Fortis Saxonia wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sax II have been existing as a CAD model for a long time. Now the first step of the implementation is done: During the last week the positive mould of the subsequent model of Sax I was built in the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU). The IWU milled the 1:1 model of polyurethane foam. The milling time was sponsored by the institute. Next step will be the clearance of the surface unevenness by a paintshop, so that the construction of the negative mould can be started soon.

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Fortis Saxonia was honoured with the title "Sachsen Ass 2006" (Saxon's "Intellectual Aces" of the year 2006). Every Year this prize is awarded to individuals or groups in Saxony for their projects: the prize is divided into five categories, i.e. art and culture, social welfare, sports, economy and sciences.
We received the title during a ceremony at the townhall of Leipzig for our project in the field of sciences.
"This interdisciplinary group evolved a good teamspirit and developed a vehicle, that offers a realistic view to an economical way of mobility in future", said the Shell's representative Barbara Gamalski during the awards ceremony.
This media award of the Saxon publishing house Wochenspiegel is awarded under the patronage of the Prime Minister Georg Milbradt.

From the 25th to the 26th of October 2006 we exhibited a fuel cell drive that we created, which was built into our vehicle "Sax 1" at the "H2-Expo", an international conference and trade fair on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Present experts were impressed with this systems technology, that we developed during the last year. They also had the chance to experience the system's efficiency and reliability while doing some test drives with the Sax 1.

Until August 25th, Sax 1 and its innovative fuel cell will be presented within the framework of Saxon Industry Museums new exhibition "Motor workshop – from muscelman to nice guy". The exhibition shows the development from classical to future environment-friendly power unit technologies. Beside past time combustion engines some modern Volkswagen engines show the current standard. Sax 1 is one of the examples for future concepts.

From July 15th until 19th, ecocar Sax 1 was presented at European Science Open Forum (ESOF) in Munich, Germany. ESOF took place within the framework of German Science Summer 2006. "It provided a platform to present research and to enhance communication between the different scientific disciplines", ESOF co-organizer Wolfgang Heckl said. The forum, which started with a lecture of Nobel-prize winner Theodor Hänsch, was open to all scientists and interested people. It gave insights into current developments within the European scientific landscape.

"We used ESOF to get in contact with other exhibitors and qualified visitors", Fortis Saxonia's Gerald Richter said. Fortis Saxonia took part in ESOF thanks to the invitation of the German Academic Exchange Program DAAD.

It was a windy night for ecocar Sax 1 when it was presented at "Langen Nacht der Wissenschaften" (long night of sciences) in Dresden (2006, June 30th). Fortis Saxonia showed Sax 1 inside the wind tunnel of Dresden University of Technology's Institute of Aviation and Astronautics technics (ILR). Many visitors asked questions about Sax 1's aerodynamics.

Also, Fortis Saxonia tested Sax 1 inside the wind tunnel and collected data which can be used for the construction of Sax 1's successor Sax 2. Additionally, ILR suggested to help Fortis Saxonia solve airstream problems, for instance by letting students at Dresden University of Technology research on topics related to Sax 2 in their thesises.

Four academies and 27 extramural science instituts opened their labs during "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften". Almost 30.000 visitors came to have a look inside.

The excellent result and placement after our first run excited the team. The targeted distance Chemnitz–Paris (1.000 km) was overshoot by 415 km. Pushed by this wave of enthusiasm the team worked even more diligently on the Nogaro Circuit. With the second run, the magical distance of 1.500 km was reached. This gave us the opportunity to experiment. Fortunately, all modifications led to even better results which exceeded our most optimistic calculations. Fortis Saxonia with SAX I came out of the fourth run with a distance of 1.742 km. This means place 12 of 255 and reaches from Chemnitz to Nogaro.

Besides the most efficient vehicle, at the Shell Eco-marathon special prizes are also awarded for achievement in different areas. Fortis Saxonia obtained for its rear wheel stearing mechanism and the electronic accelerator, developed by Kompetenzzentrum für Strukturleichtbau of the Chemnitz University of Technology, the third prize in the category Technical Innovation. The jurors rated the marketing and public relation activity of the Chemnitzer Team: Fortis Saxonia won the second prize of the Communication Award.

The Team around SAX I is pleased about the increased interest by the media and hopes to see more german teams at the Shell Eco-marathon 2007. The four german teams will present themselves on sunday 05/28/2006 at the german TV-Show "ZDF Fernsehgarten".

Start at 9:08 am. Crossing of the finishing line at 9:56 am. The calculation indicates a result of 1.415 kilometers with one litre. Our slogan "Chemnitz–Paris with one litre" is reality. Now we work hard to complete the return journey.

Andris Piebalgs, the European Union Energy Commissioner, and Rob Routs, the Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell group opened the Shell Eco-marathon 2006. Together all teams drove two laps on the Nogaro circuit. This year 255 teams from 21 countries participate in the race.

Tomorrow the competition starts. The results of our practice runs of the last two days are promising. We developed an optimised driving strategy for the Nogaro circuit. The analysis of the test data makes us even more optimistic to reach our aim of driving at least 1000 kilometers with one litre.

Thursday evening all participants of this year gathered for the official group picture. Alltogether 255 Teams from 21 countries will compete for the top price driving as far as possible using the least amount of energy in the Shell Eco-marathon 2006. Efficiency, light weight design and a good driving strategy play a vital role there.

Around 11 am Shell engineers scrutinised SAX I. For example the turning circle, the steering and the functionality of the brake system were checked. A red and a green sticker indicate the successful technical inspection and proof the safety of SAX I. Now we are well prepared for the final race at the weekend.

SAX I is finished. The stuff is packed. Now we are setting out for Nogaro. There the Shell Eco-marathon 2006 takes place on May 20./21.

We make test runs on the ice rink to verify the stability of SAX I.

On time for the Hannover Messe we finalized SAX I, our vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon 2006, for the first ride.

The team Fortis Saxonia participates at the Hannover Messe. Exhibition Stand "Forschung für die Zukunft" (Hall 2, Stand C39)

For your information: http://www.hannovermesse.de

On time for the Hannover Messe we finalized SAX I, our vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon 2006, for the first ride.