Formula hybrid team to race in Italy competition
Josh Kurtz
Issue date: 10/2/09 Section: News
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The Drexel team will be the first American collegiate team to compete in this competition which will take place Oct. 7 to 9.
"We learned so much about our car in New Hampshire. As soon as we got back we started making changes to help us compete in the Italy competition," Verdieck, who's also the team's electrical captain for the Italy race and graduated from Drexel earlier in 2009 with a degree in electrical engineering, said.
They placed first in the New Hampshire race among cars using a series hybrid system, a type of system that runs only on electricity.
Series hybrid systems differ from parallel hybrid systems, which use both electricity and an internal combustion engine. Most hybrid cars sold commercially use parallel systems.
"All the lessons learned from New Hampshire will help us out," he said.
Verdieck said the Drexel team first learned of the Italy competition from a judge in New Hampshire. Drexel's College of Engineering is paying for the team's entry in the Italy competition.
The Italy and New Hampshire events are similar, except the Italy race has additional events, according to Verdieck. In addition, though both races feature collegiate teams from different countries, the Italy race features teams mostly from Italy and elsewhere in Europe in addition to one team from India, according to the event's Web site.
The New Hampshire competition featured mostly entrants from American colleges in addition to international entrants from Canada and Russia, according to the competition's Web site.
Verdieck found out about Drexel's involvement with hybrid cars his junior year at the University. At that time Drexel students were building a green car for the 2007 New Hampshire competition.
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