It's a naked skeleton of wires, teflon, and stronger-than-steel, space-age materials. Its three wheels are arranged in a reverse triangle. It can accommodate anyone shorter than 5-foot-7.
Once covered by a molded yellow body and coated with Siemens solar cells, the "Wolverine" solar car will be unveiled and entered by a group of University students in Sunrayce '97.
"It's a carbon fiber and Nomex honeycomb sandwich," said Engineering senior Bill Haynes.
Sunrayce '97 is an educational program sponsored by General Motors, Electronic Data Systems and the U.S. Department of Energy. Teams of college students across the country spend two years designing, building and ultimately racing cars that run solely on solar electric power. Of the past three Sunrayces, University teams have won twice.
Assistant Engineering Dean Gene Smith, the team's faculty adviser, attributes their past success on team organization and superior fundraising. Other college teams now "are organized very much like we are," he said.
Smith said the less competitive teams are usually underfunded. "In some cases, I don't think they've had as good resources," he said.
LSA senior Aaron Bragman, this year's race manager, said fundraising efforts were successful. Team Wolverine raised about $900,000 in equipment, service donations and cash.
"It's been extremely successful this year. We're fully funded," Bragman said, adding that fundraising and marketing are a major part of the project.
"I got involved back in my freshman year when I learned that the solar car was looking for pre-business students," he said.
This year's 10-day race will run from Indianapolis to Colorado Springs, about 1,800 miles.
Corporate sponsors for the team are divided into categories, depending on the amount of their donation. The highest funding category is the Platinum sponsors, who have each donated at least $50,000 worth of aid, of which $15,000 must be paid in cash.
Donations of equipment and services are also tallied. IBM, the team's primary sponsor, has donated laptop computers, an RS 6000 six-person work station and extensive software support.
Ring Technologies, another Platinum sponsor, supplied some labor and the use of their facilities to make the car's mold.
"We cut the whole body of their car out of wood," said Ring Technologies manager Mike Coker. "They did their own development."
There has been some controversy in the past over the fundraising activities of Michigan solar car teams. "We have in the past been accused of sub-contracting out our car," Smith said.
The team's total funding puts them far ahead of the Sunrayce defending champion MIT. To date, MIT's Solar Electric Vehicle Team has raised, "definitely under $200,000," said Masa Ishigami, an MIT sub-group leader. "We have always been a low cost team."
But Ishigami is undaunted by the prospect of being outspent. "It doesn't make any difference," he said of the Wolverine's finances. "It would be nice to have that much money, but we have enough."
All of this year's optimism is overshadowed by the team's failure at Sunrayce '95 when a wheel snapped mid-race and the car had to be withdrawn.
Exactly why this occurred is a matter of some debate. Smith blamed the accident on an attempt to be too cutting-edge. The wheels of the team's 1995 entry were made of composite materials and hadn't been sufficiently tested before the race, he said.
"We were trying to push new technology," Smith said. "We should have used normal metal."
Bragman blamed the disaster on insufficient testing of their car, which was brought on by a change in the Sunrayce schedule.
JONATHAN SUMMER/Daily
Team manager Aaron Bragman (front) and short-term strategist Paul Edwards work on their solar car yesterday. The car will be entered in Sunrayce '97.