World Solar Challenge 2007 started
Here’s something you don’t see everyday Solar powered cars competeing in a 3021 km (1,877 miles) race through central Australia. Official site is down at the moment but expect it up soon. For now read wiki for more info on this spectacular event
Darwin (Australia) – 41 solar cars on their way competing in the World Solar Challenge 2007 in Australia.
The race, started on Sunday, takes the participating teams on an 1870 mile journey from Darwin, a town on the north end of the Northern Territory, south through the Outback, ending in Adelaide, South Australia. The race will officially end on October 28, while first cars are expected to cross the finish line as early as October 25.
The organizers describe the race, which was first organized by Danish adventurer Hans Thostrup in 1987, as an “energy efficiency challenge”, which requires a balance between sustainable speed and endurance, energy management and strategic planning. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the challenge has been held in 3-year intervals until 1999 and since then has been held every two years. The last race was won by Dutch Nuon team from the Technical University of Delft, whose Nuon III car crossed the finish line after a race time of 29 hours and 11 minutes. The average speed achieved by Nuon III was 64.3 mph.
Michigan University’s Continuum car
The current event is separated in two classes of vehicles – the “Adventure Class”, which includes veteran solar cars, as well as the “Challenge Class”, which has stricter regulations, including upright seating and solar panels that do not exceed a total area of six square meters.
Among the 41 teams are four US teams: The University of Oregon and the University of Michigan have entrants in the Challenge Class, while Stanford University and the Houston Solar Car Race Team from the Houston Vocational Center, Mississippi, are competing in the Adventure Class.
Source TGD
Comments(40)
This is relevant to my interests.
[4 realz]
nice post, interesting.
i agree with mr.x one step closer to not using gas next thing you know it we will be having cars race across the ocean competing on whos the best either by hovering or flying,a care which can drive by land as well
haha. that is one crazy map of Australia. Adelaide isn’t anywhere near where it says. whats doing there?
Now if only this is on video……
wut does this have to do with “the scene” and releases???
is this a release site or a venue for the admins to post their political viewpoints?
@5
there kind of is a movie about this… http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117427/
@6
how does this have anything to do with a political viewpoint??
Cool post thanks….
@#6 It won’t kill you to learn something in the process of downloading hokey stuff….
J.
Holland ftw!
Go Blue!
nice post Desi.going by the fuel prices these days, such races are going to be common stuff in the coming times.
lol that map is all out of whack
@6 people have to remember that this is mr x’s site not yours so he can post whatever the funk he wants
i work for a shipping company in the UK and we shipped one of this cars out last month. UK company with a very well known electrical company as a sponsor
Lol… Can’t wait till there are no more petrol powered cars though… Me want lightning powered cars!
.
Unless my home town moved about 500km east without my knowing, i think that map has got adelaide in the wrong place.
Did the website go down because it was run on solar power and it was a cloudy day????
no, the website went down because they were kind enough to lend that energy to move that solar powered car ;D
LONG LIVE PETROL HEADS!
My friend is there right now, making sure the Dutch team wins again
It’s cool that this event is posted on rlslog.
The “umicore team” from school Groept in Belgium (it’s where i follow lessons too) is currently first in the Challenge class. GOGO Belgium!
Btw you can find a video here:
http://www.solarteam.be/Solarteam2_eng/page.php?107
This is way too long.
I’ll just wait for aXXo to release a 700 miles version of this.
I’m with you, Anon-e-Moose.
I mean, how can you put it on a 1 cd, with nero running on full speed and clouds incoming? Soon the power is going out of my drive, and the lazer is going… zap! zaaap!.. zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap… and no more zapping. And i’m like “wtf mate”, and the drive goes like: NO MORE ZAPPING FOR U! oO.
The Dutch not only won the last race, they’ve won all 3 the races.
Something I read yesterday, the Nuon 4 uses the same amount of power as your vacuum cleaner at 130 km (80 miles) per hour.
Anyone got a video of what happens when these featherweight, aerodynamic vehicles gets overtaken by a road train on a road with no speed limits?
It would be like a 747 overtaking your kite.
I hope it rains heavily there.
Then they will realize that its not solar thats more important but wind sun and waves or tides energy storing that we should be focusing on.
If solar enery was indeed a valid alternative for fosil fuels, it would have been broadly implemented by now. But it isn’t a valid alternative, and neither is wind energy. I guess holding token solar races is one way of denying that fact, but in the end a race like this is just useless polution (all those people travel by plane).
Dude, because it’s not broadly implemented, it’s not a valid alternative? Do you have any idea how long electric cars are on this world? For 50 years now, and now, just now, they decided its a pretty good idea, a car not running on fossil fuels.
well, cars that are good for the environment are fuking ugly. Maybe they should make one that looks fukin cool and ill buy it.
@NeoCon
i second your thought.
# 26 They aren’t stupid, with the current drought in southern Australia – and the fact that most of the route is through desert anyway – the chances of rain are zip! {if it did rain the road would probably disappear!]
Don’t have a problem with Adelaide’s position (if you take the bottom white dot to be Adelaide) but Port Agutta has drifted a bit (it is actually on Spencer Gulf, ie on the coast at the top of the cut-in bit nearest the label)
I actually live in Adelaide so i think I am probably correct – not that it matters. Good luck to all the racers including the various school teams from Adelaide.
Anyone seen the old school movie Race the Sun? It wasn’t epic or anything, but I thought it was pretty cool. It took place in Australia also, though I don’t know if the movie was based off this race.
I’m in Perth.
All the interesting sh1t happens over East.. even the dessert, but not here.
In fact, there’s a reason why Perth is such a good place for the gravity wave detector… nothing ever happens here to disturb it!
spar – October 22nd, 2007 | 11:52
“Dude, because it’s not broadly implemented, it’s not a valid alternative?”
No, the other way around. The reason it is not broadly implemented is because it isn’t a valid alternative. Money talks, and in this case it ain’t sayin nothin.
Solar and wind cannot generate either reliable or high enough levels of power to become an alternate source for energy. Even if the elements could provide this, they’re just too damn expensive to compete.
“When draught hits your country, some suffer economic ruin. Others, build solar power cars and race them.” J/k. Seriously 64mph is not at all bad, i’m surprised.
“cdntcareless” mate you are deadset kiddin yourself if you think Adelaide is in the right spot. smokin too much green down SA way buddy…
i think its a cool idia it the futer
hi miss
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