The 2013 Toyota Green Grand Prix features all kinds of eco-friendly vehicles in a two-stage fuel-efficiency competition. Stage 1 takes place at Watkins Glen International race track and stage 2 takes to the streets in a road rally format. We speak with the director of the Green Grand Prix, Bob Gillespie, and then take a ride in a heavily modified 2003 Honda Insight entered by Alfred State College.
Transcript[INTRO MUSIC PLAYING]
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I'm Bradley Hasemeyer, welcome to Translogic. When you hear the word rally race, most auto enthusiasts don't instantly think of fuel economy. They think of white-knuckled racing around hairpin turns at breakneck speed. But the Toyota Green Grand Prix is looking to do things a little bit differently. Here, MPG counts more than MPH.
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All right, so we're here with Bob Gillespie, the director of the Green Grand Prix. Bob, thanks so much for being with us. Tell me a little bit about how the Green Grand Prix got started.
BOB GILLESPIE: This is our ninth year. This actual Green Grand Prix is an outgrowth of an earlier event called Tour De Sol. We've spent nine years developing the motor event that is fun, challenging, and educational that promotes clean vehicle technologies.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Tell me the different vehicles you've had over these nine years.
BOB GILLESPIE: Fully electric, compressed natural gas, LP, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, Stanley Steamers, wood chip powered vehicles--
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: So you've had a whole range of different vehicle--
BOB GILLESPIE: Anything you can think of. There's two stages of this rally. In the morning session, we tell everybody that drives averaging 45 miles an hour for a lap. That's a little bit difficult, because Watkins Glen is such a hilly circuit and so it makes it very challenging. Don't go slower than 35, don't go faster than 55. So they have to operate within that range.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: OK.
BOB GILLESPIE: Because fuel economy is also measured, they can't just set the cruise control on 45 miles an hour.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Because the car won't regulate it very smartly.
BOB GILLESPIE: That's right, that's right. It'll go the same speed up that steep hill. It's a time, speed, distance event. You are to arrive at a checkpoint at a split second. You will be docked penalties if you're early or late. Here we are in the 03 Honda Insight. With me as Kent Johnson, Kent, thanks for being with us. In this car, it is completely stripped down. You guys have eliminated about 800 pounds. You took out the suspension, door panels are gone, even the covers over the seat belts, the floor is out, anything that didn't absolutely have to stay was gone, right?
KENT JOHNSON: Yeah, so a street car-- has a lot of compromises with a street car. Just to make it comfortable and user friendly for everyone. So when you're building a car for a competition, anything you don't absolutely have to have for that competition has got to go. This is a senior student project. The students will come up with new ways to get better efficiency out of the cars. This year modifications included lower rolling resistance, bearings, engine modifications. Early testing have indicated that it is more efficient than it was last year, so we're hoping to get a little over 100 miles to the gallon out of it this year.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: You guys have put in something very unique.
KENT JOHNSON: Yes, we have we have a manual control over the hybrid functions. We can vary the amount of motor assist that we get.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: So if you see a big hill coming up you know, all right, let's increase our speed before we get going up the hill, and then once you're at the top of the hill you can pull back on the [? region, ?] increasing it, so as you're going down, you're giving as much power back to the battery as possible, right?
KENT JOHNSON: That's right. By pushing it forward I can give you more [? of a cinch, ?] you can feel that.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I can feel it moving us forward.
KENT JOHNSON: And then by pulling it back, I can slow it down and that's giving me regenerative energy.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yeah.
Now what are the rules about the cars that can be entered? Do they have to be stripped down, do they have to be right off the assembly floor?
BOB GILLESPIE: They have to be street legal. If it's street legal, they can enter a motorcycle. They can enter a pickup truck.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: It's kind of a cool way to get people who, maybe they have hybrids, they have those kind of vehicles, give them a place to go and challenge themselves. So what's the purpose of the Green Grand Prix?
BOB GILLESPIE: Purpose of the Green Grand Prix is simply to promote clean automotive technologies that are pointing the way to the future. Schools are very knowledgeable in these new technologies. The kids are very aware of the problems of the way we power our vehicles. We need to promote these technologies and encourage the auto tech students, because those are the ones that are going to be designing and building the vehicles of the future.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: There you go, another successful Green Grand Prix. Sure, this thing seems a little small scale, but the truth is this thing is educating and inspiring generations, from elementary school kids all the way up to senior citizens. And we love the fact that part of it happens on a track. All right, for Translogic, I'm Bradley Hasemeyer. See you next time.
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