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Team Eco Veículo participated in Shell Eco-marathon 2008.
This challenge took place at the Nogaro Racing Circuit (France). There were two hundred teams competing and team Eco Veículo achieved the 8^th place in the gasoline powered vehicles.
The prototype traveled 1445 km with one liter of fuel.

Eco Veículo welcomes its newest sponsor. Bosch, established in 1886, is the one of the biggest world-wide privately owned corporations. It operates in automobile technology area, automation, metal technology, packaging technology, power tools, thermotechnology, household appliances, security systems and broadband networks. The group is owned by the charitable foundation Robert Bosch which carries philanthropic and social activities.

Eco Veículo welcomes its newest sponsor. Autodesk is one of the biggest software houses of the world. Its portfolio includes a wide range of solutions for creation of digital content for project in architecture and real estate, industry, government, telecommunications, media and entertainment.
This year, we are using Autodesk Inventor Professional 2009 in the development of our project.

Ampco Metal renewed its support to Eco Veículo. The new M3165 engine cylinder head will be made in Aluminium Bronze alloy AMPCO M4. The alloy AMPCO M4 was selected due to its hardness (29 HRC) which is enough to make the intake and exhaust valve seats directly in the cylinder head allowing to use intake and exhaust valves of larger diameter in such a small displacement volume engine, due to its low thermal conductivity (42 W/m.K) which allows to reduce heat losses and improve engine brake fuel conversion efficiency, due to the inexistence of volume defects (pores and voids) and due to its corrosion resistance at high temperature.
Headquartered in Switzerland, Ampco Metal is a leading international manufacturer and integrated distributor of specialty copper alloys and engineered products. To obtain unique and consistent alloy characteristics, Ampco Metal utilizes some of the most advanced equipments in the industry, a highly skilled engineering staff and sophisticated quality control procedures. Conscious of the environment, Ampco Metal utilizes advanced technology throughout its plants and service centers to rigidly maintain clean air and water programs.

A lecture will take place, next Wednesday, entitled "Presentation of CAD/CAM Solutions for the Automobile Industry, based in TEBIS Software" given by Engineer Manuel Marriço from Tebis AG, Germany, and by Mr. Pedro Bernardo from DeltaCAD, Marinha Grande, Portugal. Tebis AG is a company specialized in the development of software that allows the optimization of CAD/CAM processes. Amongst the CAD/CAM applications developed by TEBIS are model construction, prototype manufacture, die & mold manufacture, industrial manufacture and manufacture of aeronautic components. Tebis AG has as customers the majority of the leading Automobile Industry manufacturers, e.g.: BMW, VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Seat, Ford, Daimler-Benz, GM, Nissan, Toyota and PSA.
Tebis AG was responsible for the machining of Eco Veículo's engine M3165 cylinder head, developed at the Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica of the FCTUC, specifically for the Eco Veículo.

Place:

Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica Auditorium, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra, Pólo II, R. Luís Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal.

Timetable:

14h30-15h30 Presentation
15h30-16h00 Discussion

Eco Veículo welcomes its newest sponsor. ISA, Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, is a company that develops and commercializes remote management systems (telemetry), develops domotics solutions, video-surveillance and industrial automation processes. Founded in 1990 and initially composed of 5 students from the University of Coimbra, ISA is nowadays worldwide leader in different market segments. ISA manages all the tank telemetry systems and gas counters of its main customers, which are oil companies. ISA is present in several countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Israel, South Africa and Brazil. The company, which was the pioneer that introduced the concept of telemetry in Portugal, now teams up with Eco Veículo, supplying not only the digital display that will equip the new prototype, the XC20, enabling the driver with real-time information about the dynamic behavior of the prototype, but also a data logger that will store information about some kinematic parameters of the vehicle and operating parameters of the M3165 engine. This new ability will enable the team with better knowledge and understanding about several aspects of the vehicle and engine under competition conditions, thus orientating the team in a more precise method of reducing fuel consumption.

For the 2008 edition of the European Shell Eco-marathon, the organisers focused on a number of key aspects and set new priorities. The main goal is to ensure the highest levels of safety on and off the track, as well as comfortable on-site living conditions. For that, the organisers had to choose the most competitive teams from more than 300 applications and limit the number of participating teams to 200. 25 different countries will enter this year's competition, three of them for the first time. These are Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine.

Team Eco Veículo race information:

Race number: 7
Group: Prototype
Engine: Internal Combustion
Category: University
Class: Gasoline

Nogaro will also host the event for the last time, from 22-24 May. Hockenheim, in Germany, is set to receive the competition from 2009 onwards.

Eco Veículo welcomes its newest sponsor. Sony, a multinational corporation born in a radio repair shop after World War II, which today is worldwide leader in electronic products and, through its sub-brand VAIO, a manufacturer of laptops of excellence, will supply Eco Veículo with new and improved processing power. Sony VAIO laptops are developed following an innovative line of thinking of simple, mobile and environment friendly characteristics. In order to achieve these goals, all Sony VAIO laptops have an easy to use design, lighter and longer lasting batteries, dangerous substances free components such as lead and polyvinyl chloride, and are built using magnesium alloys and carbon fiber, amongst others. Also Sony is working for a cleaner future, employing not only rational environmental policies such as reduced use of water and paper in all offices and buildings, but also manufacturing solutions which envisage the increase in material recycling.

The construction of the new Eco Veículo's prototype continues to advance. Some students used the pause for exams, to finish elements of the steering system and the support of the fuel deposit. At the same time, contacts are being developed to assure support for another year of competition, of which some agreements already exist. Eco Veículo will announce its partners for 2008, soon.

Eco Veículo's prototype was on display to the general public at the Lousã City Hall's Municipal Exhibits Center, as part of the Science and Technology Week's Program organized by Lousã's City Hall. Its main objectives were to promote and to expand scientific and technological culture, to the general public.

Lecture at DEM-FCTUC about the Development of a Vehicle and Engine, Winners of Several World Class Fuel Economy Competitions.
Engineer Hisanori Nakane will give a lecture, in english, entitled "Challenge the World Record of Fuel Economy Car Race (Shell Ecomarathon)", on November the 14th, 14h30, at the Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra’s Auditorium, in Pólo II. Team Fancy Carol, led by Engineer Hisanori Nakane, participates in fuel economy competitions since 1988, in Japan. After winning the 1996 Suzuka competition, the most important in the country, with about 500 participants, team Fancy Carol decided, in 1998, to expand its participations to european competitions not only for the passion of the competition itself but also to acquire different kinds of knowledge and technical abilities and to get to know the european culture. At the time, as nowadays, the european competitions were more competitive than the japanese ones. Team Fancy Carol won in its very first european competition participation, in Finland, and after that won, at least, once in all other european competitions. Team Fancy Carol won the 1998 and 2000 Finnish competition, the french competition in 2001 with a performance of 3444 km/L at 25 km/h, the belgian, british and the scottish competition, all in 2002. The team that he leads stands out of the other participating teams due to the originality of the design of the vehicle and engine that have been entered in the competitions. It’s precisely about the development of this original vehicle and engine that Hisanori Nakane will give its lecture at the DEM.
Engineer Hisanori Nakane, age 45, has worked for Mazda until 1998. Currently working for FC Design, Co., an enterprise founded by himself and with headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan, develops its activity by designing reciprocating and rotary (Wankel) internal combustion engines, internal combustion engine components and engine test benches. FC Design, Co., has as clients some of the largest Japanese companies like Honda Motor Company and Hirobo.
This action is taken under the Project POCI/TRA/61209/2004 funded under the Operational Program Science and Innovation 2010 (POCI 2010) of the Community Support Framework III and co-supported by the European Community Fund FEDER.

Images of the participation of the Eco Veículo in the 2^nd edition of the Feira Nacional de Parques Naturais e Ambiente, that took place in Olhão, Portugal, are now available in the Gallery » 2007 » Exhibitions » Olhão section. With about 40000 visitors, this exhibition also had the visit of the Secretary State of the Environment, Humberto Rosa and the member of Parliament Isabel Ramirez.

Shell Eco-Marathon UK 2007 finished, with team Eco Veículo achieving the 4^th place in the gasoline powered vehicles classification and the 7^th place in the overall race classification.

The prototype traveled 5612.3 miles with one gallon of fuel (1987 km/L).

A more user friendly, easy to use interface is now available in the Gallery section. Pictures from previous competitions were also added.

The participation of team Eco Veículo in the Eco-marathon UK 2007 has been confirmed by the organization, Shell Global Solutions, which will be held at the Rockingham Motor Speedway from July 4-5.

Images of the participation of the Eco Veículo in the Shell Eco-marathon 2007 are now available in the Gallery » Competitions section.

On the last day of the Shell Eco-Marathon 2007, team Eco Veículo broke its own record for the third time, two of them being consecutive, winning the title of Iberian Champion, again. The prototype traveled 1902 km with one liter of fuel at an average speed of 30 km/h, thus achieving the 11^th place in the overall race classification, 7^th place in the combustion engines classification, 6^th place in the gasoline powered vehicles classification and 5^th place in the Universities classification.

Team Eco Veículo established yesterday during the Shell Eco-marathon 2007, a new Iberian record in its first and only attempt made during the day, traveling 1794 km with one liter of fuel at an average speed of 30 km/h.

Eco Veículo welcomes its newest sponsor. Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC), founded in November 3, 1887, and led by Direcção Geral (DG), composed by students, is the most ancient student association in Portugal. It represents the Universidade de Coimbra's 20000 students and lodges a series of cultural and sports sections.

The M3165 engine was presented to the press this Wednesday, as part of a project financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, and also by several private companies like Tebis AG, Grupo Pachancho, Iscar, Autodesk and Ampco Metal. The newspapers, TV, radio and the institutions envolved in the design and construction of the M3165 engine were also present and had the chance to take a close look at the only fully assembled unit, until now.

Now available the DEM promotional video, in which the Eco Veículo participates.

Now available the M3165 engine first fire up video.

An important milestone was achieved this morning by the team Eco Veículo. The first unit of the new M3165 engine set off to a nice quiet startup, for great joy of everyone present in the Eco Veículo's lab, at the Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica of the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia. This unit will now endure several hours of running in on the test bench, so that the first measurements and engine tuning can be performed. For the outcome of this first test also contributed the perseverance of the team Eco Veículo who worked uninterruptedly to solve the technical problems encountered yesterday evening.

Available since November 2006, the Eco Veículo webpage has not only performed an important role in supplying information about the project, but also demonstrated to be a valuable asset to all of the the Eco Veículo's sponsors. The webpage has now over 4000 visits from countries such as Portugal, Brazil, France, USA, Spain, among others, which proves that the effort made by the Eco Veículo team in trying to transmit in a simple and the most user friendly possible way, all the project related information, has been producing good results.

Eco Veículo welcomes its newest sponsor. Auto-Industrial was founded in 1920, having been a pioneer company in the portuguese Automobile Sector. Although it still is the main activity, the group's businesses have since spread to the Agricultural, Marine and Industrial Sectors and the Financial Sector. Auto-Industrial will provide the transport vehicles for the team members and cargo of the Eco Veículo to this year's first event, in France.

Eco Veículo welcomes a new sponsor. Headquartered in Switzerland, Ampco Metal is a leading international manufacturer and integrated distributor of specialty copper alloys and engineered products. To obtain unique and consistent alloy characteristics, Ampco Metal utilizes some of the most advanced equipments in the industry, a highly skilled engineering staff and sophisticated quality control procedures. Conscious of the environment, Ampco Metal utilizes advanced technology throughout its plants and service centers to rigidly maintain clean air and water programs.

Tebis has already supplied Eco Veículo with the new M3165 engine cylinder head, machined in a Bronze-Aluminium alloy, AMPCO M4.

The new Eco Veiculo's prototype technical characteristics are now available in the Prototypes section, XC20.

Eco Veículo will be equipped with a new engine this year, the M3165. This engine was designed and is being built bearing in mind the specific race conditions that the Eco Veiculo endures. The M3165 operates under the Atkinson cycle which benefits from a higher brake fuel conversion efficiency at full load, as opposed to the Otto cycle engines. M3165 technical characteristics are already available in the new section Engines, in this webpage. Click on the image to download a 3D render of the engine.

Eco Veículo recently took part in a promotional video of the Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica. The video describes general activities developed by the department and projects currently under action. Coming soon.

Eco Veículo welcomes a new sponsor. The Pachancho Group casted and machined the piston and cylinder for the M3165 engine. This group develops its activities in the automobile industry area - piston rings, engine sleeves and special pistons, ferrous and non-ferrous technical parts casting and machining.

Eco Veículo welcomes a new sponsor. Tebis is currently machining Eco Veículo's new engine M3165 cylinder head. Tebis is a software company that develops CAD/CAM systems for tool, die and mold manufacturing. Tebis supplies turnkey installations and also provides a full software service including installation, training and hotline support.

Eco Veículo welcomes a new sponsor. Iscar is a supplier of precision carbide metal working tools, producing a wide range of tools covering most metal cutting applications. Iscar also provides metal working solutions in both engineering and manufacturing to major industries throughout the world. Many innovative products, designed specially according to customer requirements, have made Iscar a world leader in manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace and die & mold production.

Eco Veículo's XC01i prototype was on display to the general public at the Lousã City Hall's Municipal Exhibits Center, as part of the Science and Technology Week's Program organized by Lousã's City Hall. Its main objectives were to promote and to expand scientific and technological culture, to the general public.

Eco Veículo is once again part of the Shell Eco-marathon official poster.