Interview with Tokai

Tokai has won the Global Green Challenge 2009! Time to ask Hideki Kimura from the team a few questions.

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Hideki Kimura is Professor, Doctor of Engineering at Department of Electrical and Electornic Engineering, School of Engineering, Tokai University


Congratulations with winning Global Green Challenge 2009! What were the most exciting moments of your team?
The first day.
Nuna5 and Aurora 101 stopped in Darwin city, then we reached first position.

Umicore crashed on the first day when pursuing you, reportedly because of strong blasts of crosswind which blew their car off the road. Did your Tokai Challenger also experience strong winds? How did the driver deal with it?
Yes, our team has the experience of strong winds too.
Our driver felt the strong wind and then we decreased to 100km/h speed.

How many flat tyres did your car have and what was the car's reaction on such a tyre blowout?
One flat tyre happed in this race, between Port Augausta and Adelaide.
It took about 8 minutes to return the race.

What was your car's achieved top speed?
120km/h is recorded while solar car was running downhill.

The frontmost team usually has to clear the road of killed wildlife (e.g. dead kangaroos). About how many times did your team have to remove them?
Zero times.
The course was clear in this race.

What is your favourite food?
"Ding Hao" and "Belgian Beer Cafe Oostende" in Adelaide is my favourite restaurant.

Do you have anything else you would like to say?
Since we have learned from "World Econo Move", we made it.

Interview by Vincent Groenhuis