Cristian Espinoza

Professor Caruso

UWRT 1102

April 4, 2017

Solar car Defense paper

I began my inquire by asking the question why dont we have cars that use renewable

fuels? Today we are living in an era with very new and modern technology that is only

constantly being refined and improved so why havent we done that with our automobiles. The

most common has improve from the early day horse to the cars we have today. Although the cars

we have today are technologically advanced in almost every possible way except for the fuel

they consume. Our automobiles have been using fossil fuels since the day they were invented all

the way until present day. Today companies would rather spend lots and lots of money into

building a car that would drive its self that into a car that is healthy for the environment.

My product, a scale solar powered car is intended to be an example for the public of an

alternative to the old fossil fuel powered cars. When choosing the design or body of the car I

wanted to use a car that looks a bit different car so that when people see it on the street it makes

them want to buy the car instead of the old conventional fossil fuel powered cars of the past. I

also did not want to use a very different looking car than those on the market because if I did the

public might not like the design and the project would be over before it starts. Using the Stella as

an example it is a different looking car and few people would like to drive around in an awkward

looking car with a large solar panel on the roof. It is Because of this that I decided to use the

body of the new 2017 Ford GT, which is a very attractive car. I picked this car because I wanted
to build a car that the public can admire and enjoy driving it. The Ford GT is one of the newest

supercars that Ford has produced meaning that this car is not something that most people see

daily. Although it is a car that cost from $400,000 to $450,000 directly from Ford, with

modifications to the car and with solar panels improving and decreasing in cost, it is possible to

create this car for a fair price that can be placed on the market.

One of the reasons that I chose this car is because although it is a very new car it still has

a very poor fuel economy even though the car cost $400,000 to $450,000. The EPA announced

that the 2017 Ford GT has combined gas mileage of 14 miles per gallon, it gets an average of 11

miles per gallon in the city and an average of 18 miles per gallon on the highway and although

Ford labeled the car as an EcoBoost it still gets worse fuel economy than the much heavier and

bigger Ford F-150 Raptor (Markovich). The Ford GT is a rear mid-engine car that is powered by

a twin turbo 3.5 liter V6 engine, although the Ford GT has a smaller engine than its competitors,

its twin turbos help it produce 647 horsepower and 550 lb/ft of torque which allow the GT to stay

competitive in those aspects but compared to its competitors the Ford GT has a much smaller

engine and yet the fuel economy is not much better. In comparison with the V-12 Lamborghini

Aventador coupe the GT does not show a great improvement in gas mileage the Aventador has

the same gas mileage as the Ford GT even though the GT has half the size of the engine, the only

improvement that the GT shows is the combined gas mileage is one mile per gallon greater. In

Comparison with the twin turbo V-8 Bentley Mulsanne it has the same gas mileage, meaning that

the V-8 Bentley Mulsanne is much more efficient since its engine is bigger and the Bentley is

also equipped with a twin turbo setup (Markovich). To make matters worse the new and

improved Ford GT has a worse gas mileage than its older model that stopped being produced in

2008, the old Ford GT beats the 2017 Ford GT in both city and highway gas mileage. The old
Ford GT gets 12 miles per gallon in the city and 19 miles per gallon on the highway which is one

mile per gallon better than the new 2017 Ford GT(Markovich). It is because of these reasons that

I believe that we can improve current and future cars by equipping them with solar panels as a

fuel source instead having to rely on old fossil fuel technology. With the new technology the

solar panels power the car and completely eliminate fossil fuels.

I wanted to show that solar power can used to power and improve a new car like

the 2017 Ford GT so I decided that the best way to do that was to create a scale model of what

the car would look like. By building a scale model I hope to motivate people to buy the solar

powered car instead of buying a fossil fuel powered car. I built a scale solar powered car because

when most people buy a car they want to see it in person instead of just looking at pictures and

that way the buyers have a chance to see what they are buying so that they know what they will

be getting when they purchase the car. In comparison to the stella solar car that has a large solar

panel on the roof of the car I tried to integrate the solar panel to the cars aerodynamic design by

making the solar panel a wing on the car that improve the downforce of the car and the

aerodynamics.

In addition to building the scale solar car I decided that the best way to promote the car

was to create a billboard ad. I created the ad to promote the car and I added the words do your

part because I wanted to emphasize the importance and impact that switching would do to our

environment. By creating this ad my audience, people who drive cars or the whole public, is able

to see at least a picture of the product. This ad would be placed in highways with billboards and

as an add on websites to add interest to people in the market for a new car.
 Old Sources

Nally, Brooke. "The Future of Cars Could Be Solar." Pardon Our Interruption.

RenewableEnergyWorld.com, 02 May 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

<http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/the-future-of-cars-could-be-

solar.html>.

O'Callaghan, Jonathan. "Meet Stella, the Solar Powered Car That Drives 500 Miles on a SINGLE

Charge - and Warns You When Traffic Lights Will Change." Daily Mail Online. Associated

Newspapers, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-

2767806/Meet-Stella-solar-powered-car-drives-500-miles-SINGLE-charge-warns-traffic-lights-

change.html>.

Thomsom, Peter. "The Car of the Future - the Very near Future - Might Be Driven by the Wind." Public

Radio International. Public Radio International, 08 Apr. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

<https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-08/car-future-very-near-future-might-be-driven-wind>.

New Sources

Markovich, Tony. "EcoBust! The 2017 Ford GT Will Get Slapped with a Gas-Guzzler Tax."Car and

Driver Blog EcoBust The 2017 Ford GT Will Get Slapped with a GasGuzzler Tax Comments. Car

and Driver, 06 Jan. 2017. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. <http://blog.caranddriver.com/ecobust-the-2017-

ford-gt-will-get-slapped-with-a-gas-guzzler-tax/>.

Stoklosa, Alexander. "Ford GT - Car and Driver." Reviews - Ford GT Price, Photos, and Specs - Car

and Driver. Car and Driver, 12 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.caranddriver.com/ford/gt>4
Wikipedia. "Ford GT." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 Apr. 2017. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GT>.