World Solar Challenge

G'day Mates, I'm back,

Sorry it took so long but we have had a marvelous time in Litchfield Park but of course these adventures will come later. There was no reception, not for Internet and even no phone!

For now I can tell you that our goal; Darwin has been reached and fortunately the World Solar Challenge was on at the time we were there and it was so interesting I'm going to share that with you.

Darwin itself is just another city and very very warm you don't feel doing much so you won't get big stories from me about Darwin.

OK lets start with the World Solar Challenge;  there were 3 classes, Challenger class (one person per car) in which 28 teams took part and two of them were Dutch teams; Nuon and Twente. Then you have the Cruiser class (more persons per car) in which 10 teams and one from Holland; Eindhoven. And last the Gopro adventure class with 8 teams (no Dutch).

Here we are at the scrutineering, explanation;

Team members will be registered, drivers weighed and the solar cars will be presented to the scrutineers for inspection.

The vehicles will be progressively dismantled for inspection and reassembled in a production line process on the scrutineering floor.

Here they are filling bags with stones, the drivers must have a minimum weight of 80 kg, so if you're not 80 kilo you will get a bag with stones you will have to take with you into your car so everyone will have the same change. 

no engine but batteries....

When one is finished, a new one comes in.....

The hall is surrounded by a balcony on which we had a good view of the proceedings and had a nice chat with a few of the Eindhoven solar team; (Fred in the middle of the Eindhoven team)

they had their own media team with them.....

here they have to step in and out of the car all four at the same time....

This is the Stella from the Eindhoven team and the only car which can take 4 people....

here they check the lights and if the driver has good sight.....

Yes! The Stella has passed the tests...

I think it's a beautiful car, very space.....

the Stella had passed the tests and now may go back into its own box....

This is the only thing we have seen from the Twente team, The Red Engine packed in his jacket... 

On Saturday 5th of October;

Qualifying and Time Trials;

One of the few times the solar cars and their teams are in the same place with time to talk. Following a team briefing, solar cars take to the track individually to complete a series of dynamic tests; steering, braking and performance.

The timed “hot lap” will determine their starting position on the big day; The Start.

Just as with the scrutineering, we didn't see the Solar Team Twente, they were finished and went back to their accommodation....

We didn't see the Eindhoven team either on this day but fortunately, the Nuon Team from Delft was still there and so it was very nice to have a chat with them too also because they were participants in an other class then the Eindhoven team.....

Here they have an interview with Wubbo Ockels, a Dutch physicist and a former astronaut of the European Space Agency....

   

The big day; 6th October, the Start....

We did not go to the start as we knew they would come passed our caravan park, so we here standing along the Stuart Highway with our Dutch Flag......

Here is Stella, the first one to pass......

and here a few of the other;

In their Class, Eindhoven with Stella won the Challenge, they didn't get over the finish first but because they had driven most of the time with more then 2 people, they got more points!

In the Challenger Class, Nuon from Delft won with their Nuna7 and the 3rd Dutch team, Twente ended at the 3rd place with their Red Engine.

The Dutchies did very well.

Why were we only involved and supporting the Dutch teams while we live in Australia??

Well, you know, we are torn between two lovers and of course the Aussies have a land full people to support them!!

Hope you have find this interesting, see you next time mates!