Hyperion crossed the finish line of the 2012 American Solar Car Challenge in St. Paul, Minn on July 21. The PrISUm team, Iowa State’s very own solar car team, took second to Michigan.

“[It was] as good as we could have hoped,” said Evan Stumpges, PrISUm’s project director.

PrISUm was one of only four teams to complete the challenge without the need to trailer their vehicle. Much to the judges’ surprise and the team’s credit, even after a curb collision that damaged Hyperion, the team completed the challenge under the power of the sun and sound engineering alone.

During the accident the fairing door was broken off, an addition that had been completed at the competition. In addition to the body damage, the control arm on the struck side needed replacing. While the team had a reasonable wait for the spare parts, the entire repair took them little more than half an hour.

PrISUm was what some might perceive as the “relevant winners.” Michigan, with seven times as much funding as PrISUm, has been untouchable for some time now. While most teams have to work hard all year fundraising most or all of their budget, Michigan’s team is allotted a budget that exceeds several top teams combined prior to having to fund raise a cent.

Despite significantly less funding, PrISUm has been very successful, earning recognition at the challenge for both best electrical system and best mechanical system, awards that typically got to different teams.

One of the ways the team improved their design this year was by passively cooling the power cells.

“Eighty percent of the improvements this year were electrical,” Stumpges said.

While admiring their handy work the team expressed hope of one day competing in the international challenge held in Australia. The regulations there are considerably less rigid, the team noted.

“They kick your tires and say, ‘Yeah, looks like a car, see you at the finish line,” said team member Logan Scott. 

With the largest returning membership the team has ever seen and a collective experience beyond the average years, the team has high hopes and a promising future. While the loss of Boeing as a sponsor has been a disappointment, the team’s newest hope is to obtain pourable carbon fiber for their next project.