WSCTube.com

Site closed

2011-03-02T11:46:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, this site will no longer be updated by me. I really enjoyed blogging about the WSC2009, but this year I'm not going to write a lot about it all again.

There are still other websites that will blog about the upcoming WSC: solarwebsite.nl for example, and the websites of the organization and the participating teams of course. But if you have WSC experience and are interested in taking over this website, just contact me!

Thx to the co-authors(Andre,Sjaak,Willianne) for the help, and all the visitor's comments, and just have fun in upcoming summer!
--Vincent

Michigan: Solar car updates 1-3

2010-11-09T12:21:00.001+01:00

Michigan's new team started making videos about the design and construction process of the 2011 solar car, good job! Here are the first three ones.
Report 3

Report 2

Report 1

For the most recent updates, check solarcar.engin.umich.edu

Nuon: WSC2009 compilation

2010-11-09T12:16:00.002+01:00

Here is a nice compilation that Nuon made about their 2009 race:

Suzuka Dream Cup

2010-08-01T10:48:00.002+02:00

The Suzuka Dream Cup is being held in Japan. Nuon is participating in it and published some videos:

Update: The Suzuka Dream Cup has finished. Results: 1. OSU, 2. Ashiya (+2 laps), 3. Nuon (+5 laps), 4. Aurora (+9 laps) and for the others see www.dream-cup.com.

Finish of second day, and awards

Second heat

First heat

Qualification

Scrutineering

Pitbox tour

Frisian Solar Challenge

2010-07-10T16:00:00.000+02:00

The Frisian Solar Challenge has just finished. It is a race for solar-powered boats in Friesland in The Netherlands.

See www.frisiansolarchallenge.nl for the site with all information.

Video of the start: (for more video's check the site)

Bochum: American Solar Challenge

2010-07-02T19:18:00.001+02:00

Bochum (also called Solarworld no. 1) participated in the American Solar Challenge 2010 and finished third. They also published lots of interesting videos, not only about their own team and car but also much about the other cars. Good job :)

Day 7

Day 5 and 6

Day 3 and 4

Day 2

Day 1

American Solar Challenge

2010-06-22T09:30:00.010+02:00

The American Solar Challenge is underway! Last week, it started with the Formula Sun Grand Prix, which was won by Michigan. This week, the ASC2010 itself is held.

Update: Michigan has also won the ASC2010 itself. Congratulations!

See http://americansolarchallenge.org for all race information, photos and standings. Or check Michigan's site: http://solarcar.engin.umich.edu/ (this also includes live chat about the ASC and WSC-related discussions).

(For Bochum's video reports, see next post!)
Finish of ASC2010

Solar cars at Formula Sun Grand Prix (photo: Bob Phelan)

The ASC2010 route

This is Minnesota's solar car.

This is a promo video about Principia's solar car.

Rule changes for WSC2011

2010-06-05T17:58:00.006+02:00

The new website of the World Solar Challenge is online and shows some of the new rules for the 2011 event.

The most interesting one is the new maximum solar panel area, which is 6m² for silicon cells and 3m² for GaAs cells.
This will mean that solar cars with good silicon solar panels will probably be able to generate more energy (!) than those with the most advanced and expensive GaAs cells (under equal circumstances, without concentrators). Can those driving on GaAs fully compensate for it by making the car smaller, and thus more lightweight and aerodynamic?

Another new rule: The front of the car must have an area comprising 30 cm x 150 cm as viewed from a height of 2 m at distance of 5 m for the purpose of sponsorship and event signage.
This may have consequences for the aerodynamics and/or limits the available surface for solar panels.

The complete 2011 rules will follow soon on the WSC website.
Just post your opinions about these new rules in the comments below...

Solar on Waves, Air and Ice

2010-06-05T17:25:00.010+02:00

Besides solar-powered vehicles driving on asphalt roads, there are also solar-powered planes and boats being built. Here are some videos about them. (First video is shown below, for the others click Read more >>)

Solar Impulse: Third flight
A nice solar-powered plane is the Solar Impulse. Its construction is about ready and the team is performing test flights. Here you can watch the video of the third flight: (jump to 1:45 for the actual takeoff)

Read more >>

Solar Impulse: First flight
The Solar Impulse intends to be the first to fly around the whole globe, powered by the sun only.
For more information, visit the Solar Impulse website!

Solar Power Skiing
The "Power of One solar car project"-team likes to drive their Xof1 solar car in freezing temperatures, across the frozen Arctic. A few days after crossing the longest ice road, a team member was ski-ing behind the solar car and this video was the result:

For more information, visit the Power of One website!

PlanetSolar solar-powered boat
A team from Switzerland has built a solar-powered vessel. This video shows it at some event in the harbor of Hamburg:
This team intends to travel around the globe with this boat, fully solar-powered of course.
See the PlanetSolar website for more information.

Well, when will the first Trans-Atlantic Solar Challenge start? :)

History: South African Solar Challenge 2008, a report by Tokai

2010-04-07T11:14:00.001+02:00

In 2008, the South African Solar Challenge was held for the first time. It is a two-week race covering about 4175 km on public roads. Tokai participated in it with their 'Falcon' solar car (the predecessor of the 'Challenger' which won the GGC2009) and Tokai won the event. Here is a nice video report from Tokai (7 minutes). Enjoy!

Upcoming solar challenges

2010-04-02T12:54:00.018+02:00

The next World Solar Challenge will be held in October 2011, but in 2010 there are also some interesting Solar Challenges.

Update:Event information of European Solar Challenge in Belgium added!

Read more >>

Rallye Solaire May 20-May 24, 2010, France
Website: http://www.rallyesolaire.eu
A solar event from Spain (Barcelona) to France (Toulouse), 450 km in four days (along with some side demonstration events).
The purpose of the rally is not mainly based on speed, but merely on autonomy, economy, safety, vehicle reliability and adaption to everyday use. This year is the tenth time that this event is held.

American Solar Challenge
June 12-June 27, 2010, North America
Website: http://americansolarchallenge.org
The American Solar Challenge (also known as NASC) consists of a track race ("Formula Sun Grand Prix") on June 16-18 at Motorsport Ranch in Tresson, TX and a road race (Jun 19-Jun 27) from Tulsa to Chicago.
Of the 18 participants (so far), 13 are from the U.S., 2 from Canada, 2 from Germany and 1 from Taiwan. Michigan won this race 5 times and is title defender (again). Tokai doesn't compete in this (despite earlier rumours that it would do so).

Michigan finishing at NASC2008 (Photo: Michigan)

Cyprus Institute Solar Challenge
June 19, 2010, Cyprus
Website: http://eewrc.cyi.ac.cy/solar_vehicle
This is the first time that Cyprus organizes a solar challenge. Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean sea, close to Turkey, Greece, Syria, Israel, and the sun shines almost all year round there.
There are two categories: 'Challenge Category' (max budget: €20000 and cars must conform to strict regulations) and 'Open Category' (no restrictions, as long as the vehicle is 'safe').
Track: Daytona Raceway, GPS location: 35°03'09"N, 33°22'31"E

Daytona Raceway at Cyprus (from Google Earth)

Frisian Solar Challenge
July 5 - July 10, 2010, The Netherlands
Webite: http://www.frisiansolarchallenge.nl/en/
Not a solar car race, but a solar boat race in The Netherlands. This race follows the route of the "Elfstedentocht" (an ice-skating event which is only held in some winters when the ice is thick enough). The route is about 220 km long and is to be covered in 6 days (including one resting day). In Dutch early summer it is usually sunny and it helps that the sun is relatively high and days are long, but sometimes it is cloudy all week!
It is the 3rd time that this race is held. In 2006 and 2008, the team from TU Delft won the Open class (Class C).

Solar boats at the 2008 event

Suzuka Dream Cup

Suzuka Dream Cup 2009

July, 2010, Japan.
Website: http://www.dream-cup.com This is a circuit race over two days at the Suzuka race track.
It is the 19th time that this competition is held; according to this post, ~~this will be the last time~~ the event will continue in the future.
Title defender is TIGA, who won the race in 2009. Most teams are Japanese, but Nuon Solar Team also intends to compete in this.

South African Solar Challenge
Sept 26 - Oct 6, 2010, South Africa
Website: http://www.solarchallenge.org.za/
The SASC is a two-week challenge covering approx. 4175 km on public roads. The challenge is divided in three stages and at the end of each day the teams gather at the same night stop, so the teams all start from the same point in the morning.
The first event was held in 2008, which was won by Tokai. This year, Tokai will defend the title and MIT will also participate.

European Solar Challenge

Sept 25-26, 2010, Wiemesmeer (near Genk), Belgium
Website: http://www.europeansolarchallenge.eu/
The European Solar Challenge is a new solar event, part of the Nature4Life event, organized by the Rotary Club Genk. On Saturday 25th, a promotional tour is held along a number of cities in Belgium, and on Sunday 26th, the challenge itself is held. This consists of four categories: a) 1km dragrace, b) scutineering test (including slalom/braking test), c) parking test, and d) a 4km track drive at fixed speed. This all takes place at the Zutendaal Air Base.
The teams Nuon, Twente, Umicore, Bochum, Helios and HS-Zuyd have confirmed that they will participate; some of them with multiple solar cars.

History: Across Australy by Sunpower

2010-02-06T12:32:00.002+01:00

The first who crossed Australia by a solar-powered vehicle was Hans Tholstrup with the Quiet Achiever. This was the precursor of the World Solar Challenge. An article (written by Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins) about this achievement appeared in the National Geographic magazine (Nov 1983).

Emiel Koopmans (Team Twente 2009) scanned the original article, so you can download it here (PDF, 6MB)!

Solar car safety & crashes analysis

2010-01-12T11:16:00.141+01:00

Twente also crashed in 2009
(photo: Gijs Versteeg)

Solar cars are getting too fast and too unsafe, if you consider the top average speeds and crashes of GGC2009. In this article some safety aspects, causes of crashes and suggested measurements are discussed. My conclusion is that tyre regulations should be greatly reinforced and that tough suspension tests are added to dynamic scrutineering. And there is a list of crashes mentioning about 15 crashes, along with cause, consequences, pictures and links (as far as I have the information).

Read more >>

Article by Vincent Groenhuis

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Causes of crashes
    2.1 Tyre blowout
    2.2 Suspension/wheel breakdown
    2.3 Adhesive joint getting loose
3. Improving safety
    3.1 Reducing occurrences of technical problems
    3.2 Reducing consequences of technical problems
4. Conclusion
5. List of crashes
    Nuon(2003)
    Blue Sky(2004)
    Nuon(2005)
    Sunswift(2005)
    MIT(2005)
    Michigan(2007)
    Twente(2007)
    Stanford(2007)
    Twente(Jul 2009)
    Nuon(2009)
    Umicore(2009)
    Aurora(2009)
    McMaster(2009)
    Twente(Oct 2009)

1. Introduction
Crashes happen in almost every solar race (just like other car races), but in GGC2009 there were pretty many of them. Luckily no one was injured, but the damage done to some cars was very severe and they involved experienced teams. It is a race driven on public roads, usually by students, so it has to be kept as safe as possible to keep the event enjoyable. And the crashes are not good for the reputation of solar cars in general. We see that many of them are caused by tyre blowouts or broken suspension, so we'll look more closely at these aspects and discuss some suggested measurements to improve the safety.

Also the average speed of the fastest team (Tokai) is exceeding 100 km/h again, which is very close to the 110 km/h limit in South Australia. Because there is still much room for improvement regarding specifications (especially in solar panel efficiency), next generation cars would be even faster if the rules don't change, so rule changes for the 2011 event are necessary anyway.

2. Causes of crashes
Many different causes have led to solar car crashes, but some of them happen more often than others. Most frequently causes are a tyre blowout and a suspension breakdown, and I also mention the adhesive joint getting loose.

2.1 Tyre blowout

Solutra (Twente 2005) blew dozens of tyres,
but none got the car uncontrollable

A small puncture causes a tyre to give out, slowly getting flat and slowing down the car as friction increases, which is usually noticed by the driver (or telemetry team member) so it can stop the car. This is usually no big problem. Much more dangerous is when a tyre loses inflation pressure very rapidly, called a 'blowout', usually after it hit an object which made a sizeable hole in the tyre. This can cause the tyre to lose grip (at instant) at full speed and in some cases the car becomes uncontrollable and crashes (especially when driving at high speeds). In 2009 there were about 3 serious crashes caused by a tyre blowout and considering the total number of flat tyres, you'd easily say that (when driving 90+ km/h) the chance is roughly 20% that a flat tyre results in a serious crash. (The value of 20% is a very rough estimate, as I don't have (complete) statistics of most teams, so it is only an indication.)

Nuna5 blew its rear tyre and crashed (Nuon 2009)

Crashes by a tyre blowout not only happens to solar cars, but also to convoy cars (see Nuon(2003) for example). But it does happen to solar cars much more often than to other convoy cars, because solar cars are equipped with narrow tyres inflated at high pressure, to minimize roll friction. Whenever the teams have the choice which tyre to install under their cars, they tend to use the usable ones with the lowest friction possible in order to drive as efficient (=fast) as possible to maximize winning chances. Replacing a tyre usually takes only a few minutes, while installing more common car tyres would slow down the car by about 10-20 km/h and until 2009 the risk of a serious crash seemed pretty low.

2.2 Suspension/wheel breakdown

MIT's wheel broke off in WSC2005's
qualifications

Solar cars are lightweight vehicles, often designed and built by students. The Stuart Highway is long and tough, with many cattle grids, which stresses the suspension to its limits. Also some teams invent a new type of suspension which has not been thoroughly tested before. So it is not surprising that some suspensions fail to stay intact all way down the finish. Some sub-causes for a suspension breakdown are: structure too weak (design or manufacturing errors), joints worn out, not designed for circuit racing, adhesive joint getting loose etc.

2.3 Adhesive joint getting loose
One of the mechanical problems which led to crashes is the adhesive joint getting loose (in these cases metal on composite (e.g. carbon fibre), glued by epoxy or similiar). This not only happens in suspensions, but also in steering systems, and a few times a brake pedal mount got loose (Twente 2005, Nuon 2007; fortunately without a crash as result). Well, some people say 'practice means perfect' and 'haste makes waste', but it also seems that the strength of a metal-on-carbon(composite) adhesive joint is often overestimated. Maybe it is because of the different properties of metal and carbon? Carbon is rather flexible, while metal is rigid. When specific forces (in specific unfavourable directions) act on the joint, forces may accumulate on a single spot in such a way that it causes a crack in a corner of the joint. This then propagates through the whole joint, eventually getting loose, regardless of the total surface area of the joint. Or similiary: the topmost layer of the composite detachs from the other layers (the adhesive joint itself stays intact, but the composite structure gets splitted). Think about peeling off tape. The standard fix (in both cases) is to secure the joint with bolts and nuts, as has been done many times only after the problem occurred.

3. Improving safety
As said before, there were many dangerous crashes in the GGC2009 event, too many for the good name of solar racing. A crash is almost always a result of a technical problem, so in order to make the event safer, the number of technical problems occuring should decrease, or a technical problem should less often result in a crash (or both).

3.1 Reducing occurences of technical problems

Tokai also got a flat tyre in GGC2009

Regarding tyres, the use of stronger, durable tyres will decrease the number of flat tyres. Bicycle tyres and currently-used solar tyres are clearly not doing well. Scooters, motorcycles and small utility cars have tyres which are probably better suitable for solar cars. Because this also increases roll friction, most teams won't do this voluntary and so it has to be reinforced in regulations.

For the 2009 event, the organization indeed specified some minimum profile depth for the tyres and it was expected that it would slow down the cars, but teams have a way of finding the limits to get the maximum out of the regulations and ended up driving with tyres which were approved, but neither considerably increased roll friction nor improved safety.

So in order to really improve safety, the regulations should be reinforced further, e.g. by specifying more physical properties of the tyres (width, thickness, profile area, inflation pressure) and/or to penaltize tyre replacements (e.g. 30 minutes penalty delay for every tyre replacement during the WSC, even at overnight's rest) or to specify existing types of tyres for motorized vehicles, along with some procedure for approving other types. (These suggestions have been stated by other people earlier, so it's not my idea but I just repeat it here.)

Nuon's test-car Mule (with Nuna4 suspension)
jumping over an obstacle (video from 2:40)

Twente 2009's 21Revolution test-driving over
a replica cattlegrid

Regarding suspension, many problems can be prevented by good design and testing, but the teams are not at all consistent with it. Some teams perform rough testing, especially the ones who have crashed in the past. Nuon reported that it does slip&spin tests and their last team built an experimental vehicle (Mule) to do various testing for their cars, incuding some extreme suspension testing with the Nuna4 suspension. And Twente built a replica cattlegrid because of the crashes in 2007.

The dynamic scrutineering involves brake&stability tests and some circuit laps, but these are too easy to pass and do not reflect the required strength to complete the whole Challenge. So I think it is a good idea to make slip&spin tests and driving-over-obstacles part of the dynamic scrutineering too. For example: demonstrate 90 and 180 degree spins and drive at 50 km/h over 15 cm high obstacles (with 45 deg ramp in front) with all wheels. These tests are tough, but my point is that when these tests are specified, teams can prepare for it and do the tests home, in an early stage of testing (i.e. when the car frame is ready to drive). And when a car fails any of these tests home, teams still have enough time to re-design the suspension to resolve the weakness. If any design decisions are doomed to fail, it should fail as early as possible and not remain hidden in the car until the start of the WSC.

Maybe some of these tests can also be officially performed home and be videotaped (especially the spin tests) if teams don't like to do these at the Hidden Valley track. In the DARPA Grand Challenge, a video demonstration is also part of the complete scrutineering process (see regulations).

Solar cars are getting lighter; the lightest ones only weigh about 150 kgs (excluding driver), which is advantageous for efficiency, but it makes the car more susceptible for winds (because gravity and friction forces decrease proportionally with mass, but wind force not). Sudden strong winds (like a willy willy) have attacked Nuon in 2007 and Umicore in 2009; some people suggest that there should be a minimum weight (200 kgs for example), but I doubt whether this is really necessary or not. After all, the Nuna4 stayed on the road and the Umicar (2007) also had steering problems. Specifying a minimum mass also takes away some of the technology innovations, while other measurements (like better steering or aerodynamics) also improve handling in extreme weather.

3.2 Reducing consequences of technical problems
When a tyre blows (or suspension breaks off), sometimes the car can keep track on the road (with the other wheels) and safely slows down, sometimes it slips and becomes uncontrollable, sometimes it flips upside down or worse. Some cars are more stable than others (and so more easily stay on the road), because of the number and configuration of wheels, the location of the center-of-mass, aerodynamical stability and so on.

Four-wheeled cars are generally more stable than three-wheeled ones and some people say that four wheels should be obligatory, but this has some important drawbacks: it limits the teams in their creativity, and some existing in-wheel motors need to be supported on both sides of the wheel and is therefore difficult to be installed as a side wheel. Also there are other important factors to consider with, so a four-wheeler is not necessary more stable than a three-wheeler.

Important for stability is the location of the center-of-gravity: the lower it is (or more precisely, a lower height/distance to side ratio is better ("side" refers to the relevant edge of the polygon formed by the contact points of the tyres on the road)), the less likely it is that a car flips over a side. Also a three-wheeler with two front wheels (and one rear) is more stable than the reverse configuration, because in an emergency situation the car has to slow down quickly. When braking, weight transfer shifts to the front wheel(s); if there is only one wheel in front then it can (diagonally) flip over more easily.

A motor usually drives only one wheel, so a four-wheeled car (with motor in a side wheel) has an unbalanced driving system which is disadvantageous for stability (see Stanford(2007)).

The stability of a car can be tested by performing extreme manouvers, like slipping at certain speed and spin over a specific angle (90 degrees or so). Cars with a too high center-of-gravity (with respect to the distance to the sides) will probably flip over; so including these tests in dynamic scrutineering will force the teams to design cars with good stability.

Stability can also be measured in static judging though, e.g. by lifting one or two wheels and measuring the weight change on each separate wheels. From this data the location of the center-of-gravity can be calculated and also the distances to the sides of the car (or wheels).

Speed is also important: at high speeds, a tyre blowout is more likely to make the car uncontrollable (and therefore more dangerous), and whether it gets uncontrollable or not, at higher speeds a car requires a larger distance to stop.

If a car gets uncontrollable, the driver's safety is most important. There are already a number of regulations to protect the driver: helmet, safety belt, roll bar and such are obligatory. I think most of these regulations are good enough: no one has ever been seriously injured before/during WSC's despite numerous serious crashes. The only time ever a solar driver was killed was in Canada in a frontal collision (see Blue Sky(2004)), but little can be done to protect the driver in a full speed collision right into an opposing vehicle (especially if that vehicle is a road train).

The rollbar of Umicar Inspire was sleek and strong
(and survived the big crash)

Nuna5 initially did not pass scrutineering
because of an incorrect seating angle. Next day
it was adjusted and approved.

But some teams seem to take the technical regulations rather sloppy. Many are meant to improve safety, but sometimes a team makes the car such that it obeys the regulation without actually contributing to safety. For example: technical regulations Section B.5.1 says: "The vehicle must have a balanced, dual braking system so that if one system should fail, the vehicle can still be stopped.". But in some cars, a seperate braking system itself is not balanced. So if one system fails while the driver brakes, the car is likely to spin. A similiar story for the rollbars: some teams construct very strong ones, while other make it as thin as possible (within the regulations) to minimize weight and improve aerodynamics.

It is of course very difficult for the organization to actually take a car out of competition (at scrutineering or qualification) after a problem with regulations. For many students it is an once-in-a-lifetime experience and you simply don't want to refuse permission to start if it obeys all but one detail (or specific interpretation) of the rules. But if teams know this in advance, they may even get more sloppy about the rules. And what about the cars which crashed during qualification (or in WSC itself) and subsequently repaired (but not redesigned) and went on? If such a half-wrecked, overnight-repaired, ducktaped car with (apparently) structural weaknesses eventually manages to complete the challenge, people call it great and call the team members heroes, but if a half-wrecked, overnight-repaired car with (apparently) structural weaknesses crashes again, destroying the car, the same people call it irresponsible that the organization ever allowed the team to go on. Luckily, most part of the Stuart Highway is deserted, but in some parts there are other cars driving too. Is this the reason why the Adelaide government didn't allow most teams to enter Adelaide itself?

4. Conclusion
Too many solar cars crash; mostly because of a blown tyre or a suspension breakdown. To reduce the number of these problems, I propose the following two measurements:

1) Reinforce tyre regulations such that the approved tyres are as strong and durable as the tyres used in commonday motorized vehicles of comparable speed and weight. E.g. specify tyre dimensions and physical properties, or list a few reference tyres and an approvement procedure, or penaltize tyre changes (even at overnight's rest).

2) Add tough suspension tests to dynamic scrutineering. Teams should demonstrate 90 deg spins and driving over obstacles, for example. These tests (which maybe can be officially performed home and videotaped) should test the suspension and stability thoroughly, and be exactly specified, so that a) cars which pass these tests are likely to complete the challenge, and b) cars with structural weakness(es) are likely to fail, in an early stage of construction/development, allowing the team to improve the mechanics in time.

The first measurement also reduces the average speed of the car, which improves safety and creates room for further improvements without hitting the speed limits.

5. List of crashes
Here is a list of crashes, mainly solar car crashes during/before the last few World Solar Challenges. I've tried my best to be as accurate as possible; if you see errors or have additional images/comments/other information, then please let me know (w@wsctube.com, or post a comment)!

Nuon(2003)
Blue Sky(2004)
Nuon(2005)
Sunswift(2005)
MIT(2005)
Michigan(2007)
Twente(2007)
Stanford(2007)
Twente(Jul 2009)
Nuon(2009)
Umicore(2009)
Aurora(2009)
McMaster(2009)
Twente(Oct 2009)

Nuon(2003)
A convoy car of Nuna II blew a tyre, flipped upside down and moderately injured its passengers; one of them broke an arm. This is not a solar car crash, but in terms of injuries, it is the most serious accident during WSC I have heard of, so far.

Blue Sky(2004)
During a promotional tour in Canada, the solar car of Blue Sky from Toronto swerved to the wrong side of the road and frontally hit a minivan. The solar car driver was killed, the driver of the minivan was unhurt. It is unclear why the solar car swerved; maybe because of the winds, or a driver's misjudgement, or a mechanical problem. This is the only time ever that a solar car's driver got killed in a crash, as far as I have heard of. News post about this crash.

Nuon(2005)
During a test drive (driving 100+ km/h) a few weeks before the WSC2005, the right front suspension of the Nuna3 broke off, then it swerved, got off road and came at rest in the shrubs. The driver was unhurt, but there was a lot of damage around the right front suspension and at the nose. It could all be replaced/repaired and the Nuna3 managed to win the race.

The suspension broke off because an adhesive joint got loose. The A-arms of the suspension were made of carbon, with aluminium joints at the ends which were glued on the carbon arms. In the repairing process, the team replaced all A-arms with fully aluminium ones.

Sunswift(2005)
The two-seater Sunswift III got an accident in the week before the race. The suspension broke off, none was injuried.

The repairs lasted several days and the team had to skip the scrutineering events. In WSC2005 it unofficially finished 9th.

MIT(2005)

MIT's Tesseract after the crash

During qualification, one wheel broke off and then the solar car flipped upside down. The driver was almost unhurt, but the solar panel was heavily damaged. It could still compete in WSC2005 with a half-working panel and finished 6th. (I heard that the car did hit the edge of the circuit at a bend which caused the wheel to break off, but I can't find references). The team later explained that the car was not designed for circuit racing.

Michigan(2007)

Damaged topshell of Michigan's Continuum

About one hour after start of WSC2007, Michigan had to stop in front of a congestion, which occurred when Stanford overtook Michigan and then stopped. Then Michigan's solar car Continuum crashed right into its own lead escort vehicle. Michigan then trailered back to Darwin, repaired the car and continued the race on the following day, eventually finishing 7th.

Apparently the stopping distance of the Continuum was larger than the available space. The Continuum was equipped with one front wheel (with motor) and two rear wheels; in this configuration (with regulations of that time) the mechanical brakes usually are in the rear wheels only. But during braking, weight transfer shifts to the front wheel(s), so cars with this wheel configuration have a relatively large stopping distance (important when considering driving style). Update (June 27, 2010): Someone commented that the Continuum was equipped with mechanical brakes on all wheels, so my assumption about the number of mechanically-braked wheels is incorrect. Another comment describes some weaknesses in Continuum's braking system, but as I can't validate the comments, it's up to the readers to make any judgement about it.

Michigan's car showing seat position
(photo: Aurora)

And the driver's position is a crouch position; Aurora was wondering how long the drivers would last in their seating position. (I also noted that when the driver's legs are sleeping, it is more difficult to kick the brake pedal at sudden, but it is said that the brakes are hand-operated.)

From 2009 on, braking regulations have been reinforced, after which usually all wheels have mechanical brakes now.

Twente(2007)

Twente One with broken suspension
(see video from 0:50)

The suspension showing
the spring and lever

Twente's car crashed three times on three consecutive days in WSC2007. Each time, a part of the front suspension broke off after which the bottom of the car dropped to the ground. The broken part could be replaced each time and the total delay was only about two hours. A team member explained that the forces occurring in the suspension had not been re-calculated after an important design adjustment was made (which involved placing the wheels 10cm further from the body).

The suspension is similiar to the one used in F1 cars. The up-down motion of the wheels is transferred to a horizontal motion within the body itself, by means of a pushrod and a lever. So the spring itself fully lies within the body, and the outerior part of the suspension is all aerodynamically clean. The joint between the lever and the frame was the one which broke three times.

Stanford(2007)

Equinox after it crashed (and set back
upright and panel removed by the team)

Damaged topshell of Stanford's Equinox
(more photos)

During WSC2007, the left rear tyre of Stanford's four-wheeled solar car gave out after which it blew. The car then spun and drove off road, hitted a concrete ditch and flipped upside down, landing on the rollbar. The driver was unharmed (also because the rollbar was many times stronger than required by regulations). The car's frame was seriously damaged, it could be repaired (and the car could drive again), but it was impossible to restore the original strength. So the team decided to trailer the remainder of the race.

The left rear tyre probably got the puncture at the last campsite, which was full of thorns. When it got flat, it effectively braked the left side of the car, while the motor (in the right rear wheel) pushed the right side forward. The resulting torque was apparently enough to make the car spin, just when the driver decided to pull over anyway.

Twente(July 2009)
During a test drive of their solar car 21Revolution, the steering system broke off. It drove straight forward in a curve, hitting a small pillar at low speed (30 km/h). The pillar hit the rear-right side of the car, seriously cracking the frame. The team built a new frame and repaired the broken one.

The part which broke off was held by an adhesive joint onto the composite (carbon fibre&epoxy) frame. At the location of the joint, the top layer of the composite detached from the other layers (the adhesive joint itself actually stayed intact). In the repairing progress, some parts were redesigned and some adhesive joints were reinforced with bolts and nuts.

Nuon(2009)

Nuna5 just after the crash (source, video)

Three weeks before GGC2009, the Nuna5 blew its rear tyre when driving 110 km/h. Then it lost track on the road, spun and slid sideways off the road. The car hit the embankment, the suspensions of all wheels broke off and the topshell (with the solar panel) flung off the car. Both parts then came at rest, severely damaged, but luckily the driver was uninjured. The repairs lasted one to two weeks and the repaired car managed to drive the race and finished 2nd. Crash investigation by the team revealed that the tyre blowout was the single cause of the crash, the suspension and other mechanical parts were not malfunctioning at time of the crash.

Umicore(2009)

Umicar Inspire just after the crash (more)

Umicore crashed twice during qualification and once during GGC2009. In the first qualification attempt, it was hindered by a slower car after which it had to brake firmly to avoid an accident. Because of this, it got a second chance, in which the right front suspension broke off. The team repaired (or rather replaced) the right front suspension and got a third chance. In this run, the left front suspension broke off, seriously damaging the body. The team repaired the car again and got a fourth chance and managed to qualify for the race.

On the first day of GGC2009, it started at 9th position and managed to reach the first checkpoint at 2nd position. Somewhere after the first checkpoint, when the car was driving 100+ km/h, the car got uncontrollable, slipped, got off road and curled around a tree along the road. The driver was unhurt, but the car was destroyed.

Team Umicore filmed
their own fate
(video after 0:30)

The cause of the qualification crashes were in the ball joints of the front suspension; they were worn out and got loose (message).

About the third crash the team reported that it got caught by sudden strong winds (also called a 'willy willy'). Initially the team also wrote that the car was difficult steerable because of the qualification crashes. Some people indeed saw the car swerving a bit, which can also be seen in this video. There is no doubt about that the strong winds, which attacked the car, are indeed very dangerous (Nuon also got caught by a 'willy willy' in 2007, which sucked the Nuna4 sideways by one metre or so during a test drive), but I'd say that when a car's steering system is smooth and perfectly responsive, it is better able to do the necessary actions to retain grip on the road in extreme circumstances.

In 2007, Umicore also had steering difficulties on the second day of WSC2007, because some parts of the steering system were worn out. In this video the car almost knocked over a cameraman.

The media crew of the team published some video fragments about the crashes of 2009 (Dutch spoken; not subtitled but the images speak for themselves).

Aurora(2009)
Aurora 101 blew a tyre on the first day of GGC2009 when driving 90-100 km/h. The driver then tried to keep the car on the road, but the front suspension locator broke off (news post). No injuries for the driver and only the front suspension was damaged. The repairs lasted all day and on the following day the team continued the race, eventually finishing 6th in Challenge class.

McMaster(2009)
The right front wheel buckled and broke off on the second day of GGC2009 (news post Oct 29) after which the car fish-tailed. The driver was uninjured, but the team decided to trailer the remainder of the race.

Twente(Oct 2009)

Crashed 21Revolution
(photo: Gijs Versteeg; more)

On the third day of GGC2009, the car 21Revolution blew its right rear tyre after which the car got uncontrollable. It got off road, flipped upside down in which the wing (with solar panel) flung off. The driver was unharmed, it only got a scratch in getting out of the car. The wing landed on the road upside-down, but most of the array was undamaged. The team managed to repair the car and continue the race on the next day.

On the day before the crash, the team also got three flat tyres, reportedly because of debris on the road, but these three flat tyres did not result in a crash.

Maybe one reason why the car flipped upside down is that it has a high center-of-gravity (because of the tiltable wing mechanism) and has only one front wheel; as described earlier in this article, such cars are less stable.

Twente: Documentary WSC2005

2009-11-03T15:42:00.002+01:00

Twente started solar racing in 2005. The first team was founded by Joost Kuckartz and called "Raedthuys Solar Team". Vincent Groenhuis (wsctube admin) was also member of this team. In WSC 2005 it fought a battle against Umicore for the unofficial title of the best newbie team. Here is the documentary about it: 45 minutes long, subtitles included within the video itself. Enjoy!

If you also have a nice documentary about a WSC team of any year, please send the link to w@wsctube.com. Please include English subtitles as well. Thanks!

End of WSC2009

2009-11-03T15:37:00.002+01:00

Global Green Challenge 2009 is over! It was a very exciting week, with many events. Beautiful cars, joy and tears, tense battles and big crashes.

Read more >>

About many teams we didn't report much (or anything at all), but as the name wsctube suggests, this is primary a video site. In my opinion, solar car adventures are best watched in motion pictures. Nuon and Twente produced many interesting videos, Umicore and Tokai also made some. Thanks for it! We have included and subtitled most videos (except from Tokai). Thanks to Sjaak Piest and Andre Hospers for the subtitling, translating and other work!

Why didn't more teams produce daily videos? How many people watched the battle between Sunswift and MIT for the Silicon class championship? It adds greatly to the exposure time of your sponsors, as it is not only broadcasted on Internet but also on regional TV (and (inter)national TV if you are lucky).

You don't need a satellite transmitter, as there are just enough places with phone coverage along the way. Well, not everywhere. From the official WSC media team I got a message "Due to the remote places the solar challenge passes through in Australia we have been unable to establish a reliable connection to upload the video files. [...]".

The mediacrew students from the Saxion Hogeschool Twente were smarter. Two of them travelled the route in reverse direction in the week before the race took place, not only to shoot some videos about interesting places along the route (you can watch these in the long version videos of the daily reports at solarteam.nl), but also to check phone coverage to find the best spots for uploading the daily video reports. And they succeeded in this. (Nuon and Tokai too, with or without satellite disc).

So, in 2011 we expect more daily reports, coming from more teams. OK?

And for now: many teams have recorded their challenge on video or in photos. So, make a nice documentary of it and send it to us (w@wsctube.com), then we'll place it here! Please include English subtitles too (even if the video itself is in English, just for the hearing impaired like me). Thanks!

Vincent Groenhuis

Race time analysis

2009-11-03T09:51:00.001+01:00

Bas Dierselhuis (Twente 2007) made a small analysis about the average speed of top teams in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009.

Download the excel sheet with tables and graphs

His conclusion is that the average speeds (in Challenge class) are back on the 2005 level (current Adventure class).

Final results

2009-11-02T17:05:00.010+01:00

Final results Challenge class:

Ranking	Solar car	Team	Country	Solar time (hours:min)	Average speed (km/h)
1	Tokai Challenger	Tokai University	Japan	29:49	100.54
2	Nuna5	Nuon Solar Team	Netherlands	32:38	91.88
3	Infinium	University of Michigan Solar Car Team	USA	33:08	90.49
4	Sunswift IV	UNSW Solar Racing Team	Australia	39:17	76.38
5	Eleanor	MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team	USA	40:41	73.70
6	Aurora 101	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	42:20	70.82
7	Ra7	Prinicipia Solare Car Team	USA	43:23	69.11
8	21Revolution	Solar Team Twente	Netherlands	44:53	66.80

Next teams did not complete the 3021 km within official time, the distances given are officially driven by solar power:

Ranking	Team	Solar distance
9	SolarWorld	2896 km (arrival: 12:25)
10	Stanford	2719 km (arrival: 16:55)
11	Nanyang	1953 km
12	BoCruiser	1850 km

13-24: Belenos, Cambridge, Sakaraya, Heliox, Istanbul, Leeming, Willetton, Umicore, Esteban, Uniten, McMaster, Eclipse, Swisspirit

The complete final results (also with Adventure class) can be downloaded here!

Update: Results revised; this is version of Nov 3rd

Day6: Twente finished in Adelaide 15 minutes before official End of WSC 2009

2009-11-01T14:26:00.012+01:00

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Nuon: Day 5

2009-10-31T14:52:00.003+01:00

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Tokai: Day 5, Finish at Victoria Square

2009-10-31T14:30:00.000+01:00

Interview with Tokai

2009-10-30T08:42:00.003+01:00

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

Read more to read the interview >>
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

Twente: Day 5 Trying to travel 600km and arriving in Port Augusta

2009-10-29T23:15:00.016+01:00

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Day5: Tokai,Nuna5, Michigan, Sunswift, Mit are in Adelaide

2009-10-29T13:33:00.019+01:00

Name	Car	Team	Country	Class	Control	Date	Time	Distance	Part
Tokai Challenger	60	Tokai University	Japan	Ch	Victoria Square	20091028	14:39	3021	Finished (GaAs)
Nuna V	3	Nuon Solar Team	Netherlands	Ch	Victoria Square	20091029	08:28	3021	Finished (GaAs)
Infinium	2	University of Michigan Solar Car Team	USA	Ch	Victoria Square	20091029	08:58	3021	Finished (GaAs)
Sunswift IV	73	UNSW Solar Racing Team	Australia	Ch	Timing	20091029	15:08	2998	Adelaide (Silicium)
Eleanor	9	MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team	USA	Ch	Timing	20091029	16:31	2998	Adelaide (Silicium)
Aurora 101	101	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	Ch	Port Augusta	20091029	14:57	2719	Silicum
Ra7	32	Principia Solar Car Team	USA	Ch	Port Augusta	20091029	15:42	2719	(GaAs)
21Revolution	21	Solar Team Twente	Netherlands	Ch	Port Augusta	20091030	08:27	2719	(GaAs)
Solar World No 1	42	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	Ch	Glendambo	20091029	13:42	2432	(GaAs)
Saguar	6	Sakaraya University Solar Car Project	Turkey	Ch	Glendambo	20091029	14:09	2432
Ariba IV	34	Istanbul Technical University Solar Car Team	Turkey	Ch	Glendambo	20091029	15:31	2432
Heliox II	18	Heliox Solar Team	Switzerland	Ch	Glendambo	20091029	16:47	2432
Bo Cruiser	12	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	Ch	Glendambo	20091029	16:51	2432	Silicum
Solar Flair	14	Willetton Senior High School	Australia	Ch	Glendambo	20091030	08:00	2432
Nanyang Venture 2	168	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	Ch	Glendambo	20091030	08:07	2432
Belenos	41	Belenos-Polytech' Clermont-Ferrand	France	Ch	Glendambo	20091030	08:14	2432
Esteban	55	Esteban	Canada	Ch	Glendambo	20091030	08:20	2432
Solar Ranger	10	Uniten	Malaysia	Ch	Glendambo	20091030	08:30	2432
Eclipse VI	92	Eclipse Solar Car Team	Canada	Ch	Coober Pedy	20091029	13:07	2180
Apogee	16	Stanford Solar Car Project	USA	Ch	Kulgera	20091029	08:09	1766
Hammerhead	5	Leeming Senior High School Solar Car Team	Australia	Ch	Alice Springs	20091028	08:12	1494
Phoenix II	116	McMaster Solar Car Project	Canada	Ch	Alice Springs	20091028	11:20	1494
Endeavour	11	Cambridge University Eco Racing	UK	Ch	Alice Springs	20091028	15:48	1494	Silicum
Umicar Inspire	8	Umicore Solar Team	Belgium	Ch		20091025	13:03	380	withdrawn (GaAs)
Swisspirit	71	Swisspirit	Switzerland	Ch	Darwin	20091025	08:30	0	withdrawn
OSU Model S'	24	OSU Solar Car Project	Japan	Ad	Victoria Square	20091029	10:35	3021	(GaAs ?)
Southern Aurora	99	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	Ad	Port Augusta	20091029	16:45	2719
GoKo	46	Goko High School	Japan	Ad	Glendambo	20091029	15:33	2432
SolarShop Kelly	62	Combined Secondary Schools WSC Team	Australia	Ad	Glendambo	20091030	08:17	2432
Merdeka 2	94	Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM)	Malaysia	Ad Class	Glendambo	20091030	09:40	2432
Helios IV	4	Helios	France	Ad Class	Coober Pedy	20091029	13:11	2180
Towards Tomorrow	13	Kormilda	Australia	Ad Class	Kormilda	20091028	16:17	1766

Day 5 chart

2009-10-29T13:00:00.003+01:00

Graph by Twan Mennink from Twente 2007

Day 5 progress

2009-10-29T09:40:00.007+01:00

Nuon has finished in 2nd place, Michigan finished in 3rd.

Sunswift is still driving at 4th position.

MIT 5th, Principia and Aurora at 6 and 7 th positions.

Twente (8th) is driving 65-70 km/h, and probably won't be able to recover a place.

Sunswift has finished in 4th position, winning the Silicion class.

Twente has driven almost 600 km, with top speeds of 95 km/h; some cells are damaged but car is doing well.

Principia had some problems in the beginning of the race, e.g. forgetting to connect the solar panel and loose wires in the battery management system, but things are going better. It is at 7th position right between Aurora and Twente.

Bochum started the race slowly because of tyre problems and such, but managed to increase speed and is now at 9th position right behind Twente. But Twente has nearly depleted their batteries and solar panel is not working as well as before. So Bochum and Twente fight about the 8th place; and also against the clock as only the cars arriving before 11:00 on Friday morning are allowed to drive through Adelaide itself to finish at Victoria Square.

Position	Solar Car	Team	Country	Distance (km)	Departure Central Aust
1	Tokai Challenger	Tokai University	Japan	3021 (finished)	28 oct 14:39
2	Nuna V	Nuon Solar Team	Dutch	3021 (finished)	29 oct 8:28
3	Infinium	University of Michigan Solar Car Team	USA	3021 (finished)	29 oct 8:58
4	Sunswift IV	UNSW Solar Racing Team	Australia	3021 (finished)	29 oct 15:08
5	Eleanor	MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team	USA	3021 (finished)	29 oct 16:31
6	Aurora 101	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	2719	29 oct 14:57
7	Ra7	Prinicipia Solare Car Team	USA	2719	29 oct 15:42
8	21Revolution	Solar Team Twente	Dutch	2719	30 oct 8:27
9	Solar World No 1	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	2432	29 oct 13:42
10	Saguar	Sakaraya University Solar Car Project	Turkey	2432	29 oct 14:09

21Revolution arrived 3 minutes before the stop. At the stop they still have to wait 30 minutes so Twente has to wait another 27 minutes the next day before they can leave.

Nuon: Day 4 - Chasing Michigan or is Michigan hunting us ?

2009-10-28T22:58:00.012+01:00

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Twente: Day 4 Repair whole afternoon, evening..night but racing in the morning

2009-10-28T19:42:00.011+01:00

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Chart day 4

2009-10-28T15:59:00.002+01:00

Day 4: Rankings Tokai finished, Nuon 27km near finish

2009-10-28T12:54:00.031+01:00

Name	Car	Team	Country	Class	Date	Time	Distance	Participant
Tokai Challenger	60	Tokai University	Japan	Ch	20091028	14:39	2998	Finished (GaAs 30%)
Infinium	2	University of Michigan Solar Car Team	USA	Ch	20091028	14:30	2719	Concentrator (GaAs)
Nuna V	3	Nuon Solar Team	Netherlands	Ch	20091028	14:30	2719	(GaAs 34%)
Sunswift IV	73	UNSW Solar Racing Team	Australia	Ch	20091029	08:10	2432	Silicum
Eleanor	9	MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team	USA	Ch	20091028	13:31	2180	Silicium 22%
Ra7	32	Principia Solar Car Team	USA	Ch	20091028	15:44	2180	(GaAs)
Aurora 101	101	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	Ch	20091028	16:27	2180	Silicium
21Revolution	21	Solar Team Twente	Netherlands	Ch	20091028	11:20	1766	Concentrator (GaAs 30%)
Solar Flair	14	Willetton Senior High School	Australia	Ch	20091028	12:26	1766	100PeopleSun
Solar World No 1	42	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	Ch	20091028	12:57	1766	(GaAs)
Ariba IV	34	Istanbul Technical University Solar Car Team	Turkey	Ch	20091028	13:32	1766
Belenos	41	Belenos-Polytech' Clermont-Ferrand	France	Ch	20091028	13:54	1766
Saguar	6	Sakaraya University Solar Car Project	Turkey	Ch	20091028	14:18	1766
Nanyang Venture 2	168	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	Ch	20091028	14:56	1766
Esteban	55	Esteban	Canada	Ch	20091028	15:44	1766
Solar Ranger	10	Uniten	Malaysia	Ch	20091028	16:50	1766
Bo Cruiser	12	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	Ch	20091028	16:58	1766	Silicium
Apogee	16	Stanford Solar Car Project	USA	Ch	20091029	08:09	1766
Hammerhead	5	Leeming Senior High School Solar Car Team	Australia	Ch	20091028	08:12	1494
Phoenix II	116	McMaster Solar Car Project	Canada	Ch	20091028	11:20	1494
Eclipse VI	92	Eclipse Solar Car Team	Canada	Ch	20091028	12:07	1494
Endeavour	11	Cambridge University Eco Racing	UK	Ch	20091028	15:48	1494
Heliox II	18	Heliox Solar Team	Switzerland	Ch	20091028	16:26	1494
Umicar Inspire	8	Umicore Solar Team	Belgium	Ch	20091025	13:03	380	withdrawn
Swisspirit	71	Swisspirit	Switzerland	Ch	20091025	08:30	0	withdrawn

Name	Car	Team	Country	Class	Date	Time	Distance	Participant
OSU Model S'	24	OSU Solar Car Project	Japan	Ad	20091028	16:33	2719
Southern Aurora	99	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	Ad	20091028	12:25	1766
GoKo	46	Goko High School	Japan	Ad	20091028	13:06	1766
SolarShop Kelly	62	Combined Secondary Schools WSC Team	Australia	Ad	20091028	13:44	1766
Helios IV	4	Helios	France	Ad	20091028	15:50	1766
Towards Tomorrow	13	Kormilda	Australia	Ad	20091028	16:17	1766
Merdeka 2	94	Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM)	Malaysia	Ad	20091028	12:04	1494

Day 4 progress

2009-10-28T08:04:00.006+01:00

Tokai finished in Adelaide and has won the Global Green Challenge 2009! Congratulations!

Twente has managed to repair the car and is driving again, at about 60 km/h one said.

Michigan and Nuon arrived in Port Augusta at exactly the same time (14:30). Michigan overtook Nuon, and some time later Nuon overtook Michigan back again and is now about 1km ahead.

Aurora 101 is doing well after the crash on the first day, and may be going to overtake some more teams today.

Nuon is at 2nd position, a few km in front of Michigan, but not very much.

It is said that UNSW overtook MIT and is now at 4th position. MIT 5th, Principia 6th, Aurora 7th.

Twente, which crashed yesterday, started slowly driving 40 km/h and after some time it sped up towards 70 km/h and is now in 8th position. The solar panel is still working surprisingly well. A part of the frame were broken, but they had a spare frame which they sew in pieces to replace the broken part of the current frame, because replacing the entire frame would cost too much time.

Reports say that the lead car of BoCruiser crashed yesterday, passengers are OK but this convoy car can't drive anymore. McMaster is broke a rim and decided to trailer the remainder of the race. The small fire initially reported here, occurred at qualification at Hidden Valley. The team had a difficult race because of multiple mechanical problems, but is enjoying the time anyway.

It is reported that Infinium depleted their accus and that Nuon has extended the gap with Michigan to 30 minutes. Nuon is now 33 km from the finish line.

Current standings are at http://globalgreenchallenge.com.au/the-event/daily-wsc-results

Michigan and Nuon at Port Augusta control stop

Tokai: Day 4, Port Augusta, Adelaide

2009-10-28T07:59:00.003+01:00

Adelaide

Port Augusta

Progress chart

2009-10-28T07:30:00.001+01:00

Twan and Bas (from Twente 2007) made this graph:

Day 3: Last day for Tokai..Progress after 3 race days

2009-10-28T07:27:00.001+01:00

Time and distance given are based on the departure from the last checkpoint. Takeovers between last checkpoint and end-of-day are not dealt with, so Twente is actually three positions lower.

Most teams which did not make it to Alice Springs yet (1494 km) have to be trailered because of closing time of checkpoints, so teams like BoCruiser are essentially also out of competition.

Name	Car	Team	Country	Class	Date	Time	Distance	Participant
Tokai Chlr	60	Tokai University	Japan	Chl	20091028	08:37	2432
Nuna V	3	Nuon Solar Team	Netherlands	Chl	20091027	16:47	2180
Infinium	2	University of Michigan Solar Car Team	USA	Chl	20091027	16:51	2180
Eleanor	9	MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team	USA	Chl	20091027	16:43	1766
21Revolution	21	Solar Team Twente	Netherlands	Chl	20091027	12:29	1494
Sunswift IV	73	UNSW Solar Racing Team	Australia	Chl	20091027	13:55	1494
Ra7	32	Principia Solar Car Team	USA	Chl	20091027	14:43	1494
Aurora 101	101	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	Chl	20091027	16:14	1494
Hammerhead	5	Leeming Senior High School Solar Car Team	Australia	Chl	20091028	08:12	1494
Ariba IV	34	Istanbul Technical University Solar Car Team	Turkey	Chl	20091028	08:24	1494
Heliox II	18	Heliox Solar Team	Switzerland	Chl	20091027	08:30	988
Solar Flair	14	Willetton Senior High School	Australia	Chl	20091027	09:40	988
Solar World No 1	42	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	Chl	20091027	09:56	988
Solar Ranger	10	Uniten	Malaysia	Chl	20091027	10:20	988
Belenos	41	Belenos-Polytech' Clermont-Ferrand	France	Chl	20091027	10:57	988
Apogee	16	Stanford Solar Car Project	USA	Chl	20091027	11:07	988
Nanyang Venture 2	168	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	Chl	20091027	11:20	988
Saguar	6	Sakaraya University Solar Car Project	Turkey	Chl	20091027	11:22	988
Bo Cruiser	12	HS Bochum Solar Car Team	Germany	Chl	20091027	11:24	988
Esteban	55	Esteban	Canada	Chl	20091027	11:24	988
Eclipse VI	92	Eclipse Solar Car Team	Canada	Chl	20091027	12:31	988
Phoenix II	116	McMaster Solar Car Project	Canada	Chl	20091026	15:13	633
Endeavour	11	Cambridge University Eco Racing	UK	Chl	20091026	16:44	633
Umicar Inspire	8	Umicore Solar Team	Belgium	Chl	20091025	13:03	380	withdrawn
Swisspirit	71	Swisspirit	Switzerland	Chl	20091025	08:30	0	withdrawn

Name	Car	Team	Country	Class	Date	Time	Distance	Participant
OSU Model S'	24	OSU Solar Car Project	Japan	Ad	20091027	13:26	1766
GoKo	46	Goko High School	Japan	Ad	20091028	08:07	1494
Helios IV	4	Helios	France	Ad	20091027	09:19	988
Southern Aurora	99	Aurora Vehicle Association	Australia	Ad	20091027	10:16	988
Merdeka 2	94	Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM)	Malaysia	Ad	20091027	12:31	988
Towards Tomorrow	13	Towards Tomorrow	Australia	Ad	20091026	11:38	633
SolarShop Kelly	62	Combined Secondary Schools WSC Team	Australia	Ad	20091026	13:54	633

Twente Day 3: 21Revolution crashed at 95 kmph

2009-10-28T02:10:00.007+01:00

In the morning the sun was shining strong and a lot of energy was stored in the batteries. Unfortunately the day was ending much worse.

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Day3: Solarcar battle between Infinium and Nuna5

2009-10-27T20:59:00.016+01:00

This video shows Nuna and the solarcar of University of Michigan called Infinium. Infinium weighs 650 pounds (300 kgs) (including a 170-pound driver (80 kg)) and has “space-grade” Emcore solar panels which are the same as NASA puts on satellites. The Infinium batteries are from A123 Systems (which also supplies Chrysler’s Electrical Vehicles). Nuna5 has also “space-grade” solarcells from AZURSPACE SOLAR POWER GMBH, Germany which has been places on hunderds of sattelites. These Azur cells has been offerd to the 21Revolution solarcar but were out of budget for this solarteam. Only three companies can produce high efficient solar cells. Two are situated in USA and one in Germany. The Tokai uses solar cells from Sharp and Michigan

There are a lot of flat tyres these days. But (according to Andre) it seems that most of top racers use Michelin tires.
Michigan Infinium Sava moped tires(test) to Michelin Solar Radial tire
Umicore : New Michelin Solar Tires developed for solarcars: low rolling resistance
Aurora 101 :Michelin 16 inch, 185/60 solar car tyres. Low rolling resistance
MacSolarCar Phoenix : 14" Bridgestone Ecopia tubeless tires.
UNSW SunSwift Ivy : Dunlop Solarma

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Nuon:Day 3 Travelling together with Infinium in horizon

2009-10-27T20:40:00.008+01:00

Nuon overtook Michigan on day 3, but Michigan was able to chase Nuon and at end of day it camped just a few minutes from Nuon.

Nuon was having difficulties with telemetry readings and had to guess the accu charge, doing strategy blindfolded; Michigan had a loose cable, a broken circuit breaker and flat tyre.

And there was an accident with some other car ahead of them (no, not Tokai but an overturned semi); because of this both Nuon and Michigan had to drive slowly past them; Michigan blew the tyre because of debris of this accident.

Because of the (apparently) enormous attention for the exciting fight for the second place, the websites of both Michigan and Nuon were down for some time...!

Distance to finish is about 800 km which will be a neck-to-neck fight tomorrow.

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Day 3 progress

2009-10-27T11:50:00.002+01:00

Nuon has overtaken Michigan and is now second behind Tokai. Tokai is still much ahead, well on the way for their first championship.

MIT (5) is getting near Twente (4). Yesterday the gap was about one hour, now it has decreased to 24 minutes at Barrow Creek.

Standings:
1. Tokai
2. Nuon
3. Michigan
4. Twente
5. MIT

Update: Twente has crashed, 100 km south of Alice Springs, at 13:40 local time. It is reported that because of a mechanical problem with one of the rear wheels (supposedly a tyre blowout) the car got off road. The car flipped upside down and the wing broke off. The driver is OK, but the car is heavily damaged. The team will try to repair the car and expects to continue the race tomorrow. Sunswift, MIT and Principia have overtaken Twente.

Tokai: Day 3, Kulgera, Coober Pedy, Glendambo

2009-10-27T08:18:00.003+01:00

Glendambo
Coober Pedy
Kulgera

Twente: Day 2

2009-10-26T20:53:00.016+01:00

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Nuon: Day 2

2009-10-26T17:32:00.001+01:00

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Tokai: Day 2, Burrow Creek to Alice Springs

2009-10-26T15:15:00.000+01:00

Second video report today from Tokai, from Barrow Creek to Alice Springs

Day 2 standings

2009-10-26T12:18:00.005+01:00

Standings after day 2

1 Tokai
2 Michigan
3 Nuon
4 Twente
5 MIT
6 Principia
7 UNSW
8 Willetton
9 Stanford
10 Heliox

For complete, official results, check http://globalgreenchallenge.com.au/the-event/daily-wsc-results

Yesterday the Aurora 101 blew a tyre after which it spun, damaging the car. Some reports say that the car is too damaged to complete the challenge, but this has not yet been confirmed and in official results show that the car has arrived in Katherine in time.

Nuon chased the Michigan in the attack for the second place, but had to slow down in order to preserve accu charge. It seems that the Nuna5 is going faster on the second day than on the first day and tomorrow it will chase Michigan again.

Tokai has extended the lead to half an hour, which means that their car is doing extremely well! It seems that Nuon and Michigan see no chance to close the gap and have to fight about the second place only, unless some trouble hits Tokai.

Twente was delayed by three flat tyres and a hole in the flexible part of the body, almost losing the fourth position to MIT, but at the end of the day it is reported that Twente is still pretty well ahead of MIT.

Twente: Day 1

2009-10-26T08:49:00.002+01:00

Twente finished 4th on the first day. Here is a video report!

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Tokai: Videos day1 and day2

2009-10-26T08:40:00.000+01:00

Tokai is in the lead position after day 1. While day 1 was very sunny, day 2 seems to be pretty cloudy, which will be a serious test for the strategies of the teams. Here are the first three videos of this team: (without subtitles)

Day 2: Tennant Creek

Day 1: Katherine-Dunmarra

Day 1: Darwin

Nuon: Day 1 - Departure from Darwin

2009-10-25T21:00:00.009+01:00

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First day progress

2009-10-25T13:36:00.002+01:00

Today the World Solar Challenge has started! Weather is sunny, so the fastest teams cruised away at speeds exceeding 100 km/h.

Nuon had a small problem with the solar panel and was overtaken by Michigan.

At first stop the standing was:

1. Tokai

2. Umicore (+30 sec)

3. Michigan (+5 min)

4. Nuon (+18 min)

After the first stop, Umicore crashed and is out of competition. The team is in good health. It was not the first crash of Umicore: yesterday the two front suspensions both broke off at different attempts of the qualification. The team explained that it was caused by braking too vigorously, but obviously a car should be able to withstand such actions and not damage itself just by braking. The cause of the crash of today has not yet been reported. Anyway, the leaders are Tokai, Michigan and Nuon now. More information to come when official results of today is available.

Update: a strong blast of crosswind blew the Umicar off the road after which it hit an object along the road. This severely damaged the car but fortunately the driver is unharmed. According to this report the crash had nothing to do with the problems with the suspension yesterday. Anyway, Umicore is definitively out of competition.

At end of day the top-8 standings are:
1. Tokai
2. Michigan +17min
3. Nuon +1h04min
4. Twente +1h36min
5. MIT
6. Principia
7. Stanford
8. UNSW

For complete standings check http://globalgreenchallenge.com.au/the-event/daily-wsc-results

First control stop, from up to down: Tokai, Umicore, Michigan, Nuon

Twente qualification

2009-10-25T12:18:00.017+01:00

The qualification of Twente yesterday resulted in a time of 2min34 seconds. The best time so far driven with this red car. It gave a starting position No 11. The team was satisfied with this position because the 21Revolution was not developed for drag racing due to the wheel configuration. The front has only one wheel..giving it worse stability in curves. Strange enough the Aurora 101 has also a noose wheel configuration but did a tremendous good job on the qualification.

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Another video: (just after the start in Darwin)

Nuon: Qualification

2009-10-25T06:11:00.000+01:00

The video about the qualification of Nuon. Also in the picture: Aurora 101, Bochum BoCruiser and Michigan.

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Global Green Challenge to kick off

2009-10-24T10:23:00.007+02:00

The Global Green Challenge kicks off this weekend! Qualification on Saturday, start on Sunday.

There are too many teams to write something about, so we'll focus at the top teams. Well, who are candidates for the championship this year? Of course the cars with the best specifications do apply for it. Considering the solar panel, there are six teams (if I counted right) who have a top range solar panel with an efficiency of about 30%: Nuon, Umicore, Twente, Michigan, Principia and Tokai. Let's look at them!

Read more >>

Nuon Solar Team

The repaired Nuna5, during the first tests after the crash

Nuna5 at scrutineering

Nuon has managed to completely repair the Nuna5 in time. It is equipped with largely brand new solar panels and the weight increase is negligible. It didn't pass scrutineering immediately because the seating angle was initially incorrect, but after some adjustments the car has passed it. The team didn't have much time to test the reborn car, but it looks good and is a worthy title defender.

Umicore Solar Team

Umicar III Inspire doing some tests

The narrow wheel covers, wich can swing along with the wheels

Umicore has tested a lot and the car is doing OK. The front wheel covers of the Umicar Inspire are very narrow and can rotate along with the wheels when taking turns, minimizing the frontal area of the car. A disadvantage is that the aerodynamic shape is far from optimal when taking curves. The Stuart Highway is not perfectly straight, but it bends slightly across the landscape. Another function of wheel covers is to convert cross winds into forward force, some teams are very good in shaping wheel covers for this but it will probably be more difficult when they are narrow.

University of Michigan Solar Team

The Infinium (concentrators cannot be seen here)

The interior of the Infinium. On the sides the parabolic mirrors are visible

Michigan has equipped the car with solar concentrators, as it did in 2007. This time the parabolic mirrors are located along the sides of the car. This means that the panel collects more energy than those of Nuon, Umicore, Tokai and Principia, at the cost of slightly higher weight and drag (because of the necessary space below the cells, the car is relatively thicker at the sides). We'll see how this works out in the race.

Solar Team Twente

21Revolution (without canopy)

21Revolution at scrutineering, without wing, and with sideways opening doors opened

Wing of 21Revolution with solar concentrators

Twente is also equipped with solar concentrators, and with a tiltable wing and so it can collect most energy of all teams, in theory. The team presents the 21Revolution as an innovative car, not as a champion candidate. There are reasons for it: the predecessor, Twente One, finished sixth in 2007 and so it was much slower than the top teams. The aerodynamics of 21Revolutioon has improved by 25%, but Nuon and Umicore claim similiar improvements so looking at these claims the 21Revolution would be still slower than the top cars. But the Twente One suffered a lot from breakdowns and cloudy weather, and also the full-day stop in 2007 was disadvantageous for this kind of car. This year there is no full day control stop and if weather is good it may come to an advantage for teams with concentrators, because it gets relatively more energy from the solar panel than from batteries. It's definitely a car to reckon with!

Tokai University Solar Team

Tokai Challenger, doing tests in Japan

Tokai has similiar specifications as Nuon and Umicore, as far as information is available (like solar panel efficiency, weight, accu type, motor efficiency). Expect aerodynamics: the CdA value is kept top secret by most teams. The Tokai Challenger looks fast and we'll see how aerodynamic it will be during the race!

Principia College Solar Team

Principia at Hidden Valley

Principia is also equipped with top range solar cells, but the car is the same as in NASC2008, in which it finished behind Michigan's Continuum. The successor of the Continuum is probably faster than the Continuum itself, so Principia is effectively not a direct candidate for the championship unless it has managed to improve the car a lot.

Most other teams have equipped their car with silicon cells, which are much cheaper than top-range GaAs cells and so more affordable for low-budget teams (and for teams who didn't want to spend too much money for the panel anyway for whatever reason). Top competitors in the silicon class include Aurora 101, Stanford, MIT, UNSW

It's not only the specifications of the car which count. Reliability and endurance are also very important. In 2007, many top teams suffered mechanical and/or electric breakdowns which cost them much time.

Some examples: Nuna4's motor-controller combination did not boot up at start, delaying it by half an hour. They used the same motors as in the previous three WSC's, which were now worn out and so it had not the original efficiency and reliability. (In 2009 the Nuna is equipped with a brand new motor of course.) Umicar II Infinity got problems with the steering system during the second day of WSC2007. An important part was worn out and the repairs delayed the team by more than one hour. Strategy was also an issue: Umicore had to slow down when driving under clouds because the batteries were getting flat quicker than expected.

Michigan crashed right into its own lead escort vehicle when it had to stop in front of a congestion, in which Stanford was involved. Apparently the Continuum needed a larger stopping distance than the available space. In 2009, braking regulations have been reinforced. Some days later, Stanford itself collapsed when a tyre gave out and it hit a rock on the side of the road. And the left front suspension of Twente broke off three times on three consecutive days, delaying it by a total of about two hours. The forces on a critical part of the suspension were not calculated correctly (at all) after a design modification.

Some teams would call a breakdown bad luck, but it should not be forgotten that most breakdowns are avoidable (by sound engineering, good construction, safe driving style). And wheter it is avoidable or not, it is part of the complete Challenge, as with raising funds and doing public relations. The best team and car will be judged by only one measure: the victory of the World Solar Challenge 2009.

Article by Vincent Groenhuis

Scrutineering Update

2009-10-22T23:29:00.006+02:00

University of Michigan has done their extreme testing (3,500 miles of testing, I am thinking how much miles Nuna has driven last weeks) on the other side of Australia with a special purpose: to get rid of the spy eyes of the other teams. While Solar team Twente is inviting other teams with the barbecue and a technical show of their car after a few beers the other inventors of the concentrators are hiding their special joker. The concentrators are on the sides of the car, hidden behind fake solarcels. Even in Darwin the Michican boys were traveling without the concentrators! Today there was the statictical scrutineering: Checking if the theoretical regulations are met: length of the car, width of the car, driver weight,driver should get out in 15 secondes brake and turning LEDs, battery weight, array size, vehicle weight, mechanical, electrical, safety bar and support vehicles. On Saturday there is a check on breaks,turning, twists and slalom. On the blogs one can read that Nuna5 did not pass immediately the test. The car is now 161.5 kg and looks on the videos brand new. Hopefully it is the new car that is shown on the new videos that appeared on the nuna website today. If i understood it well the driverseat was not in a upright position enough (27 degrees) and that had to be adjusted. It is good to mention that Umicar Inspire and the Solar Team Twente with the 21Revolution did not have to make any adjustments at the car at all..the passed the statical scrutineering at once without making any changes.

Nuon: Scrutineering

2009-10-22T18:49:00.003+02:00

Nuon Solar Team has completely repaired the Nuna5, which weighs now 161.2 kg (1.2 kg more than before the crash). With one day delay the car has passed scrutineering.

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Twente: Scrutineering

2009-10-22T13:07:00.000+02:00

The 21Revolution of Solar Team Twente got inspected technically at the scrutineering on Wednesday.

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Challenge solarcars WSC 2009

2009-10-21T20:55:00.036+02:00

It seems internet does not provide a lot of surveys with the subject WSC 2009. This is my first attempt. Another good WSC survey is Solarwebsite-1week and Solarwebsite-comprehensive overview. Initially a more technical survey was the intention by seems too much work. Please do read our report two weeks before the Challenge or the preview written by Vincent. The fastest solarrace was 2005. But why was 2007 slower than 2005 when technology is improving all the time? Two reasons: A speed limit was introduced in the Northern Territory, making the maximum speed 130km per hour, instead of the speeds that were previously possible. The support crews had problems keeping up with 130 km/h (81 mph) of race solarcars. The Nuna 3 traveled at up 147km per hour in 2005. Second reason: Nuna 3 had 8 square meters of solar panels. Nuna 4 only has 6 square meters (-25%) because they participated in different classes. Third was the upright position of the driver. In 2009 the battery weight limits depend on secondary cell chemistries but in general it has shrinked from 30 to 25 kg and the special solar tyres without profile are forbidden..so the velocity with the same car should be lower than in the previous contest. Similiar cars in this contest are the Aurora 101 and the Solarworld No1. Read more in the FAQ

Survey Challenge Class
Team	Car	No	Class	Country	Blog	Photo	News	Fact	Wiki
University Michigan	Infinium	2	181 kg	USA	Blog	Photo	(650 pounds incl 170 pound driver)	space-grade” Emcore solar panels	batteries are from A123 Systems
Nuon Solar Team	Nuna5	3	160 kg	Netherlands	Blog	Photo	News	Fact	Hyves
Leeming HS	Hammerhead	5	Ch	Aus (WA)	Blog	Photo	News	Fact	Wiki
Sakarya University	Saguar	6	Ch	Turkey	Blog	Photo	News	Fact	Wiki
University College London	Solar Fox	7	Ch	United Kingdom	Withdrawn
Umicore	Umicar	8	Video	Belgium	Blog	Photo	News	170kg	Wiki
MIT	Eleanor	9	Photo	USA	243.000$	Photo	Cw=0,11	500 pounds	Wiki
Uniten	Solar Ranger	10	Ch	Malaysia
Cambridge University Eco Racing	Endeavour	11	Ch	United Kingdom
HS Bochum News	BoCruiser	12	Photo	Germany	280 kg
Willeton SHS	Solar Flair	14	Ch	Aus (WA)	100PeopleSun
University of Tehran	Persian Gazelle	17	Ch	Iran
Stanford Uni	Apogee	16	Ch	USA	Blog
Heliox	Heliox ll	18	Ch	Switzerland
Solar Team Twente	21Revolution	21	E1.3000.000	Netherlands	Blog	Photo	News	Fact	Video
Principia College	Ra 7	32	Ch	USA	Updates	Photo	News	Twitter	Wiki
Istanbul Tech University	Ariba 4	34	Ch	Turkey
Belenos Clermont-Ferrand	Belenos	41	Ch	France
HS Bochum News NASC	SolarWorld No 1	42	230 kg	Germany
Netaji Subhas Inst. Tech.	Advay	49	Ch	India
Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal	Esteban	55	Ch	Canada
Tokai University	Tokai Challenger	60	140 kg	Japan
Swisspirit	Swisspirit	71	Ch	Switzerland
UNSW	Sunswift lV	73	Ch	Aus (NSW)	$280.000	Silicium 22%
TAFE SA, TAFE II	Solar Spirit	75	Ch	Aus (SA)
Ecole de technologie superieure ETS	Eclipse VI	92	Ch	Canada
Nat Kaohsiung Uni of Applied Sc.	Apollo V	95	Ch	Taiwan	Withdrawn
Aurora Vehicle Association	Aurora 101	101	1	Aus (Vic)
McMaster University	Phoenix II	116	Ch	Canada
Nanyang Tech University	Nanyang Venturere	168	Ch	Singpore
Omega Solar - Durham Coll Uni Ontario	Arctic Sun	463	Ch	Canada	Withdrawn

Courtesy WSC
The French Belenos Solar Car has an english website and this website is probably the Delhi project from University of Delhi.

Adventure Class World Solar Challenge 2009

2009-10-20T21:53:00.025+02:00

In the upcoming week additional information will be added to the WSC-participants mentioned beneath..The Team-Blog, the Solarcar-Photogallery, The Social Networking homepage (Facebook/Hyves), Multimedia(Newsletters), Technical specifications-Factsheet page and Wikipedia. An overview of WSC 2005 / SolarCar 2005 directory gave additional information or at Wikipedia.

Survey - Adventure Class
University/Team	Name SolarCar	No	FaceBook	Country	Blog	Photo
Helios	Helios IV	4	FaceB	France	Blg;	Photo
Kormilda College	Towards Tomorrow	13	Ad	Aus (NT)
Osaka Sangyo University	OSU Model S	24	Ad	Japan
GoKo High School Hiroshima	GoKo	46	Ad	Japan
Energy Education Australia	Kelly	62	Ad	Aus (SA)	Blog	Photo
CDPM University of Malaya	Merdeka 2	94	Ad	Malaysia
Aurora Vehicle Association	Southern Aurora	99	Ad	Aus (Vic)	Blog

Courtesy WSC 2009

Nuon: Workshops with Nightcliff Primary School

2009-10-20T12:54:00.002+02:00

Nuon's working place is located at Nightcliff Primary School. Because the school kids are very interested in the Nuna5, the team and teachers held a workshop about alternative energy and played a soccer match against each other.

These activities took place around Sept 24th, which was a few days before the crash of the Nuna5 and so this video displays the car when it was still in original shape.

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