Lighting the way for the UM solar car race team

FoxFury to Help UM Solar Car Team Light Up the Outback 


FoxFury Lighting Solutions has signed on as the official lighting partner of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team (UMsolar). FoxFury has donated LED headlamps, flashlights, area lights and utility lights to the team for use during the 2011 World Solar Challenge, an 1,800 mile (3000 km) road race across the Australian Outback in October. 



“As the official lighting partner of the University of Michigan Solar Car Race Team, FoxFury is supporting the team with a wealth of equipment which will aid us in winning the World Solar Challenge. Specifically, the Nomad lights will provide the team with quick deployment flood lighting for all nightly maintenance,” said Chris Hilger, Business Director for UMsolar. 

UMsolar’s Quantum, their latest car, features major innovations including improved aerodynamics and a 200 pound reduction in weight. Quantum has a carbon fiber chassis and body, runs on lithium ion batteries and uses silicone solar cells. Quantum can reach a top speed of 105 mph (169 kph). 


“FoxFury is excited to partner with UMsolar again. We’re very impressed with their leadership, innovation and ability. We're honored that they feel our lights can help give them a competitive edge in such a rugged and pressure packed race,” said Antonio Cugini, Director of Marketing for FoxFury. 


UMsolar will be entirely self-reliant throughout the World Solar Challenge and will camp in the Outback during the four days of the race. If the team wins this October, they will be the first American student team to win the World Solar Challenge.

“We expect these lights to save us time in our evening operations in the Outback including vehicle maintenance in the pitch black of night. We’ll use the Nomads to light our two Base-X shelters. One Nomad light will be used in our mobile vehicle garage while the other will be used in our tent in which all 20 race team members will sleep in,” said Hilger.

UMsolar successfully performed a Mock Race in Michigan last week. They’ll have a practice race in Australia in September before competing in the World Solar Challenge in October.
Click here to see the FoxFury lights in Action.







About UMsolar:
UMsolar is an entirely student-run organization that designs and builds solar electric vehicles. The team races both nationally and internationally. Since its establishment in 1990, the team has built 10 vehicles, won the American Solar Challenge six times, and placed third in the World Solar Challenge four times. The team is recognized as the most successful team in North America. http://umsolar.com/

Related articles

• University of Michigan Solar Car Team Wins Third American Solar Challenge (prweb.com)
• Science News Roundup: Carmegeddon! (caterpickles.com)

World Solar Challenge, Outback style

 

An example of the open land found in the Outback that is suitable when finding a campsite.

After a long day of racing, there comes the time in which the team needs to find a place set up camp for the night. However, it isn’t as easy as picking a spot on the side of the road. There are many factors that affect our decisions on where to camp.
When there are just ten minutes left of racing left for the day, the Weather and Scout vehicles have those ten minutes to find and set up a place for the team to stay for the night. Weather and Scout look for a plot of land that is large enough to park all the vehicles in our caravan, set up large tents, and is easy enough for the solar car to drive off and onto.
There are a few differences when racing in WSC versus in ASC. During ASC, finding a campsite is challenging due to the fact that there is less open land and the land is usually owned by an individual or company. In the case of ASC, the Weather and Scout vehicles are responsible for asking the individuals who own the property if we would be able to spend the night and set up camp. In contrast, during WSC finding camp is generally easier due to the fact that the area we race through is open land and we can stop almost anywhere.

The 2010 ASC team working together to set up the Base-X

The Base-X tent all set up in the outback.

Once the campsite has been decided upon, the Weather and Scout vehicles need to set up the Base-X tents and array stand. By doing so, when the solar car arrives to the site moments later, the team can quickly remove the array from the lower and angle it towards the sun – allowing for maximum charging time. Two Base-X tents are set up as they are essential for the team: one to house the team and another to use as a “garage” to repair and work on the car. At this point, operations will start cooking dinner, the engineers perform nightly checks on the car, strategy and weather analyze the data collected and plan for the next day of racing, and media captures and updates footage.
During WSC, we are entirely dependent on what we bring to the outback, completely away from civilization. Conditions can be hostile in the Australian outback, so it is important that the team has a few basic items that are necessary to survival. For example, wind speeds reach up to 60 mph, there could be torrential rain, deadly animals or insects, or extreme heat or cold temperatures. A few of the most important items that we keep on hand are reliable pocket knifes and flashlights. Having high quality and reliable knives, like the ones that were donated by Benchmade are useful when needing to prepare meals, cutting electrical tape for fixing wires, and just keeping with the general maintenance of the car.

Benchmade sponsored some beautiful and highly useful knives for the race crew.

In order to work on the car at night, the team requires high performance lighting such as the ones provided by our official lighting sponsor, FoxFury, who donated a team set of flashlights as well as Nomad area floodlights that will help light up the area the team works within.

FoxFury sponsored a collection of (clockwise from bottom) Rook, Command, Scout, and Nomad (not pictured) lighting solutions.

As a whole, the camping aspect is not only a part of the solar car experience, it also allows the team to bond and practice.  The team will have a chance to get a feel for the camping procedures this weekend during our Mock Race, providing experience that will be critical to success during the World Solar Challenge.


We would like to extend a thank you to Benchmade, FoxFury, and HDT (sponsors of the Base-X tents) for their generous donations to aiding the team in our quest to win the 2011 World Solar Challenge.
Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar
Win The World umsolar.com/wintheworld

Taken in it's entirty from
The University of Michigan Solar Car blog

Chasing4Life Update

Chasing4Life

We just got an update in from Eddy and the crew,

 "Did you see the steer we rescued from the collapsed barn? Yep! FoxFury headlamp and the Rook flashlight was all I had crawling under that 3 story barn!"

 "The team is still deployed in Iowa on Monday's storm path. Going to be a few weeks of it at least! Heat indexes are running 105!"

The hard work and rescues these guy accomplish continue to amaze me.

Related articles

• Storm damage reported across Eastern Iowa (thegazette.com)

Make hay while the sun shines.

When you sell flashlights and area lights, it's not a 9 to 5 job.
So when I got a call that my GF's truck was broke down on the side of the road I sprang into action.

Not one to miss an opportunity, I made sure to set up the Nomad so the tow truck driver could have a lot of light to work with. (he did get a one of my cards and brochure).
Also made for a good photo op.
Saturday night, 10 PM, anytime, anywhere

Sorry for the poor pictures, didnt have time to grab the "good" camera.


FoxFury, were ready when you need us!

Texas IAI show.

The very wonderful people at Medtech Forensics
were in attendance as vendors at the 
Texas International Association for Identification conference

I grew up in Southern Arizona, so I have always been impressed with the western lawman look. No one does it better than the Texas Rangers.  Here are some picture from the show, you can sure tell a Ranger.

Special thanks to Ms Holland  at www.medtechforensics

For the pictures

Fire Helmets and Helmet Lights

UPDATED AND MOVED TO OUR NEW BLOG AT  www.foxfury.com/blog/

 

Related articles

• Helmet ratings website launched (autonetinsurance.co.uk)
• American firefighters' helmets through history (boingboing.net)
• Tradition vs Progress: The Art of the American Fire Helmet (core77.com)