Progressive Insurance X Prize

I am flying to Detroit Sunday morning. I have been hired as crewchief on one of the edison 2 cars. The shop is packed and I really don't have time to go but cannot afford to miss this either. This is a big part of the future and a sign ofwhat's to come in the car industry.
Forget E-cars.

Check it out at www.edison2.com

This is the second of 3 knockout stages, half the field has already gone home.
Entrants from all over the world are competing for the $10,000,000.- first prize.

I'll post some pictures when I get back.

Karl

 

Unless you want to give Martin a heartattack.

 

I'm flying back Saturday AM. I am at Michigan Intl. Speedway. I'll send you a couple of pictures. May be you could post them for me.

Karl

 

3 of our 4 cars advanced. Mine is one of them. I'll have to come back next month for finals. Flying home tomorrow.

 

Bring it on.

Karl

 

For this elimination stage one of the goals that had to be met was 67mpg average. All of our three remaining cars made it and one of those three actually broke the 100mpg mark. The goal is to try different things on all cars and then implement the strong points on all cars for the finale.
I believe that after the run next month all cars that advance will stay in permanent impound until the finale in Sept.
That leaves only 2 or so weeks to sort everything out.

 

I don't mean to jinx our efforts but........

There are two groups in the X prize. Alternative (2 seaters) and Mainstream (4 seaters)
I'm crewchief on one of the mainstream cars. As of last night and the final tests that had to be overcome, 0-60, 60-0, skidpad, etc. several more teams got knocked out in both categories. That left a good bid of competition in Alternative but our 2 mainstream cars are the only ones left standing.
That means that if one of our cars does not break by the end, $5,000,000 are going to our
team for first prize. I can't believe it. Alternative is also doable but tougher.

Karl

 

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/auto_news/x-prize
I work for Oliver Kuttner, one of the guys being interviewed.

 

After last weeks competition 4 more cars got eliminated. That leaves only 11 total, incl. 2 entries from Switzerland, 1 from Finland, 1 from Germany, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from China and the remaining 5 from the US.
3 of them belong to our team. The fun begins again this morning with double lane change maneuver, 0-60 and braking exercises.
More to come.
Thank you for your interest.

Karl

 

Thank you Gil. You know I enjoy going sideways and that's why you did the same with the pictures.

One of our cars blew the engine yesterday due to a malfunction in the launch control. We now call it lunch control because it lunched the engine. 15000 RPM free rev did a number on the intervals.
The 2 mainstream cars remain in the competition.

 

This interview sums up what this is all about.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F26315908%2Fns%2Fmsnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show%2F%2338479280&h=cf5c5

Quite interesting. A lot of video of our cars.

 

Thank you Tom

 

Tom. Thank you again. We are enjoying the show. Sean just saw himself while hanging out with Emanuelle Piro's kids.

 

My 12 yearold Sean drove Germanys TW4XP