The Veolia Solar Car Challenge, taking place in 2015, will see a group of school kids from Ardingly College, Sussex, building and racing a solar-powered car 3,000km across Australia.
It’s an ambitious project for the group of students who have wheeled in some expert support as they take on experienced universities from around the world in a cross-continent race from Darwin to Adelaide.
Having already visited Cambridge University and autosport legends Prodrive and Mclaren, they’ve been brushing up their SolidWorks CAD skills with NTCADCAM – designing the ultimate streamlined, energy-efficient car.
Some of the team after their SolidWorks training with NTCADCAM
It’s all about energy management – based on the original notion that a 1000w car would complete the journey in 50 hours, the solar cars are allowed a nominal 5kw hours of stored energy, which is 10% of that theoretical figure. All other energy must come from the sun or be recovered from the kinetic energy of the vehicle.
The team of 30 not only have to design, engineer and build the car, but will also be responsible for financing the project, marketing it and arranging all the logistics of getting to the start line in just over two-years time – all while continuing their regular studies.
We’ll be checking on the team’s progress throughout the various stages of the project, but feel free to visit the team’s website, and even offer your own support.
