It's been full-on in Malaysia at Shell Eco-Marathon Asia. The most exciting thing has been tracking our Australian entrant, Girton Grammar Team Incharge, as they navigate their way through the competition.

(click here or on the image above for a video summary of Day 1) 

 

(click here or on the image above for a video summary of Day 2) 

 

Our Aussie team began their journey auspiciously, making it through immigration at Melbourne Airport 20 minutes before the immigration computer system shut down, causing massive queues and chaos for everyone else trying to travel!  

 

They nearly didn’t make it through though − one of the students, James, had never travelled internationally before, so he didn’t know he was meant to look up to the camera after getting his passport scanned, which the rest of the team found hilarious!

 

The team arrived in Kuala Lumpur late on Sunday night, 28 April, the day before the competition began, and arrived at the hotel at 1am on Monday 29 April, the day of competition.

 

Running on adrenaline, the team got to work early, assembling the car and putting in the electronics. The tests were running well, and everyone was relaxed and confident, until suddenly, the wheels of their car stopped turning! The next couple of hours were slightly frantic, with the students running around trying to diagnose the issue. After filming our Day 1 video with the team, they figured out the issue: some wires had become loose and the emergency stop button’s terminals weren’t connected properly - so there was no power going into any of the circuits.

 

Our Australian team was one of the select few fortunate to be invited to parade their car at the opening ceremony. It was great to see them walk proudly with their car in front of 18 countries and 108 teams, representing Australia under the scorching Malaysian sun.

 

Tuesday brought the technical inspections. The team was confident going in, but the technical inspectors were tough and weren’t letting them off easily.

 

The technical director was concerned about whether the Girton team’s drivers had enough experience in the vehicle.  The Incharge drivers had a lot of experience in other similar vehicles, and have raced in other competitions, but the technical director wanted to further assess their driving ability before letting them compete.

 

An interesting test was to see if the drivers could jump out of the car in less than 10 seconds, in case there was a fire. Incharge drivers managed 9.36 and 8.72 seconds, just under the threshold. Phew!

 

All up, the team spent over 3.5 hours in tech inspections, tying up cables and affixing them out of the way to ensure the car was as safe as possible.

 

Finally, Team Incharge passed technical inspection, allowing them to drive on the iconic Sepang International Circuit!

 

Even though the car was now certified track-legal, the technical director still wanted to make sure the team knew how to drive.  So the Girton drivers had to do two laps of the track successfully to show the director they could handle the track and car.

Incharge driver Emma got in the car to show her stuff. We watched as the beautiful Girton vehicle glided along the track. But then the display screen shut off and Emma was forced to drive the vehicle off the track. She didn’t even complete one lap − something had gone wrong!

 

Turns out the display board wire came out and Emma couldn’t see any updates, so she decided to stop to check it out, to make sure everything was functioning properly.

 

With the display wire securely plugged in, Emma tried again, successfully doing two laps of the track to show the technical director that the team was ready to compete.

 

Each car goes around the track four times to make a run. Each team is given eight attempts to lodge their best distance travelled per energy unit. The winner is the team with the most energy-efficient car in the division.

 

Girton Grammar Team Incharge had their first run that Tuesday afternoon. Four laps of the track, using the least amount of energy they could.

 

Incharge went around once, twice, three times. Up the hill, down the hill. The finish line was in sight. Just one more bend…and then…nothing. With the finish line in sight, Girton’s vehicle stopped on the home stretch. Oh no!

 

So that’s one attempt down but nothing on the scoreboard yet. Only eight out of the 22 teams in their division managed to complete their first run attempt.

 

With two days of competition to go, let’s see how Girton manages to fight back and prove their mettle!