During the present year the team of MDRG carried out some modifications on the chassis to improve E-Snake: the wheel-base was shortened and the caster angle modified.
In order to monitor the performance of the vehicle on the road, the students of the team equipped the vehicle with a data logger and some sensors. The measurement system includes a custom made torsiometer for the measurement of the steering torque and an inertial platform with GPS developed by 2D (a german company leader in the field of data acquisition systems for motorsport). Some road tests were carried out.
Since the advanced Li-ion batteries of E-Snake 2007 showed some problems of reliability, the vehicle was equipped with more rugged Pb-gel batteries, which give a smaller range, but are suited to contests.
In this configuration E-Snake participated to Formula Electric and Hybrid Italy 2008, which is the contest organized by ATA for electric and hybrid vehicles developed by university teams.
The team of Padova University (students: Matteo Corso, Marco Claut, Alberto Prati, Michele Zoppello, coordinated by Prof. Vittore Cossalter, Alberto Doria e Manuele Bertoluzzo) competed in class 2 (2-, 3- o 4-wheeled vehicles without limitation in the chassis design).
The registered teams were 6: Politecnico di Torino, Roma La Sapienza & Roma tre, Roma La Sapienza, Università del Salento, Università Politecnica delle Marche and E-Snake.
The dynamic tests took place from October 1st to October 3rd in the track of Safety Testing Center of FIAT Group (Orbassano).
In the first day E-Snake obtained a good placement in the Endurance/Energy evaluation On the morning of October 2nd the team of Padova triumphed over the events of hill starting ability, autocross and acceleration. In the endurance/performance evaluation event (21 km) E-Snake obtained the second place just behind the 4-wheeled vehicle of Enea.
Thanks to the 3 victories, the good placements and the good presentation of the design of the vehicle, E-Snake obtained the highest total score, resulting the winner.
On October 3rd an informal pursuit contest was organised. E-Snake was again the winner of class 2.
At the end of the static and dynamic events the vehicles were exposed at Centro Ricerche Fiat. The award ceremony took place at CRF auditorium.
