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My name is Adrian Juergens, I'm the US technical manager
for the Shell Eco-marathon Americas event.
The focus of these presentations
is to address your technical questions via brief videos.
Thanks to all of you who have submitted your technical questions
for this very first presentation.
Let's get started.
If you have a gravity-fed system you do not need a reinforced fuel line,
all you need is a polyurethane clear line that goes
from the bottom of the fuel tank all the way to the carburettor.
Please be ensured that there's no fuel filters in between,
we need that solid line.
It does not need to be reinforced.
For the pressurised system, it does need to be reinforced
to prevent the expansion of the fuel line
especially when we're doing your fuel check at the end of the run.
There are some examples that will be posted.
I'm going to ask you that you also refer to Article 26, items A through E
This is a key piece of your safety equipment for the vehicle,
but mainly protects your driver.
Items that you need to focus on are that roll bar,
please read those rules carefully about the roll bar and follow them,
they are strictly enforced during the inspection.
Also, when you're designing your vehicle,
make sure your driver is protected from lateral collisions,
that's the left or the right side.
We want the driver to be fully engulfed in a protective environment
should there be a rollover or a collision,
so please place close attention on protecting your driver.
The issue here of appendages are sail-like objects that when caught
would take advantage of wind when you're on the competition track,
or bodies that tend to give, like plastic that's really thin,
and if the wind should catch it, it does create a sail effect.
We are going to be looking for that.
If you are going to use some type of skin material
it must be extremely tight and not prone to changing shape.
The second part of that question
are the appendages that might create a safety issue.
What we're looking for here are sharp edges or points
that some teams have on their vehicles that people bump into,
or walk by that could get cut, so please take some extra care
on getting these issues handled for your vehicle.
We have received a lot of questions regarding changes
to the solar and battery electric categories for this year.
As noted in Article 67,
the photovoltaic elements and battery electric categories
have been merged into one category called Battery Electric Vehicle.
Therefore there is not a single solar category for this year.
Please pay close attention to that.
If you're going to use solar panels,
you have to have a battery electric vehicle.
The panels, according to the rules, must be an integral part of the body.
In other words, they must be secured to the top of the body.
They cannot be propped up, they cannot be raised up with a frame
or anything like that, so in other words
you have your main body structure,
and then your solar panels would have to adhere to that structure,
now they can be screwed in, they can be glued in,
that's up to you, but they have to be a part of that body.
For the prototype vehicles the visibility test is really key
because of the uniqueness and way the driver is positioned in the vehicle.
I have two positions on the post;
I have a lower position and a higher position.
As long as the driver in the prototype vehicle can see
the lower number or letter in that 180 degree view,
that is acceptable.
Also, you need to pay close attention to the side view mirrors.
I will be checking the view range for the driver
on those side view mirrors, that is also a critical element.
We have had in the past, where the view is so far off,
they can't see any drivers directly behind them
so we will check that and work with the teams
to help to get a good angle of view for the driver.
Another thing we're going to be looking at on both visibility tests
for the prototype and UrbanConcept, will be the helmet.
As the driver turns, the helmet should turn with the driver,
and you may think that's silly,
but we have had people like to use helmets for everybody.
If the helmet's too large
and we see the driver's head turning and the helmet not,
that's going to be an issue.
And we also want to ensure
that the helmet does not become a blind spot for the driver,
so we will be looking at this very carefully.
Well, that's all for today's high five moment.
We sincerely hope you've found this helpful.
I ask that you please keep the questions coming
by sending them to us via Facebook Messenger.
You can also contact us via the Shell Eco-marathon website,
which is www.shell.com/ecomarathonamericas
also Twitter www.twitter.com/shell_ecomar
and also don't forget about your relationship manager, Anne Buchanan.
Thank you, and we will see you next month.
Take care.