World Solar Challenge 21-28 October 2007

[tailwind]

Its on again. The World Solar Challenge, http://wsc.org.au

The event is for solar powered vehicles and is held every two years.
The course runs from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia over a distance of 3000km.

The organizers have had to modify the rules,

By 2005, with Nuna 3 completing the journey with an average speed in excess of 100 km/h,
and the top five teams handicapped by the 110 km/h speed limit throughout the
State of South Australia, the Challenge had been well and truly met.

Faced with the comments that, out on the unrestricted roads throughout the
Northern Territory some support crews could not keep up with 130 km/h solarcars,
and the possibility that new speed limits may be imposed by 2007,
we were forced to bring forward plans for a new generation car to stretch the goals
once again.

During the 2005 event the cars raced down to the boarder on the unrestricted NT roads,
but then had to restrict their speed to 110 km/h is SA.
This meant that once in SA, if it was sunny and you didnt have a flat or a mechanical (electrical ), you could not be over taken.

The NT now has speed limits on all its roads.

The new rules include,

Restricted to 6 sq mtrs of solar collectors,
upright driver seating position,
driver access and egress unaided, and many new safety requirements.

The web site has a section were you can follow the progress of the cars (daylight hours of course).

The team from the Netherlands are back with their new car, the Nuna 4 and will probably start favorites.

Weather and clouds will test the efficiency of the cars.

http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00035.latest.shtml

Greg

 

[Miles]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7050000/newsid_7056300?redirect=7056391.stm&news=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&asb=1

 

[tailwind]

Nice blog from the UNSW Sunswift team.

http://www.sunswift.unsw.edu.au/NewsArchive.php?year=2007

and some images from the wsc.org.au website resized to make them more viewable.

Greg

 

[TylerDurden]

No disrespect intended: think how much weight could be reduced if a quad-amputee were the pilot.

Why not?

 

[xyster]

No disrespect intended: think how much weight could be reduced if a quad-amputee were the pilot.

Why not?

I'd think a small person, like a horse jockey or smaller, could save even more weight. Don't know...gotta go weigh my torso...I'll be back faster than a yeast infection.

 

[tailwind]

How much weight could you save?

None: There is a minimum weight for all vehicles.

If you look closely at the wsc-equinox.jpg image you can see the white bags of ballast in the front of the vehicle.

Each team has an observer that travels in the support car. When they change drivers enroute the observer will adjust the ballast.

Greg

 

[TylerDurden]

Oh well... so much for the employment of amputees and lightweight materials.

:?

I wonder if the restrictions on size of "collectors" also includes reflectors and concentrators...

 

[tailwind]

I did hear an interview where one of the teams was using mirrors located on the dome behind the drivers head.

Greg

 

[TylerDurden]

I watched the clip that Miles posted... it looked like one rig could track the sun with a tilting collector. That's pretty radical.

 

[Ben]

Hmm, I wonder how hot it gets inside those little cockpits.

This race is a great demonstration of technology, it's a pity about the speed limits though. I'd like to see a solar car get pulled over for speeding.

Tracking the sun is interesting, especially if they go around a bend in the road. Lucky you don't come across too many of them out there.

 

[tchapin]

Here is a link that gives more info on the U-M car
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6109

To bad it got into an accident the first morning of racing and was rebuilt. They started out 10 hours in the whole but now have come back to 16th place over all and 7th in the challenge class.

Here is the link to the race blog.
http://www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/blog/

 

[safe]

Where this really applies is for the electric cars that run on battery power that they mostly get from the electrical grid, but when they are parked they can recharge a little. Imagine driving your electric car to work and then letting it sit in the sun all day recharging. It might not be a lot of energy to capture, but it would help to charge a little.

Maybe pay for the first mile home.

What's the best quarter mile time for one of these?

This might actually make for an interesting drag race after all... no batteries allowed, the race would be about capturing the sun and transferring it down the quarter mile.

Hmmmm....

 

[LockH]

BUMP

2015 race coming up October 18-25:
http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/

2015 World Solar Challenge regulations v1.2 may amuse some. ("Energy storage system" if Pb-acid not to exceed 125,000 kg.) :lol: