Girls' pink car wins Electron Marathon
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
KAIMUKI — The dozen girls started out with one goal in mind: to build the lightest, fastest and best electric car in the state.
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Along the way, they decided to make it hot pink, shorten it by a couple of feet, make it out of Styrofoam and balsa wood, and eliminate as much steel as they could.
Kelly Carrington maneuvers the hot-pink Sacred Hearts Academy entry that won Saturday's electric car competition.
Their ideas and months of effort paid off Saturday when the team from Sacred Hearts Academy won the annual Hawaiian Electric Electron Marathon at Ford Island, the first all-girls team to win the competition in its seven-year history.
That's quite a feat for a bunch of girls who weren't familiar with welder's tools, epoxy guns, socket wrenches, saws and fiberglass, said Carl Debo, one of two team advisers working with the students.
Sacred Hearts first got involved in the competition six years ago as a way to maintain the girls' interest in math, science and mechanics, said Debo.
"It's an opportunity for the girls to use their skills developed in other classes in a not-so-traditional area," Debo said. "It is seen as a way to further their education in engineering, math and science."
The competition involved 24 high school teams, all building their cars themselves from identical kits provided by Hawaiian Electric Co., Maui Electric and Hawai'i Electric. Other co-sponsors were the U.S. Navy, the state Department of Education, Young Brothers and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Each team was rated in the categories of car endurance, documentation, oral presentation, construction and safety.
Sacred Hearts walked off with 85.66 points to win the Best of Show Award. West Hawai'i Explorations Academy came in second with 85.24; Kohala High School third, with 85.14.
Teams built their cars with a $2,500 spending cap, including the cost of car kits with their identical 1-horsepower engines.
"We all chose the color," said Deana Sin, a 14-year-old ninth-grader. "It makes a statement. We're girls, but we still have the best."
Sacred Hearts Academy
Cars from years past sit in the Sacred Hearts Academy work room, reminders of the evolution of building a lightweight electric car that can go the distance on two car batteries. Some of the girls from this year's team helped build those cars, too.
The Sacred Hearts team consisted of, from left, Anne Yamanoha, Sasha Kumagai, Kelly Carrington, Kristen Debo, Candace Nakanishi, Christa O'Connor, Monita Pang, Nohealani Hoopii, Deana Sin, Cassandra Sangermano, Nancy Cheung and Christina Gamayo. It was the sixth time the school had entered the competition, and this year's participants became the first all-girl team to win the contest.
In this year's model, the girls dumped as much steel as they could, eliminating more than 100 pounds and choosing the kind of construction used in sport aviation and in Formula One cars, according to Debo. It's the same kind of construction used by Dick Rutan, the pilot who completed the first nonstop, nonrefueling flight around the world in 1986, said Debo.
One student came up with the idea to use shrink wrap over the body of the car to keep it light yet strong. Another mastered epoxy mixer to keep the glue consistent. And still another designed and welded the metal suspension. Another mixed the epoxy and fiberglass. Still another designed the car's metal suspension.
"It's fun, you know," said Nancy Cheung, a ninth-grader. "You get to spend time with friends, and at first I didn't think I'd like it.
"Electric car isn't really me. You have to get dirty and stuff. But you learn new things."
To work on the car, the girls juggled their schedules, gave up social engagements and battled field mice hiding in the work room. They worked on the car for nearly 12 months — and in the last week before the race, they worked on the car daily.
"They talk about this as if it's everyday stuff," Debo said with a mixture of pride and wonder. "They have gone from calling things 'thingies' to the correct name of the part."
Sophomore Christa O'Connor didn't think that was such a big deal. "We know the right names and what things do, but we know each other so well that we don't have to use the right words," she said.
In the end, the competition turned out just the way the girls had planned.
And on the way home from Saturday's race, the students were already starting to think about ways to improve their design for next year.
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831
