Tag: Electric Cars

Hanging out at the 2021 LA AUTO SHOW!

I’ve always said that following your passions will lead you to interesting places! As my luck would have it, following my passion for automobiles has led me to the stage at the 2021 LA Auto Show as the recipient of the Hispanic Motor Press Foundation Scholarship Award!

The Hispanic Motor Press Foundation Scholarship is a scholarship dedicated to supporting young Hispanics pursuing a career in journalism focusing on the vehicle and transportation industries, with emphasis on the technology of the motor vehicle.

I applied to this scholarship because even though I’m not technically studying journalism, I am a transportation design student who does automotive journalism on the side as a hobby. This blog is the perfect example of that! Well, I’m happy to say that I was picked as the winner and I was presented with the award on stage at the LA Auto Show!

Of course, this wasn’t the only highlight of my day. This was the first time I had ever been to the LA Auto Show! So naturally my shutterbug instincts took over and I was snapping away at every interesting display or concept car I crossed while hunting down designers and other industry insiders to talk and network with!

So, please enjoy these photos from the 2021 LA Auto Show! Also I wanted to give a very special thanks to the following individuals!:

  • Ricardo Rodriguez-Long
  • Jon Rosner
  • Aaron M. Sanchez
  • Jose Vargas Ulloa
  • Chris Benjamin
  • Angelica Willard

Thank you so much!

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The Final Word on the Eco-Racer

In my last post, I shared my recent discovery about the Eco-Racer and its true heritage. Originally, I believed the Eco-Racer was Osaka Sangyo University’s ENE-1 GP racer from 2011 to 2017. However, I took a closer look. I discovered these were actually separate vehicles! The ENE-1 GP racer had several differences in its construction compared to what I had. This included a different design for it’s canopy and tail cowling, and a different steering system. This led me to believe that my car was either an earlier prototype, or possibly the earliest version of the ENE-1 GP racer from 2011. I concluded that post by mentioning that I had reached out to the University for more clarification. All that was left to do was to wait for an answer. Well, I’m happy to say that answer came! Here it is; the final word on the Eco-Racer!

An Early Morning Email

I awoke to an email in my inbox with a Japanese email address. Upon inspection, I discovered the email was from a gentlemen named Takashi Sudo. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, maybe this picture would provide a clue:

Takashi Sudo is one of the designers, builders, and the actual driver of OSU’s Panasonic Oxyride Race Car from 2007! This car was built by the university in an attempt to set the speed record for a AA battery-powered car. They succeeded, and made it into the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records for setting a speed of 65.83 mph!

In his email, he very kindly explained to me that the he was one of the people that worked on my car! In fact, he was a teacher during the duration of the project. According to him, my car is in fact a sister car built by a team of interns from Stanford University studying carbon fiber reinforced plastics manufacturing in 2009! This means that my car and the ENE-1 GP Racer were both made at the same time in the summer of 2009!