http://www.greatrace.com/newsite/ind...-york-to-paris

Hybridfest inc. and Great Race are teaming up to show the world what hybrids can do, shatter myths, and educate the world.

On a personal note, I'm one of the racers.

Lastly, please, let's not turn this into a "How much fuel are you burning showing everyone how little fuel you can burn" kind of discussion.

 

Hi,
I was looking over the list of participants, which is your team?

http://greatracegarage.com/garage/20...ts_newsite.php

Looking over the schedule, it looks to be a lot of fairly short segments. A timed rally, precision is more important than anything else. I was curious about the vehicle being used.

The original race had a lot of unpaved areas to transit. A hundred years later, hopefully those segments will be fairly rare. Still I noticed quite a few older cars from the 1920s-1930s on the list.

A race like this takes a lot of support and money, especially on the Asian and Eurasian areas. I would image there would be a second, possibly larger team following with the logistics: parts, mechanics, e.t.c. Funding is not a trivial problem. Will there be fund raisers to support this effort?

Bob Wilson

 

Up to ten (10) teams will be selected and each will be provided a hybrid vehicle. One common vehicle will be used.

We have not formally announced all the MPG Challenge Teams. Although informally there are a few hearty souls, like Pravus Prime, who stepped up to the plate early to say they would be up for it.

Here's a link to the registration application form for the race
http://www.greatrace.com/greatrace/p...e_EntryApp.pdf

Usually there would be a $109,000 entry fee, but it is waived for NY to Paris MPG Challenge participants. That fee is generously being paid for by sponsors. So basically you need to get your team to New York and home from Paris.

Since this is an MPG Challenge we will be shooting more for MPG than precision.

 

Ahhh, so this is a driver skill test versus a hybrid vehicle test. Still, having all one model will make it easy to see how it works going on a casual, 22,000 mile drive.

When I was asking about supporting the teams, I was thinking more along the lines of participants needing to eat, fuel purchases and other "cost of living" expenses (laundry, nick-nacks, supplies.) Then too, vehicles need stuff like oil changes, filters, and possibly tires. Plus plans (if any) to handle breakdowns.

I hadn't found the entry forms but I appreciate the link. As I looked at the form, even the shorter, North American rally had nearly a $6,000 entry cost . . . just to be in the race.

LATE THOUGHT: 22,000 miles / 20 miles per hour -> 1,100 driving hours. If driving 10 hours per day, that would be 110 days. Why 20 miles per hour? Between 18-20 miles per hour is the optimum distance, speed for a Prius and 18 miles per hour was the speed used for an Insight. Still, four months of solid 10 hours of driving would be worth it. Of course that might be the average speed of the first race!

DURATION OF EVENT: This press release states:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...e,201399.shtml

Knowing the logistics involved, I suspect the rally times will need some recognition by the hybrid drivers or there won't be any observers to mark completion of the course. Regardless, the race log should nail down the actual speeds traveled on each segment.

Looking at the statistics:
12,323 Total miles
50 Driving days, 65 elapsed
485 Max day miles
78 Min day miles
246 Avg. miles/day

I wonder if they will allow any battery pre-charging and block heater use before the official start of each segment?

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

Wow, that's just so impressive! A few remarks.
First, I looked at the participant list and there's one car in the race that was built in 1904, and thus could actually have participated in the first Great Race, in theory. That's just insane!

Second, most of the North America stage of the race goes through Canada. Why is that? Isn't it fast enough to zoom through Wyoming or Montana or something? Or are they trying to avoid traffic jams going around the Great Lakes when they hit Chicago? Maybe the sponsors are Canadian companies? I remember in the movie, The Great Race, there was a stop in Texas, a Wild West town called Boracho (which is Spanish for drunk- take a guess why they picked it!)

Third, on the subject of the movie- that was one of my favorite movies as a kid! The Great Race, from New York to Paris- if you're going to be driving in this race or following it, and you haven't seen the movie yet, I really recommend it. SO hysterical! I know it's mostly parody, but there are not many movies in which you have sword fights, bar fights, pie fights, a hero all in white, a suffragette handcuffing herself to a men's room door, a villain with a black mustache, a trip across the ocean on an iceberg, a Prisoner-of-Zenda-esque identity switch, pigeons carrying messages, and an interesting encounter with the Eiffel Tower.

Last- good luck on the race! That's going to be incredible, and we expect lots of updates!

 

Hi Eric,
I hope you' all will be able to publish the average miles per hour and miles per gallon for the vehicles. You'll have some excellent data for each vehicle. Looking at the statistics:

12,323 Total miles
50 Driving days, 65 elapsed
485 Max day miles
78 Min day miles
246 Avg. miles/day

I wonder if the hybrid teams will be able to use battery pre-charging and block heaters outside of the official start of each segment? Heck, just taking a little 'warm-up' drive of 15 minutes would be enough to significantly improve the on-track mileage.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

http://greatracegarage.com/garage/20...ts_newsite.php

Second from the bottom. 'Tis me!

 

Indeed 'tis!

I was looking through the rules and noticed that they say you have to follow the traffic laws in each country. This immediately brings up two points. First, will they be telling you in detail which things are different as you go through each country (many things are standard, but there are certainly a few oddities, use of passing lanes, stuff like that, to worry about, some of which might impact hypermiling techniques) or will you have to research them yourselves, and second, will the speed laws apply to non-Mpg Challenge racers? It is a race, after all. But the course isn't closed, so it might be impractical.

 

It is a rally style race with checkpoints and hard time limits to pass each one. If you pass a checkpoint too soon, it deducts from your points so speeding is not encouraged, accurate navigation is. But I understand the MPG drivers won't have the same rules as far as rally points.

Bob Wilson

 

Sorry for my ignorance, but I don't know a rally-style race from a hole in the wall. could you be a little more clear why this set of rules would discourage speeding? I mean, these people will be driving in traffic, and they'll presumably have to have good maps and navigation skills, but in many areas the routes would be obvious enough that they'll be the same for everybody. (the MPG drivers, however, might look for routes of different types) So why wouldn't people speed just in case they need to make up time for poor navigation or the like?