Solar Race Cars

Pete Simmons

Member
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546
Location
Melbourne, FL
Some of you may know I have been studying alternate energy.

I came upon this info about those sleek, light weight solar race cars that capture the presse's eye every once and awhile.

While I think these cars and races are great to make people aware of the potential of solar and to study the science, the press leads the public to believe you can strap a few sq feet of solar cells onto your car and motor away.

Note these are very specialized, light weight, 1 person rolling solar motors. Very little day to day use for the average person. Here are a few quotes from some recent news releases about the North American Solar Challenge -

I was not aware and most news casts seem to miss the part where they trailer the cars when there is not enough solar power and add a time penalty to the race team.


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The 2008 NASC pits college students from across North America against each other to design the best solar car to travel from Texas to Canada in 10 days.
The kick-off was Sunday in Plano, Texas, and will end 2,400 miles later in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on July 22.
The race is scheduled similarly to the Tour de France with stages and checkpoints.
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Gato del Sol III weighs 640 pounds, including a 180-pound driver and 70 pounds of batteries, Hatfield said.
The new car also includes higher-efficiency solar cells and a computer monitoring system that tells the team when to slow down to conserve
energy and when they can cruise at the maximum-allowed speed of 55 miles per hour.

The one-seater generates 1,200 watts of electricity from 468 solar cells
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Pillay pointed out that Calgary's team, like PrISUm, had to tow its car when cloud cover was heavy in the early stages of the race.
She said the reason leading teams didn't have to "trailer" -- which is legal but incurs a time penalty -- was because they were able
to get ahead of the weather, not because of any superior technology.
 
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