This year the team took two cars to competition. One of the cars featured a series hybrid power train and the other was a revamped version of the 2012 car. Here's some of the info for the hybrid:
Modified Briggs 148cc engine to a large Ampflow dc motor that acted both as the starter and generator (electrically separated and operated by some large relays). Then the generated power was evened out by some 1 F caps (largest by the rules) and then went to two brushless motor ESC's and two large out runner motors that were attached to the front drive wheels with bendixs.
The car was surprisingly reliable and managed 479 mpg and has drive probably 75 miles. Not bad considering the many efficiency losses when converting the power and the heavier weight compared to previous cars(double the 2013/2014 car).
Acceleration was very good, since it had lots of traction on the front wheels. Data recording on the ESC's were showing 800w on each wheel.
It took about 100 man hours to wire the car and the team was very pleased to see that it all worked on the first try when the engine was started. Here is a pic while the technical inspector was carefully looking over the car.
The car was also different since it had rear wheel steering, which worked quite well compared to previous attempts with that design. As you can see in the picture, there wasn't much space left over in the car.... And the driver has a lot to think about and many buttons and leavers to push.