University of Kentucky Solar Car Team

Happy One Day for UK! We officially have 24 hours to raise as much money as we can for our club and for Gato del Sol 7, we hope you’ll help us meet our goal. Any amount you donate or sharing this post helps us!😸💙🤍

Hey Wildcats! Tomorrow is One Day for UK, this is a time for friends, family, or alumni to donate to your favorite organizations. We hope you’ll help us meet our goal of $7500 tomorrow. We can’t wait 😼💙

One Day for UK is fast approaching! Please consider helping us reach our goal! Just visit https://solarcar.engr.uky.edu/ to make a donation!

Slowly but surely, our Mechanical Team is perfecting their fiberglass skills! Being a time-consuming process, the aeroshell mold takes precision and patience for a near perfect product. Great work, Mechies! Next up, Carbon Fiber Layups!

Join us this Thursday, January 18th at Pigman Hall at 6pm for a Meet-n-Greet with the UK Solar Car Team! We’ll tell you all about what you can do to make our newest car, Gato Del Sol VII, a reality. Did I mention we also have Chick-fil-a, thanks to support from PPL? That’s right, we’re cool like that. See you there!

Our very own Brake Subsystem Lead, Andrew Lupachino, is becoming a local celebrity! The Marion County Public Library set up an Art Space display filled with Andrew's side project: Foam replicas of the University of Kentucky Solar Car Team's past, present and future cars! These cars were made from the high density polyurethane foam used to create our aeroshell plug. Expensive Stuff! If you're near Lebanon, KY, be sure to stop by!

Happy solar eclipse day from your favorite wildcats! Here’s some behind the scenes of making our newest solar car 😼

Mold Waxed ✅
Practice layups ✅
Lock-in Scheduled ✅ Mountain Dew on standby ✅✅✅ After a long-awaited update the team is ready to manufacture the bottom aerodynamic shell using a carbon fiber wet layup process. The team has spent the last few months manufacturing the molds, correcting any areas that needed touch-ups, and getting the mold ready for layups.
Stay tuned for a sneak peek of the carbon fiber bottom shell!

We are welcomed by the Engineering LLP for a second kickoff. Drop by Pigman Hall room 106 at 6pm to learn more about solar!

If getting hands-on engineering experience, learning about sustainability, and having fun in a comfortable learning environment sounds great to you, come join the UKSC for our 2023 Fall semester kickoff event! You can learn about our mission and tour the garage. No experience is needed, and all majors are welcome.

Kickoff will be on Tuesday, September 12th in White Hall Rm 114 from 6pm-8. There will also be free Canes!

This year we will not be competing at the Formula Sun Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, despite the huge amounts of hard work put in by all of the team this year it is not feasible for us to compete at the race this summer. Each and every person on the team has been working as hard as they can to get Gato del Sol VII ready to race but it’s simply not possible. In order to allow our team members to work on their school work more and have better balance between the team and their lives we made the decision to not compete this summer. This decision has allowed much of our team to be relieved of the stress of possibly putting out not the best product just to be able to race. We thank you for all the support you have given us and can’t wait to show you the final result.

Today marks graduation from the University of Kentucky College of Engineering. The team would like to recognize this semester's graduating seniors, it’s these members' dedication that keeps our organization strong and steady. These seniors will be truly missed by our team members however they are going off to do amazing things post-grad!

Descriptions will be written in the order of the pictures:

Daniel Biggs: Computer Engineering, post-grad Biggs will start at Epic Systems as a Software Developer!

Elizabeth Howard: Biosystems Engineering, post-grad she will spend this summer interning at NASA’s Langley Research Center, following that this fall she will start her Graduate Degree at Purdue University studying Aeronautics & Astronautics!

Hank Harrington: Dual Degree in Accounting & Finance, post-grad he will be working as an Auditor at KPMG!

Connor Talbot: Computer Science, he currently is working at KTCTS interning as a Web Services Specialist!

Last but certainly not least is Gato Del Sol VI. Postgrad they will be used for STEM Education, UKSC Outreach, and many more events! Gato 6 will not be competing anymore, over its time it became the most successful car that the team has built. Hitting top speeds of 75 MPH+, finishing 3rd at FSGP 2019 while slashing the fast lap for solar electric vehicles record at COTA. In 2021 Gato 6 won FSGP with a Runner up at ASC, with this being the first finish the team had at ASC in over 10 years. Last year (its last race) Gato 6 finished 3rd in both competitions putting the car and the team as podium finishers 3 competition years in a row. Also can not forget Daniel Biggs getting fast lap for SOV at Heartland Motor Sports on the last lap of FSGP this past summer. A last shout out with Elizabeth Howard being the driver to finish off 6’s competition career.

Half of this graduating class were lucky enough to be drivers and the other half actively worked towards ensuring the continued success of Gato Del Sol VI. This is why we are featuring it in this post along with our lovely Graduating Seniors!

The bottom shell mold is complete! After that seen in the pictures, the team built a platform to sit the mold on once removed from the foam. Holes were drilled after this to allow for the mold to be bolted back together once removed. Finally, the mold release worked like a charm and we released the mold from the foam. Mold will be posted about when more progress is made!

The countdown is over, and has arrived! If you would like to personally support the team today is the day to do it. We are so grateful for your support and we cannot wait to truly showcase what we have been working so hard on over the past year!

If you are interested whatsoever in supporting the team, feel free to check out the link in our bio! We cannot thank you enough!

is just 2 days away! If you want to personally support the team and the release of Gato VII, feel free to support us on April 19th. Let’s make Big Blue Engineering the best there is!

Check out the link in our bio to get started!!

In just 3 days, get excited for on April 19th. For a full 24 hours UK alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends come to support their favorite college program! We hope that you can help us achieve our goal to release Gato VII! Let’s push the boundaries together!

Check out the link in our bio to get started!

As promised, here is our next update on manufacturing!
Primer has been applied to the filled and sanded foam plug, the primer works as a barrier between the plug and the mold materials. This weekend the team worked on the final primer touch-up, and the initial clay walls for the mold. The clay walls allow us the break the bottom shell mold into multiple sections to allow for an easier release from the foam plug. This week, we will wax the foam where we are starting the mold, followed by mold release. This will finish the foam plug process. We will follow this through the mold-making process. This will be a repetitive process over multiple days as we will only be prepping each section on the day of the layup. Seen in the photos is the team working through the process in the order mentioned. Stay tuned for more regular updates.

Milestone for Mold Making:
Over the past few weeks, the team has been working very hard to get the foam plug in tip-top shape! We finished milling the foam, and the next step in the process involved lots of sanding and dry fitting to build the foam positive (A foam car). After dry fitting the pieces and sanding the outer edges of the foam to sit properly, the team moves on to one of the most critical parts of the foam plug process. With the foam glued together and held in place with PVC pipes, it was time for surface sanding and touch-ups. The surface after sanding the plug will be carried through to the mold and aero shell. The team filled in the seams and surface defects with filler material, and after sanding multiple times, got the surface smooth and ready for priming. Stay tuned for the next post with an update on priming and more! We wanted to achieve a major milestone before posting to show our supporters and alumni the great progress we have made this semester. Not shown are the team members in the background working on finishing up the design, building non-mechanical parts, and fundraising to keep the team afloat!

Interested in joining the team? Come stop by the garage on Tuesday’s and Saturday’s to get outside of the classroom experience. Even better with a fun interactive environment!

A big thank you to Anderson Power for your donation of 10 SB120 Connectors! We are so grateful for your support as it is contributing greatly to the construction of Gato VII. We look forward to working with you in the future! Anderson Power Products

Not interested in the engineering side of solar car? UKSC has a dedicated business team that helps fundraise and keep track of the team's financials. Again no experience is needed! Join us next Monday in Whitehall RM 238. All majors are welcome!

Interested in hands-on engineering experience, sustainability, and racing solar cars? If so, join UKSC for our spring kickoff event. No experience is needed! Looking forward to seeing you all at White Hall RM 106 on Thursday Night.

✨Manufacturing photo dump✨ featuring our lovely team members!

We would like to thank the Engineering Student Council for helping us fund our design review for Gato VII. Cannot have a excellent meeting without food in our stomachs! ESC helped the team by funding our design review by supporting us with Dominos pizza for whole team!
University of Kentucky College of Engineering

All smiles for the team as we officially started manufacturing for our next car Gato Del Sol VII. Follow along the next few months as we build the car.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Solar Car Team!!

We are so grateful to be a part of your holidays. Next year we are looking to construct our brand-new car, Gato Del Sol VII! Cannot wait to show what it’s all about in 2023! We would like to thank all of our supporters, alumni, and more for this year and cannot wait to see what awaits ahead.

Happy Holidays!!
The team was so grateful and excited to be a part of the Versailles Holiday parade. We are always happy to share how solar energy can be so festive!!

University of Kentucky College of Engineering

The team wants to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We are thankful for our supporters from the University, Sponsors, Alumni, and more. We are also thankful for our current team members-we would not be able to get work done without the sustained time commitment that our members give every semester.