Wonder what it takes to build a competitive solar racer?
Lest you think that it's easy to make a competitive solar racer, take a look at the videos of the University of Texas' Samsung Solorean (the name is a reference to the DeLorean from the Back 2 The Future movies), which are pasted after the break. In a nod towards that movie car, the portal to enter the solar racer opens gull-wing style. Pretty cool. The SunPower A300 solar cells, which cover the carbon fiber body with a Kevlar enclosure, can generate 1.1 kW of power. An on-board battery pack is made up of 598 18650 cells from LG and are controlled by a ton of sophisticated gadgetry. All of this stuff, along with the driver of course, is contained inside a nicely triangulated chromoly tube chassis. Integrated hub motors which run at 110 volts of AC power are wrapped in Bridgestone Ecopia tires inflated to a staggering 110 psi and specially made for solar car racing. Very impressive work, but - and here's the hard part - mechanical problems kept the team of competing. Thanks for the tip, Curtis!
[Source: Engineering TV]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gabe 6:33PM (9/09/2008)
Not to pick your nits too hard, but I'd hardly call that hatch a gull wing. Gull wing opens from the side upwards...creating a wing look. A wing like that of a gull, perhaps.
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SirMikan 12:46AM (9/10/2008)
I'm going to pick some nits. Not competing means it wasn't "competitive." It's still a fantastic project, and it is a great learning experience for all of those involved, but there are some good videos out there of the real competitive cars. Here's one from the 2005 NASC. If you have 45 minutes to kill, it's definitely worth the watch. (after the long-ish ad for CSTV)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=143192687118710102&ei=2k_HSK7fG4vK-wGh1fTDAg&q=Solar+Challenge+2005&hl=en
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