Best of luck to you both.

rp

 

I wonder if it will be on "Livestream"?

Bob Wilson

 

You would need a pretty long attention span. The race will be 9 laps with 2 driver changes in a target time of 41 minutes (penalties for finishing early or late).

As I was watching the Daytona 500 on Sunday with my son, my wife said "how can you watch this? The cars just go around in a circle!"

My response was "waiting for the big wreck." This prompted the cursory eye roll, especially after I mentioned that this was race #1 of 36 for 2017.

There will be no such excitement like that tomorrow, or the in car umpires will do their best to prevent it.

 

Hummm,

• 1st Prize - $50 gas card for the team members
• 2nd Prize - $100 gas card for the team members

Bob Wilson

 

The term that was used at the Orientation was first place gets "Bragging Rights"!

 

Prius Challenge completed and had a great time!!

Met @HAWAIIANBUILT while there and he represented well:



While the team @3PriusMike and I were on did not win, we logged a respectable 71 mpg. The winning team had 85 mpg.

Some others pics below:



Our Prius for the Challenge:


They had some Lexus's and Toyota 86's there for hot laps, and the professional drivers pushed them to their limits:



The free shirt they gave us:



I know Mike took some pics and probably Rodney as well.

Next years event they shared will have an autonomous driving car and no traffic to compete with.

When the sign up comes out, I will be throwing my name in the hat.

 

Nothing on "Livestream" but there are a series of YouTube videos, very short clips, with Mike Miller and Matt Cresci, describing in 'general terms' the goals.

THINGS I LIKE

• Racetrack, not open road so there are no conflicts with ordinary traffic
• Standard car(s), apparently no team tuning

THINGS I DON'T LIKE

• Trying to scrape details about the event
  • Rules?
  • Distance?
  • Metrics?

I get the distinct impression some 'non disclosure' forms were signed.

FYI, some day I hope to visit: Green Grand Prix

Bob Wilson

 

There were 20 teams and we were split into groups of 10. Some of the rules were 9 laps in 40-42 minutes which requires 2 driver changes. So there was traffic and only 4 areas of the track indentifed for passing, so momentum was compromised from time to time.

The layout employed was the "chute" where turns 5 and 6 are not used and turns 4 and 7 are connected by "the chute". Distance was 1.75 miles unless you pitted for a driver change, which then lengthened the lap to 1.95 miles. Pit row speed limit was 30 mph until you approached the 10 pit stalls, which it then dropped to 15 mph.

When a driver change occurred, the in car umpire had a stop watch and enforced a minimum 30 second time that started when the car was in park with the parking brake on. Lap #9 or the last lap you had to finish in your pit stall, or another 1.95 mile slower lap.

We were able to finish in 41 minutes 47 seconds, or just under the 42 minute cutoff prior to mpg penalization for going over on time. But our mpg economy could have been better as 71 mpg was only mid pack.

Next year traffic will be eliminated, so a true driving strategy can be employed. Something to look forward to next year.

 

Here's a copy of the official rules.

 

What kind of air/track temp's were there during the event -
.

 

Race was in the afternoon with temps in the low 60's and overcast with A light breeze of 5 - 10 mph or so.

A nice day at the track .

 

Thank you!

So did anyone do a GPS capture of their laps?

Bob Wilson

 

TRI did. The in car strategist had an iPad with the app to show us our live mpg as well as our standing versus the competition. Traffic was the wild card and affected lap times. We were headed through turns 7and 8 on one of the laps in a section you should be "free wheeling" in N but the car ahead was regenning their battery going 20-25 mph where we would normally be at 40-45 mph. No passong in that section so the lap time extended. While we tried to do the same regen during that time, the extreme grade in turn 2-3 chewed the battery up quickly, along with slow traffic from time to time.

We were in the B group and raced second. When our session was completed, they had their prototype autonomous Lexus go on the track for 2 laps. They said they would use that data along with the data the 20 teams generated.

So closed course with "predictable" or constant terrain with variances being human behavior.

Not coming from the big data and electronics side of engineering, I will be curious to see the evolution over time.

 

The teams ranged from 56 mpg (one team) then up to about 65mpg and 4 teams over 80 mpg. The winning team was at 85 mpg, besides the official Toyota (Prius designers) team which got 86 mpg. However a few teams finished late which, technically gave them a mpg penalty for the final rankings.
The Toyota team also had a test run the day before.
We also got to drive the i-Road around a track in the parking lot.
Highly recommended for people to attend in the future.

Mike

 

From the picture it looks lie the cars had the 15" wheels.
My tires have a maximum pressure of 44 psi, but the rules stated they used 45 psi, apparently admitting their tire pressure recommendations are bogus.
It is curious they exceeded the maximum tire pressure as stated by the tire manufacturer.

 

I am driving our Prime tonight as I have a unique experiment in progress.

Bob Wilson

 

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

But experiment descriptions help too.

 

Patience my friend.

Bob Wilson

 

Asking for patience of a person who just participated in the slowest race in the country.

A local media outlets description of yesterday's "race":

Prius Challenge brings slow, efficient racing to Sonoma Raceway | abc7news.com

Good luck with your experiment.