Iron Warriors with another success

Since the middle of May 2024, our students taking part in the Iron Warriors project had been in France, taking part in the contest of hyper-economical vehicles Albi Eco Race in France - a multinational competition of electrical, solar-powered and hydrogen-powered bolides. The competition takes place annually on the Albi racing track in France. This year, the team of Łódz University of Technology won the Silver Cup.

Iron Warriors is a team that functions under the Student's Association of Motorization Enthusiasts on the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Turbomachinery. It is one of the fastest developing team that take part in Eco-Marathons. Their previous achievements include a victory in Educ Eco in France and setting the record of Poland in driving on one drop of fuel (currently 837 km/l) twice.

Iron Warriors have attended this year's Shell Eco-Marathons in Nogaro. On that track, in the category of prototypes with combustion engines, Iron Warrior's bolide Eco Arrow 3.1 was once more set out to compete. In the first days on the event, the bolide had passed technical inspection, which was more strict than in the previous years.

The next days were rather tense. Unfortunately, a bad luck struck, and the bolide experienced an unexpected malfunction.

"On 11 o'clock our bolide was driven to the racing track, but just several minutes later an unexpected technical problems occurred. The vehicle had stopped after just one lap, and our driver was not able to ignite the engine again." - said the team members.

However, this was not the only problem that had troubled students. On their social media, they posted about a malfunction of the brake system. The weather also provided additional difficulties - rain and wet asphalt increased the risk of collisions.

Fortunately, just a couple hours after the engine malfunction, team members again put out their bolide on the starting line of the track, and in the following days had performed a series of successful drives, ending the race on the 15th spot, with a 482 km/l recorded. This score was the best among the teams from Poland.

Iron Warriors, subsequently, had earned high positions in all individual contests. After the technical inspection, the team quickly rose to the top, winning the first part of the competition: "short run." This part requires to keep as stable time of a lap competition as possible while maintaining the target speed - the team that manages to keep the most consistent times and least fluctuating speed wins.

The next part, "long run," requires to drive as many laps as possible in the time frame of two hours. The rules of the race also require to change the drivers every 45 minutes (or sooner). Unfortunately, even on that closing part of the competition there were some unexpected problems.

"After the yesterday's victory, we've got the first starting point. First couple of laps were wonderful, but after that we had problems with a blocked steering system and a collision that had damaged Eco Arrow. Despite this, we finished the race on the 4th place." - the students told.

Despite technical difficulties and a collision that had damaged the hull of the bolide, long run was completed, achieving the 4th place.

The whole competition was settled in its final part - the slalom. Due to the skill of our highly experienced driver, Eco Arrow 2 had proven that it is not only very economical, but also much responsive, avoiding every obstacle in its path. The effort of the whole team were rewarded with a place at the podium.

The team posted on Facebook: "After the final contest, we are happy to announce that we had won the Silver Cup."

This success was also possible thanks to the support of many partners: Veolia PL, TBP Interprojekt, Łódź University of Technology, the Faculties of: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Control Engineering, the Faculty of Technical Physics, Information Technology and Applied Mathematics, the of Łódź University of Technology, the Faculty of Chemistry and the Institute of Turbomachinery of Łódź University of Technology, Foundation of Łódź University of Technology, the city of Łódź, the OPUS Centre, the Incubator of Social Entrepreneurship, igus Polska Sp. z o.o., strefadrukarek.pl, PAFANA SA and Arpaprint.pl.

"Thanks to your support we can drive further and reach farther!" - The team expressed their gratitude on Facebook, highlighting that it is the support of their sponsors that enables them to keep working and succeeding at their goals.

Iron Warriors don't stop after this victory and already have started to plan enrolling in future competitions, improving on their designs and achieving another record.