CalSMV, the Super Mileage Vehicle Team at the University of California, Berkeley participates in competitions such as the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas and SAE Supermileage, where students design and build a car with the purpose of obtaining maximum fuel efficiency.
CalSMV is an award winning student-run team whose goal is to complement the education of students at UC Berkeley with practical, hands-on experience. We encourage students of any major to come out and participate in CalSMV work sessions, which we usually hold on Saturdays. Please email CalSMV[at]gmail.com to join our mailing list, which will let you know when we are meeting and what we will be doing. For more information about joining our team and what we do, please visit the about section.
News and Updates:
Fall 2011
Nine weeks and Counting
We are officially nine weeks away from leaving for the Shell Ecomarathon Americas 2012. We now have both of our fairings laid up and we are in the process of sanding and patching them and getting them ready for a coat of paint (bright yellow this year). We are also finishing up machining our engine and steering parts. We'll be going into major assembly mode in the next weeks so we can get some testing in before we leave for Houston.
Recent Sponsorships
SMV would like to thank Hexcel for their donation of one roll of carbon fiber and Fi Comm and ESC for a $600 grant toward competition. Our team really depends on donations and we really appreciate the support of our sponsors.
Schedule Success
The past few weeks have been spent working on molds (we're almost done!) and machining many steering and engine parts. The engine rebuild is going well, and we're aiming to have a working engine (running carb) by December. The steering machining is going very well thanks to our active machinists (who are a HUGE help) and we are on track to be ready in time for competition (23 weeks!).
Got Molds?
Although the tarp leaked water into the foam of our molds, the fiberglass still cured and we have a pretty decent surface to begin with. There are some wrinkles, and in retrosect,we should not have rushed the layup, and should have taken our time to more carefully smooth out the wrinkles in the fabric, but they weren't too bad. After some serious sanding Saturday, we then covered the mold in a thin layer of bondo, which we can then sand and apply gelcoat to. Then, there's only a little more sanding and we're ready to layup our new fairing!
Mmmmmmmmmmolds, my favorite
Our first official worksession of the year was today! We didn't get much attendance, but we still managed to layup one layer of fiberglass in our molds. We finished shaping the foam a few weeks ago, and started to complete the top mold. Since we can't vacuum bag it, we decided to cover the fiberglass with a tarp and fill the entire mold with water. We tried to be as careful as we could about smoothing out wrinkles and creases in the fabric, to prevent an enormous amount of very painful sanding later on. We're going out later this week to layup another layer, and then we get to sand. Our favorite...but it'll be worth it when we can make good-looking molds.
Summer 2011
Molds Molds Molds
We've decided that instead of just re-fiberglassing and fixing up our molds from last year, we want to try to re-shape our molds a bit. Mostly, we want to decrease their volume. We filled the top of the driver's compartment with X-30 expanding foam, as well as the spine of the top fairing. We wanted to try to take in the sides also, but trying to stick sheet foam to the molds with spray adhesive didn't work, so we re-thought our priorities and decided to let go of that idea, and just focus on shrinking the driver's compartment as much as possible. The garage will probably be un-visited for the next two weeks, but we'll be back after a short summer hiatus and back to work soon.
First Garage Trip of the Summer
Yesterday a pair of us went out to the garage (Happy Fourth of July!) and got started on re-vamping our female molds. We've decided to fill the inside edges with foam, in order to decrease the volume, without having to remake entirely new molds. We started with adding some X-30 (expanding foam) into the top of the driver's compartment, and we'll soon be using foam sheets to decrease the width of the fairings. It was a pretty decent workday until somebody...(me)...left their keys at the garage and didn't realize it until I got home. Helpful tip to all you SMVers...don't ever do that. Make sure you leave the garage with your keys on you.
Summer Plans
This summer we're designing new steering parts, fixing up our molds and working on our engine, and we'll be ready to work in full force as soon as classes start in August.
Spring 2011
End of Competition Season
Here's the story from SAE.
Nearing the end
We're now two weeks from leaving for SAE in Michigan.
Shell Eco-Marathon Photos
The story of competition is finally up! Sorry for the delay, and I can't vouch for it's accuracy for the last couple days, they all start to blur together. But check it out.
Older News
See archived announcements from the 10-11 season and earlier.