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| The Ford
Motor Company sponsors an annual university competition to design
and build a hybrid-electric car. Our team, the Stanford
Hybrid Automobile Research Project (S.H.A.R.P.), was given a stock
Ford Escort station wagon to convert into a hybrid vehicle. |
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We decided to use a serial hybrid system, in which only the electric
motor drives the wheels and the gasoline engine is only used to recharge
the battery bank. We had a 3-phase AC drive motor custom-made, used
a Honda 2-cylinder motorcycle engine, and hid 17 nickel-cadmium batteries
under the floor in the rear of the car. |
| Disassembling the car. |
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Joining the project as a first-year student, I quickly got very
heavily involved. By the spring term, I was heading the "Fahrvergnugen"
group, which covered all of the accessory systems--things like fire
extinguishing systems, battery chargers, lights, controls... |
| Posing for a photo for the promotional brochure. |
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The competition was less than successful for our team. The electric
motor was somehow wound to require 3 times the specified voltage,
so the car only crawled along. Combined with personality conflicts,
the fact that the competition was during exams week, and the fact
that I almost missed the flight to Detroit, it was a bittersweet ending. |
| University President Gerhard Casper taking the
car for a spin. |
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