Evolocity

This year I took part in designing and building an electric vehicle that would then compete in a competition called Evolocity. On Monday 28th of Oct (Labour day) a group of students from Otaki college arrived at school at 6:45 AM to load their electric vehicles that they had designed and built onto a trailer to then travel to Palmerston North.  When we arrived we unloaded the three vehicles and got set up in a pit area to prepare for the very stressful scrutineering. After all the vehicles had passed the scrutineering we went over to the kiosk to sign the driver agreement and get our driver wristbands that allow us to go out onto the track.

Otaki College’s three teams were; 2Buck10 - Zach Heenan, Bill Brookman, Ethan Bevan and David Dai; Wayne Enterprises - Logan Boyer and Haki Ropata; Last Minute - Stanley Butler and Hamish Campbell.

After receiving our driver wristbands, my team headed out to the track with our kart to line up and wait for our turn for the drag race, along with the more than twenty other vehicles from different schools. We did very well in the drag race. From the drag race we went down the track and participated in the gymkhana which is similar to a slalom. All three of Otaki College’s vehicles dominated in this event with all of them winning in their designated classes.  After the gymkhana, we returned to the pits to reset the supplied ECU (that measures power usage) so the officials could accurately measure the energy used in the final race. The final race for open class consisted of 6 laps of the whole go-karting track with a mandatory driver change, this event was the perfect event to test the vehicles full capability. This event offered a good test of each vehicle's endurance and speed. Teams needed to maintain consistent performance over a longer run while managing a quick driver switch, adding a bit of strategy to the straightforward race.

Evolocity was an incredible experience, filled with excitement, teamwork, and technical challenges. We not only showcased the power and efficiency of our electric vehicles but also the hard work and innovation that went into each design. Competing alongside other schools highlighted the importance of engineering and teamwork, and it was rewarding to see our efforts pay off in multiple events.

Otaki College gained the following awards; 1st in Engineering Design for Open Class - Wayne Industries, 2nd in Engineering Design for Open Class - 2Buck10, 1st in Overall Vehicle Performance for Open Class Karts - Wayne Industries, 1st in Overall Vehicle Performance for Open Class Bikes - 2Buck10, 1st in Overall Vehicle Performance for Standard Class Karts - Last Minute.

Article by Logan Boyer