SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1006877
All Charged Up Team Fenix leads the latest wave of electric vehicles competing within SCORE By Dan Sanchez Electric vehicles have been around for quite some time, and with advancements in battery technology, have successfully competed in a variety of motorsports. EV’s in off-road racing, however, has been somewhat limited. Nonetheless, those individuals who have competed, have led the way for huge advancements. In 2012 SCORE teamed up with the Redstone Energy Group to introduce the Redstone-Sun Cup Challenge. It was an attempt to spur electric vehicle technology, allowing the opportunity of race teams to develop an electric-powered race vehicle. The challenge eventually led to other electric vehicle technologies to take hold and in 2017 the Acciona EV race team successfully competed in the Dakar Rally and attempted to compete during the 2017 Tijuana SCORE Desert Challenge, but without success. Raul Rodriguez Jr. and Molly Vermeer built and raced in their EV during the 2018 SCORE Baja 500 Past EV participation has led to huge advancements in this technology, which culminated with a new attempt by Raul Rodriguez Jr. and Molly Vermeer. Rodriguez is a former student at the University of Southern California, while Vermeer is a sophomore there. Rodriguez started Fenix Motors, a company dedicated to his dream of building a next-generation electric vehicle. “Our goal is to build a car that would be as comfortable as a Rolls Royce, but can go in the harshest terrain like a SCORE Trophy Truck,” said Rodriguez. Originally from Ensenada, Mexico, Rodriguez competed in the Sportsman class during the SCORE Ensenada-San Felipe 250 when he was 17. He drove a Class 12 race car and finished first in class. With the help of his father Raul Rodriguez Sr. he competed in Class 14 and Class 12 vehicles and had Baja in his blood. Vermeer is a USC Astronautical engineer originally from Utah and teamed up with Rodriguez in a quest to design and build an EV that could withstand the rigors of Baja that Rodriguez experienced in his past. Building The First Model Team Fenix began building one of Rodriguez’s dad’s Class 12 vehicles. They outfitted it with a YASA electric motor which is known for its reliability. “We did a lot of research on the motor and decided on the YASA 750 motor. It’s a UK manufactured motor that is used in the Koenigsegg Regera,” said Rodriguez. “We also wanted to use Tesla batteries and after a ton of designing, we put the system together.” According to Rodriguez, the motor can produce as much as 300 horsepower and 582-lbs.-ft. torque. They skipped adding a transmission and mounted it to a driveshaft that connects directly to a beefy Dutchman Ford 9-inch rear equipped with 3.89 gears. “The motor weighs only 82 lbs. and can deliver more power, but we limited it to 100 horsepower and 500 lbs.-ft. torque,” said Rodriguez. “The batteries are the same that are used in a Tesla and can provide up to 400 volts at 450 amps.” The result is a top speed of 80 mph and instant torque. “You have instant peak torque from 0-rpm,” said Rodriguez. “There’s no transmission to break and the speed is determined by the input from the accelerator pedal. The electric motor has only one moving part so you don’t need a lot of maintenance, and our goal is for the motor to last 3000-5000 miles without any service.” One of the vehicle’s battery packs that can deliver up to 400 volts Raul Rodriguez Jr. and Molly Vermeer were responsible for the design and integrated all the electrical systems. A friend, Erick Galindo helped with many mechanical parts, like the installation of the differential, suspensions and other. Jesus Ortega helped to prep the car to have everything else in good shape. Raul Rodriguez Sr., helped with the logistics and gathering more people for the pits, and providing the car frame. First Attempt The car was built in less than two months, to compete during the 2017 SCORE Baja 1000. “Our goal was to simply finish the race and we spent months preparing the software for it,” said Rodriguez. “When it came time to test the vehicle, it wouldn’t turn! We spend days without sleep trying to figure it out. The motor is an AC, three-phase unit, meaning it requires a computer to know where the polarity and position of the motor. The software had thousands of configurations and we finally made it turn a week before the race.” Team Fenix was finally ready to take the vehicle down to Baja and decided to test the motor once again. “When we tested the motor again, the controller blew-up,” said Rodriguez. “We couldn’t get another controller overnighted to us so we couldn’t compete. We did find out, however, that the problem was a manufacturer error and it was eventually replaced. So we set out to try and compete at the 2018 SCORE Baja 500.” Above: Team Fenix being interviewed during Contingency at the 50th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500 Right:Pit crew inserting a charged battery pack Making It To The Starting Line Rodriguez and Vermeer started the race with three sets of batteries and a very minimal team made up of family and friends. “The plan was to replace the batteries every 50-miles,” said Rodriguez. The team had two crews, one would have a fully charged battery pack ahead of the race car, while another crew with a discharged pack would drive ahead of the next stop to prepare for the next battery change. “The crew would recharge a battery pack in the truck while driving it to their next stop,” said Rodriguez. “Each battery pack takes about four hours to charge and during the race, we realized that the generators in the trucks were turning off and only recharging the batteries to 70-percent capacity.” Because the vehicle was also outfitted with a cooling system, there was no worry for the team to overheat the batteries. “If we needed to, we could change the programming and pull more voltage from the batteries,” said Rodriquez. But as the race progressed, the team discovered more problems. “During one of the pits, we realized that one of the battery packs was not charged at all because the power supply was turned off,” said Rodriguez. “This cost us about four hours, but we got it charged. Then, one of the crew put the batteries in the wrong way and broke one of the connectors. We had to cut the wires and redo the system on the car. It cost us another two hours.” By the time the team continued, they had surpassed the cut-off for an official finish. Nonetheless, they completed the race course an learned much more than from when they started that day. “Aside from the issues we had, the car ran perfectly,” said Rodriguez. “We are going to come back and attempt to race the SCORE Baja 1000, but with more battery packs. They’re expensive, so we’re currently looking for sponsors. If it works out, we want to build a SCORE Trophy Truck that is electric powered and can travel 200-miles off-road.” Team Fenix definitely made some huge advances in EV off-road vehicle design and proved that their system could tackle a rigorous race like the SCORE Baja 500. The EV Class is one that SCORE International is opening the door for more technologically savvy teams can utilize to advance EV technology and help lead the way to the possible future of off-road racing. In the meantime, Rodriguez says he’s learned a lot from the experience and has some ideas he’d like to try in the future. “The use of supercapacitors may be a way for EV’s to get peak power when needed on the race course,” he says. “They can release energy pretty quickly and relieve the stresses on the batteries and perhaps further lighten the weight of the vehicle. I’m still a performance guy and a huge car fan. So performance in an EV is a big thing that can help remove the stigma of EV’s being slow and give people range anxiety. We want to challenge the status quo and we think we’re doing that.” SJ