World Solar Challenge Started in Australian Desert 113
photonic writes "The World Solar Challenge has just finished the first racing day. It is a 3000 kilometer race from Darwin to Adelaide for cars that are powered by solar energy only. The results from this day have not yet been published, but intermediate results suggest that the Dutch Nuon Solar Team is again on the lead. This team from Delft University of Technology has a reputation to uphold since they also won the previous two races in 2001 and 2003, the last one in a record breaking 97 km/h average.
The Tesseract team from MIT was less fortunate: during the qualification they got off track and rolled over. After some fixing up they still managed to qualify into 7th place on battery power, but with substantial damage to the solar panel their challenge will be finishing rather than winning."
Day 1 results (Score:4, Informative)
The Nuna 3 won day 1, finishing half an hour before the Michigan team (which got a flat tire halfway).
Re:solar energy only? (Score:1, Informative)
4 door GTO 'coupe' (Score:4, Informative)
Re:solar energy only? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.wsc.org.au/2005/competition/vehicle.cl
Test driver wanted (Score:1, Informative)
Dutch team is searching for test drivers.
More Dutch teams participating (Score:4, Informative)
Remember that it really is a challenge, since temperatures inside the car can get more than 50 degrees Celsius.
A lot further than 300km (Score:2, Informative)
That is an order of magnitude discrepancy with the summary's quoted 300km.
As an Aussie, I knew that sounded wrong. That route is the entire North-South breadth of the continent!
Re:Mass production is the real challenge (Score:2, Informative)
I agree that the way to build a winning car is pretty much predetermined now.
we've had solar races in the US since the 80s too (Score:3, Informative)
So I don't get your rant here.
These cars are very impractical. I'm not saying some of the technology can't be used in street cars. But to use these vehicles day to day would basically entail getting rid of traffic lights for starters, because their acceleration characteristics are so poor.
As to lighter cars, if you want lighter cars, you have to start elsewhere. The biggest factor in the weight of current cars is safety and safety-based regulations. Oh, and did I mention these vehicles aren't at all safe?
Why do you speak of electrical outlets in relation to solar cars? Sunlight is wireless.
More info on the Tesseract (Score:3, Informative)
MIT's Tesseract met with disaster. Tesseract's front, left, carbon fiber tire rim broke on a tight turn causing the driver to loose control and roll over. After a few tense moments it was announced that the driver was okay, walking away with only a sprained wrist and some very rattled nerves. At the team meeting later in the day, it was mentioned that when the solar car was righted, the driver's head actually bumped the ground as the canopy had split on impact. Thankfully, MIT is one of a few teams participating in the WSC that prioritizes safety over aerodynamics, using both a roll bar and a helmet. No one doubts that the inclusion of these two safety measures assured that the driver was able to walk away today. Tesseract, on the other hand, did not fare as well as its driver. The array and top shell suffered substantial damage, but like any dedicated team, MIT is now burning the midnight oil in hopes of being on the starting line tomorrow morning
More than just Solar vehicles. (Score:2, Informative)
For example, a team is entering a car powered completely by ethanol. They converted an 80 year old vintage car for the purpose.