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World Solar Challenge About To Start

Posted by Soulskill on from the watch-out-for-the-kangaroos dept.

SustainableJeroen writes "On Sunday morning at 08:30 local time — that's less than an hour away — the World Solar Challenge will start in Darwin, Australia. The first solar racing car and its support fleet will depart Darwin to traverse the 3000+ km to Adelaide through the Australian outback. It will be followed at two-minute intervals by 36 other racing teams, from twenty countries from all over the world. The qualification round, held on Saturday, saw Solar Team Twente secure the first starting position in the race, closely followed by Nuon Solar Team and Michigan University. The top ten times in the qualification round were within eleven seconds of each other, and while driving one lap around a race track is very different from driving 3000 km on a public motorway, it does show that the top cars are quite close in performance. With the top cars and teams being very, very close to each other, it's sure to be a very exciting race. The fastest teams are expected to reach the official finish line just outside Adelaide late Wednesday or early Thursday (local time), after which the teams will continue on for the traditional dive in the fountain at Victoria Square in Adelaide."

7 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. U of M by zigziggityzoo · · Score: 2

    It's The University of Michigan. Go Blue!

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    Zing!
  2. underhighlighted underdog by toQDuj · · Score: 2

    I seem to remember that during the first challenge, much media attention was spent on a pitted "battle" between an australian (?) and an american team. Except that in the end, the Dutch team won by miles, which earned the Dutch team a side note. Talk about media focus getting it wrong ;).

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    Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
    1. Re:underhighlighted underdog by fbartho · · Score: 4, Informative

      You have your memories slightly jumbled. It was University of Michigan's UMSolar vs Nuon Solar Car Team and in the end a Japanese team (Tokai University) won by leagues. -- Team Tokai ran a great race, it was very impressive.

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      Gravity Sucks
  3. Re:Solar cars? by Hentes · · Score: 2

    It's a technology challenge, they aren't making practical things.

  4. Re:NT is no fun any more.. by GumphMaster · · Score: 2

    Most of the Stuart highway in the NT has a 130 km/hr (~81 mph for those so inclined) limit and 110 km/hr in SA. The average speed for last year's winner was approx 100 km/h, so they must be touching these limits at times. At the moment it also has a day time temperatures in the 30-40 degrees Celsius range (~86-104 deg. Fahrenheit). Bags not being in a cramped, non-airconditioned, low slung vehicle on top of the tarmac.

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    Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
  5. Re:Solar cars? by timeOday · · Score: 3, Informative

    Most of these vehicles are amazing and at the same time kind of weird, outlandish and not very usefull.

    Like this? And this? And this?

    Let's face it, racing cars and practical cars are two different things.

  6. El Reg's coverage of the race by alanw · · Score: 2

    The Register's Lester Haynes of its Special Projects Bureau is following the race (in an air conditioned 4x4: temperatures in the cabins of the cars can reach 50C)

    They also have a twitter feed

    News so far:
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/12/world_solar_challenge_2011_race_rules/
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/13/solar_update/
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/14/wsc_update/
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/15/wsc_update/