UGM Semar car managed to win a prestigious award, The Best Technical Innovation Award at the Shell Eco-Marathon competition (SEM) 2011 held at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, from 8 to 9 July. The car won the award after beating 135 energy-efficient vehicles that are contested in Asian level. According to Dr. Jayan Sentanuhady, mentor responsible for the Semar team, in the competition UGM sent two energy-efficient vehicles, namely Semar Urban and Semar Proto. "The prestigious award was presented for the Semar car after beating other 135 energy efficient vehicles," said Jayan, Tuesday (12/7).
According to Jayan, both cars are far better than the vehicle that was sent in 2010. Both UGM vehicles had previously passed technical requirements. Jayan who accompanied the team said that of the five times of the permitted race, Semar Urban car is able to do well and successful to the last lap of the requirement race with the best achievement of 71 km/lt. With that achievement, Semar Urban was ranked third for urban class using gasoline fuel. "For the class of Urban Gasoline, Indonesian teams are really dominant as the 1-4 ranks were occupied by teams from Indonesia," said Jayan.
Meanwhile, of the five times of the permitted race, Semar Proto only passed three, because at one race it was penalized due to exceeding time, 6 seconds, and at another race the left tire burst. From the acquisition of these three races, Semar Proto is only able to take the best mileage of 137 km/lt. Of course, this is far from the acquisition of a team from Thailand that could cover 1600's km/lt for the same class. "Indeed, with this condition we know that we still have much to learn and work out," said Jayan briefly.
Although Semar Proto could not achieve the furthest mileage, this vehicle managed to win The Best Technical Innovation Award, a prestigious award for best use of technical innovation in the engine that drives the Semar Proto car. Semar Proto, according to Jayan, is using excellent and advanced technology of students’ innovation. However, the machine has to drive the big car’s body weighing 76 kg, excluding the weight of the driver. The body weight is twice as heavy as the second generation of Semar, which weighed 34 kg, which is used for competition SEM 2010. "It will be very difficult to get excellent mileage if the car's weight is still heavy," said Jayan.