We are finally here!  The last leg of the road rally and the presentations location.  Before I was having difficulties finding time to blog due to computer issues, but now we are fine I am using the team laptop with great success.  The pictures from the race track have just been posted on a site by one of our team members.

http://picasaweb.google.com/collegecarguy/ChallengeXCompetition2008 

Now the Equinox has been performing nearly flawlessly.  There have been the typical glitches as Murphy's Law would cause with the keys somehow getting locked in the car, with the lights on, and the fuel system offering some problems in the heat causing the engine to shut down in aggressive driving.  However, overall OSU has performed well.  Moving more towards marketing the commercial may not have been ranked by the judges, but the OSU commercial is #1 in everyone else's book with dozens of people telling us it was well done and enjoying the short little theme. 

The vehicle has truly turned out to be the fit and finished vehicle the competition had hoped for with the desire of many different higher executives to ride or drive our vehicle.  Ed Wall an executive with the DOE rode for a large portion of the road rally quite impressed by the quality of the ride and quiet comfort the OSU vehicle provided.  At one point Ed Wall even commented that it is so good it is almost boring with simply smooth driving through out the trip.  The team also drove with the GM Next reporters being interviewed during the trip and demonstrating the features a capability of the Equinox.

 Moving back to the subject of results so far here is what is in:

Handling: OSU #1 with 44.782 seconds, MSU and TENN #2 with 45.031 seconds

Acceleration: MSU #1 ~15.3 second 1/4 mile, WIS #2 ~16.8 second 1/4 mile, OSU #3 ~16.9 second 1/4 mile

AVL drive quality: The judges were quite impressed with the OSU drive quality and it is likely it will rank well

Sound/ Noise: The judge here was quite pleased with the ride and noise therefore the event was likely very good

Emissions: Unfortunately OSU's system must have shut down after detecting a fault (let me reassure everyone it was likely not a fault, but a limit that was programmed too tightly for safety).  Therefore the system did not reduce NOx at 2.3 grams/mile it is possible the system actually dumped NOx that had not been properly regenerated.

Road Rally: On road fuel economy OSU: 32.5 mpg, MSU (rumor has it ~44mpg)

Weight: 4404 lbs 

Static Consumer Acceptability: The judges were pleased to see the comfort and features of OSU's vehicle with available driver interfaces, GPS, and XM radio.  They were also happy to see a fully automatic system with the 6-speed automatic transmission and a fully automatic engine start-stop strategy. 

 As you can see from above everyone is excited for OSU to do well and we are doing well unfortunately we didn't perform perfectly as we actually had hoped.

Well the results are trickling in and I apologize to those of you that have been following the blog, but apparently laptop issues come in groups.  As of now I am trying to type with one hand while I hold my laptop screen in the sweet spot that works finiky at best.  So last night not only did I get in late but the laptop wasn't working and I gave up. 

 First off Ohio State is making a proud display with reliable driving with ease from New York to New Jersey, then on to Baltimore.  We drove 159 miles with a number of stops along the way waiting for various teams to "re-boot" or jiggle the loose wire.  The trip was mostly in the rain with no problem for our car.  We got the semi-official mileage of 32.5 mpg on diesel fuel during the trip. 

 There is more to come as I get on a computer that works...

Today the Equinox first appeared in the Static Consumer Acceptability.  The judges had some tough evaluations to make determining the fit and finish of the vehicle and the features.  The Equinox offers a full touch screen interface, XM radio, and GPS navigation, which showed the judges OSU's devotion to making the vehicle pleasing to the consumer.  Added features like an ammonia free exhaust after-treatment and fully automatic engine start/stop let the judges see what the other teams needed to bring to the table for a consumer ready vehicle.

Next the weather brought on an event change.  The Autocross was moved forward and all the teams competed for the shortest time through a parking lot cone course.  With Mississippi and Tennessee setting a high standard at 45.031 seconds Ohio State's equinox proved there is some serious horsepower and a much easier drive.  Maybe my driving won it, but the first run out taking the new lowest time of 44.789 was not simply driver it required an excellent car!!  Tomorrow will reveal just how much power has been squeezed out of OSU's Equinox hybrid power system!

The Equinox made it and it is wowing them all the way.  The organizers are impressed the team is pulling together to make everything work like a well oiled machine.  We have been running like a champ taking home the Gold Star for being Reliable and Ready...Well mostly!  We might have had a glitch or two I mean if Toshiba decided to give us a laptop with a BIOS that just fries for no reason, based on their tech support, that is not really our fault right???  We might have had the electric drive cut out from an unexpected condition, but it certainly didn't fail and came back online quite easily with a simple restart.  Then running the events for the rest of the day we ran emissions and AVL drive quality with out a hitch then Dynamic Drive Quality went flawlessly minus the mud puddle that made it look like we had been off-roading.  

So that was leading up to about 2pm so what did we do then??  Well we watched the other teams fix an axle shaft (Uh Oh!!), another was trying to sort out some turbo problems, then others worked frantically on small repairs.  Meanwhile we decided to take the moment to shine our baby!  The Equinox went through one nice little wash and wax and then got a good rub down with various other cleaners to make everything sparkle and shine and bring out the beauty within the beast.  Last item of business was some new stickers to give our sponsors the respectful mention they deserve with some well done cut vinyl stickers.

So how did the day end?  Well we have one beautiful, running car!!!  The touch screen should be fixed in a matter of moments as I write.  The events tomorrow will bring another good day for Ohio State University ChallengeX with more events and some display of our work!!

Stay Tuned!!