TONATIUH In 1992, I was elected to become part of the first Mexican solar car project. In that time, I use to be ending my carrier as an Industrial designer at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and I found myself very excited about that project. I didn’t realize it, but it was a dream… The objective was to design and build a solar car with cutting edge technology and take it to the Australian World Solar Challenge race (WSC). Beatriz Padilla the original founder and visionary of the project, was recruiting little by little dreamer students from diverse professions and universities to make the dream come true. Designers, engineers, accountants, administrators, sellers and more were the team member profiles. Every one of us developed our best in our own area, just as a little company. 3 Years later on 1995, the car was finish, We had gained the trust of our sponsors and the car was ready. We couldn’t achieve going to the WSC on 1993, but we got on time to the Sunrayce 95, a race organized by the Energy department of US, GM and EDS among the principal sponsors. It was great adventure of about 20 days, traveling from Indianapolis Indiana to Golden in Colorado, many things happened and at the end we got the 29th place form about 48 competitors, but we got 2 prices, the first one: “The Max Y King Award”, to best represent the race and competiveness spirit, and the “Dupont Award”, to have designed the most innovative Keblar and Carbon fiber monocoque body structure. I really enjoy saying that we took out this price to the MIT. Ones returning from US, the team started to prepare the car for the WSC´96. Many thinks we learned from the Sunrayce 95 and the car was waiting for a whole bunch of improvements and changes. A year later we were ready to depart to the Australian territory. This time the team had to be prepared to cross the whole desert form north to south in about 10 days. There are such a great stories to tell about the Mexican Solar race in Australia. At the end we finish in 6th. Place from our category (6/14) no too bad to have survived to the adventures we lived… The project didn’t end here, Tonatiuh made a final run over the Mexican peninsula starting from Campeche, crossing by Merida Yucatan, Cancun till arrived to Xcaret. Such a great team took part of Tonatiuh’s dream, many people stop by the project during its design and construction, but only about 15 where the real hart who stayed day and night making the project came true. The Tonatiuh team: Beatriz Padilla Daniel Amador O. Gabriel Córdoba N. Jorge M. Rodríguez Guillermo Margules Hilda García Cecilia Zolla M. Rafael Carmona Berenice Tápia. Eduardo Nava Gerardo Sandoval G. Erick Canchola Luis Carlos Luna Daniel Torres Ezequiel Ruiz Mauricio Alvarez M. Jaime Puente Udi Barush Jaime Gómez Ron B. Svensson José Luis Fernández Zayas Keiko Tago Daniel González There were many others…
ELECTRATHON PROJECT All the people who get involved in the kind of projects like the solar car, always gets lots of knowledge and experience. The Electrathon project emerges from the idea to give continuity to the knowledge and culture that the Solar Car project gave to its creators. But to get ones again the amount of sponsorship and budget to build a solar car would be a very difficult situation, that’s why we decided to bring to México the Electrathon Category. This category encourages students and particulars to design and build the minimal expression of an electric car for one person. To design the Electrathon car was necessary to customize the original Electrathon America regulation book, because mexican conditions are very different from the ones in US. The team members, which ones time were the heart of the Tonatiuh team, now were forming the Electratón Mexico Championship.
The first championship started on 1995, almost all the races took place over painted race track inside big parking lots. The cars, usually tricycles, were built with tubes and junkyard material. It worked with a couple of car standard batteries and bike tires. The customized regulation lucked in first place for the event and driver safetyness, that’s why before to be enrolled to the championship the cars were submitted to an exhaustive scrutinering to certify the cars were under the Electratón México regulations. Year by year the Electratón Championship in Mexico was growing, gaining universities from all regions of México.
The original Electrathon organizers gave the event to the “Camara Nacional de Autopartes (CAN)” to allow its celebration year by year. Every one of us (original organizers) kept its own way in 2001. Electrathon Organizers: Beatriz Padilla M. Lily Cohen Berenice Tapia M Daniel Amador Guillermo Margules Cecilia Zolla Jorge M. Rodríguez The organizers create a “How to design and build an Electratón car” workshops to teach the contesters before every championship.
The first championship started on 1995, almost all the races took place over painted race track inside big parking lots. The cars, usually tricycles, were built with tubes and junkyard material. It worked with a couple of car standard batteries and bike tires. The customized regulation lucked in first place for the event and driver safetyness, that’s why before to be enrolled to the championship the cars were submitted to an exhaustive scrutinering to certify the cars were under the Electratón México regulations. Year by year the Electratón Championship in Mexico was growing, gaining universities from all regions of México.
The original Electrathon organizers gave the event to the “Camara Nacional de Autopartes (CAN)” to allow its celebration year by year. Every one of us (original organizers) kept its own way in 2001. Electrathon Organizers: Beatriz Padilla M. Lily Cohen Berenice Tapia M Daniel Amador Guillermo Margules Cecilia Zolla Jorge M. Rodríguez The organizers create a “How to design and build an Electratón car” workshops to teach the contesters before every championship.
