UNSW: Race Day 6 Midday Report

We have just left Port Augusta at 12:30 after a record three minute wheel change and are heading to Adelaide at 85km/hr which means we should reach the Adelaide control stop (20km out of the city on Princes Highway) by 3:45. We anticipate being held there for up to twenty minutes and then will head down Main North Road, through North Adelaide and follow King William Street to Victoria Square where all the cars will be on display for the weekend.

UNSW: Race Day 5 SA Border to Glendambo

Today’s drive took us through the flat dry plains of South Australia past Coober Pedy into Glendambo a good 609 km drive. We averaged a steady 80km/hr and had two control stops, the first was at Cadney where we briefly met two of the Canadian teams, Calgary ahead of us and Blue Sky from Toronto behind us. The second control stop, Glendambo, we reached at 4:45 and camped once again nearby. After a rather uneventful day we finished off the afternoon with two separate tyre changes on the side of the road that took eight and seven minutes respectively. Anthony and I spent over fourty minutes trying to change tyres in the back seat of the Rodeo on the road and were feeling rather pleased with ourselves until we were told the teams previous tyre changer took only ten minutes.

Despite the fact that Yael noticed both flat tyres early by the time we got the car off the road we had an impressive looking tyre to put on the wall shredded all the way around. Once the rim had had a quick sand it was as good as new and we are ready to go for what should be our last day on the road with the solar car. If all things go well we will make it to the final Adelaide control stop by four thirty and come through North Adelaide down King William Rd to be in Victoria Square by 5:30. If you are around Adelaide come down and look at all the cars that will be displayed in Victoria Square for the weekend.

Clara and Anthony with a Successful Tyre Change

Yael and Dan with the Flat Tyre

UNSW: Race Day 4 Alice to SA Border

Apologies for the sporadic nature of the web updates, it corresponds predominantly to limited phone coverage along with your regular updater abandoning her post to get her hands dirty and assist with wheel and tire changes. As we come nearer to Adelaide and reception improves we shall endeavour to keep you informed more regularly.

As today’s departure was not until 1:30 we had a leisurely morning woken by Nuna’s support vehicle playing the ‘Skippy” theme song and “Land Down Under” from the speaker mounted on its roof. The weather was beautiful and sunny enabling the battery to be fully charged by midday while the team stocked up on food, fuel and showering and attended to the odd electrical issues.

With a full battery pack, Smithy drove a cracking pace in Sunswift which maintained our place and we arrived at five o’clock without any incident to camp in a little rise in sight of the South Australian border. Setting up the tilter to catch the last light of the day has become routine and was followed by Anthony’s nightly tire changes. The mood of the evening was light and cheerful and Ken took out his bagpipes that proved entertaining for all.

Sunswift on the Road

Array at Sunset

UNSW: Day Three

Today was the best day so far. The car had a total of 11 minutes off the road, which was for a driver change and wheel check. For what had to be done, 11 minutes is quite good, so we were pretty happy.

We had cloud cover for most of the day, from when we left Tennant Creek, until two hours before Alice. We kept a constant 60km/h, and passed a few teams along the way.

The drive into Alice was absolutely stunning, our car building up speed down the hills, and handling like an absolute dream. It has definitely the best driving of the trip so far.

On arrival into Alice we set up the array to charge, and went to find the time boards.
The picture says it all really,

We are coming 4th in Adventure class, and 10th overall! The team was absolutely over the moon. We are two and a quarter hours behind the next car in our class, so it’s unlikely that we’ll make 3rd, but we’ll be chasing as hard as we can anyway. Due to the stopover in Alice, we’ll be leaving half an hour behind them, so we might pass them on the road, but they’ll still have a major time advantage.

The atmosphere in Alice Springs is great – all the teams are here, and camped together overnight, the Dutch team Nuna, who are currently coming first, had a swimming pool set up, and there are showers!

Tomorrow morning the Challenge class will leave, starting with Nuna, at 8am, followed by the Belgian team, Umicore, at 9.22. The Adventure class will start to leave at midday, at intervals of half an hour. The team that was coming first overall, the Japanese car TIGA, will leave first in our class. They also have a chance of catching up the first Challenge class vehicles, and both Nuna and Umicore have had some minor troubles that have cost them some time, so it should make for an interesting finish.

We needed our sleeping bags for the first time tonight, as it’s started getting a little chilly.

Our Placing At Alice Springs

Our Descent into Alice Springs

UNSW: 21 October 2007: Race day 1

Apologies to those with very little time, but now we are on the race, the updates will be longer. Due in part to lots happening, but mostly to me sitting in a car for 7 hours a day.

In summary, Jason cheered us on at the start line, and then went home. Jaycar sent up their four best store managers at the start line to cheer us on, which was brilliant. We acquired a great observer called Winston, Simon and Smithy drove the solar car, we camped, ate well and slept well.

Now, in more detail...

Jason left us today, to head home, like a trooper he got up at 4:45 with the rest of us, and came to wave us on at the start line. It was great to have him around, and we're hoping he enjoyed himself. Congrats again for winning the competition!

By 5:15 this morning, our solar car was in it's start position at State Square in the centre of Darwin, with thirty-eight other solar car teams. Our qualifying lap meant we were starting at position 22. By 7.30 this morning, state square was packed with people to watch the start of the race.

We would like to give a huge thank you to Gary Johnston of Jaycar, who thought we could do with a cheer squad, and so sent up four of the best store managers to cheer us on at the start line. It was really really nice for all of us to meet them, and they were all so enthusiastic about us and the car, they helped to dispel the last minute nerves some of us were getting. So thank you to Gary, and to the four we met this morning. It was very much appreciated.

On the start line, one of the top teams had to pull out and start last due to electrical issues, and the team in front of us couldn't find their support cars in time, meaning that we left in position 20.

The morning's driver was Simon, who drove what was probably the hardest driving of the day if not the course, from Darwin to Katherine. Time wise, it is one of the longest stints, hilly and shady, which was fine for our solar car to drive, but difficult for us to overtake safely. Unfortunately we were stuck behind a team travelling at 50km/h as we approached the biggest hill of the race, and couldn't get up the speed we were hoping to. Our motor came close to overheating, so Simon had to pull up halfway up the hill. Ten minutes later we were on our way again. We had two more unscheduled stops that morning, to reset and re program our trackers, losing us a total of approximately half an hour driving.

Our first observer of the race was Winston, who as it turns out has organised the first South African Solar Car Challenge, which he is in the process of convincing us to attend (not a hard job). He is excellent company, good for a laugh, and has been filming us constantly, and keeping us on our best behaviour..

After work and dinner had been finished, three of us and Winston went to scout out if there were any teams ahead of us. While we didn't find any teams, we did find Larrimah's animal man, who in his collection had several salt water crocodiles (~9m long), a baby kangaroo who he'd rescued when it's mum was run over, and a couple of very friendly dogs, who were acting as it's mum.
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Dinner was superrrb as usual, and everyone was in bed and sound asleep by 9.30pm.

After some discussion with the officials last night, and a Norwegian tourist this morning (who took his holidays especially so he could drive up and down and follow the race) we can conclude that we are placed somewhere between 12th and 20th. We will know more after the control stop at Dunmurra.

Our garage neighbours on either side, Umicore (Belgium), and TIGA (Japan) are currently placed first and second, which is great, since they were both really nice teams (and clearly have really good cars..)

For all the parents, everyone is healthy, fed, watered, slept, and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Quick update: As of the Dunmurra control stop, we are placed
fourteenth overall.

Jaycar Sunswift III at the start line!

Our day 1 marker - Winston kindly let one of the team add decoration..

UNSW: One day to go!!

Today the team was at the Hidden Valley racetrack slightly earlier than usual, at 6.45am this morning, to prepare for the qualifiers. Last night Konny, Anthony and Smithy had to re run a brake line, and bleed the brakes, so we took the car for a quick brake test in the car park, at 7am. We blew a front tyre in the process, but the brakes felt fine.

The rest of the day was spent waiting in our garage to get called up for qualifying. Smithy was sitting in the car ready to drive from about 11am, but due to a minor accident on the track (a wheel fell off), we weren’t called to qualify until almost midday. Smithy drove a beautiful lap, and the car successfully passed the handling and braking tests. Many congratulations to Konny, Anthony and Smithy, our mech team. Our car is registered, and ready to go for the start of the race at 8am tomorrow!

It occurs that very little has been said about our elec team, so: courtesy of Andy, we have eight working trackers (we need six and two have been lent to the New Zealand team who had none working previously), courtesy of Dan we have driver controls, a brake cutout, driver display, rear vision, and spare cables, and courtesy of Simon, we have our strategy code, and our assembled, charged and balanced battery pack and our canopy. And courtesy of our guest Jason, we have a spare CAN cable (the hardest to solder and assemble…)

Ken and Clara are our all rounders, and ken is responsible for a large amount of the soldering, the battery boxes, and various bits of carbon work on the car, and Clara has been doing an excellent job with the canopy, the media, and was responsible for the launch.

Jack and Arthur have been keeping everyone entertained, doing all our last minute shopping, feeding us, taking photos, and generally enjoying themselves.

And that is all for today, we are heading off to pack our cars for the race!

A very happy Smithy, after qualifying!

Our race team looking spiffy in our yellow shirts

UNSW: 3 Days to Go

This morning, we attempted to discover the reason for our top shell not sitting correctly, Simon adopting an unusual method or solar car diving. A tracker sitting on a stiffener was found to be to blame, and the stiffener in question as since been dealt with.

At midday, we took the car testing on the Arnhem Highway. Smithy and Yael drove, Smithy reaching speeds of 90km/h. The road was fairly rough, and where it crossed the open plains, the wind was quite gusty. In spite of these conditions, the car handled very well, which is another credit to our steering designer, Konny.

The winner of the National Engineering Week Essay writing competition, Jason from Waverley College, arrived today, unfortunately just as we finished our testing run. He has since been occupied making CAN connectors (who said anything about child labour?) but mostly he’s been occupied checking out the other teams, and how they’re going on the track. Tomorrow he’s been recruited as our cheer squad for the qualifiers.

Simon's Alternative Driving Position

Testing on the Arnhem Highway

UNSW: 4 Days to Go

Today the canopy was painted green and gold, and permanently mounted. Clara’s steady hand came in handy (no pun intended) and the back was adorned with the boxing kangaroo, which we have unofficially adopted as our mascot.

The handling of the car after it had acquired fillets and 90kg of ballast was tested on the track. Both the handling of the car and it’s braking capability improved. Smithy has recorded our fasted lap time and best braking test, so he will be driving for the track qualifiers tomorrow. Our position in the qualifiers will determine our starting position for Sunday.

The heat has finally started to get to the team, and all of us were exhausted by early evening, so we headed home for a delicious dinner (again – thanks Jack), and an early night.

The engineer who signed off on the safety of our car, Tim Wardrop, arrived in Darwin today, and will accompany us on our testing run tomorrow. Fortunately, he might be a little bored, since there have been no major and very few minor mechanical issues.

Back of Canopy with Boxing Kangeroo

Jaycar Sunswift on the Hidden Valley Raceway Track

UNSW: 5 Days to Go

Today’s events focused around the official scrutineering of the car to ensure that all the regulations of the race had been satisfied. The mechanical and electrical systems are required to comply with safety standards to ensure a safe trip from Darwin to Adelaide and also place the car in the appropriate racing category. The morning was spent completing the tasks that had been the focus of most of the week. The rear vision camera and screen were mounted and indicators and brake lights were double checked. Konny’s upper and lower spats enclosing the wheels, and the fillets that sit neatly above them, fit beautifully creating a tight aerodynamic base to the car keeping any wind from entering the main body. This has the potential of saving a significant amount of power.

One o’clock saw the team loading the car into the trailer and heading off to the scrutineering hall with high nerves. After two and a half hours of inspection we walked away with smiles on our faces and a couple of bags of ballast to bring our lighter drivers up to weight. The car and team has been officially entered into the Adventure Class two seater category for the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge. To celebrate the success and hard work the team was given the rest of the afternoon off. People went their separate ways washing clothes, wandering around Darwin, stocking up on junk food and swimming in the pool at our accommodation. The team rejoined for a hearty dinner at the Hogs Breath and not wanting to waste a thing Ken took one for the team finishing off the ice-cream dessert.

Sunswift at Scrutineering

Ken and the Icecream bowl

UNSW: 5 Days to Go

Today saw the team ‘complete’ for the first time since leaving Sydney with Ken joining us at 1:30am in the morning. Ken’s background is working with both Queen’s University and the University of Western Montario solar car teams. We had Ken up at 6:30am and down at the workshop before 7:30am, a real veteran. Our second day was focussed on preparing the car for scrutineering. The mechanical team worked on the installation of the spats and fillets (wheel covers to improve aerodynamics). The electrical team continued work on rear vision for the driver, balancing the battery pack and as with every race, working on the trackers (devices that control the power from the solar panels to the battery pack).

The team was surprised to learn late in the day that scrutineering will take place on Wednesday afternoon. As a result, they headed back to the workshop for a late night to prepare the car. Ironically, the only item not likely to be ready for scrutineering is the only hired support car which needs its idle pulley bearing replaced and is currently in for service. One of the less well known aspects of having a solar car run on open road is the requirement to have a VIN (vehicle identification number). As the team was leaving the workshop for dinner, the VIN plate was secured to the car, we’ll release a photo of the VIN plate in our next update.in our next update.

Ken Working on the Batteries

Konny Fitting Spats

UNSW: 6 Days to Go

Today was the team's first full day at the Hidden Valley race track and the beginning of one final week of work to bring two years of planning and effort into fruition. Jaycar Sunswift III is having the final touches applied for the impending Panasonic World Solar Challenge. The team made use of the race track early in the day to become accustomed with the layout and camber of the corners. The past twelve months of work on the mechanical systems proved successful as Jaycar Sunswift III successfully handled the sharpest corners it is ever likely to encounter. All the drivers commented on the superb handling and this was demonstrated when the teams support vehicle couldn't keep up through the corners. The team also made an assessment on the brake test which should be passed easily. Quite simply, in the words of one of the drivers "Jaycar Sunswift III is exciting to drive".

On the track the electrical team tested the telemetry and wireless access point from the control vehicle. Both demonstrated the reliability required for the race as a result of work done since the last testing run. Currently the electrical team is working on the rear vision system for the solar car which will be tested and installed before scrutineering later this week. The team has now made themselves at home in bay 22 of the Hidden Valley race track with the acquisition and installation of flags above our garage. If you are in the area, why not drop down and see us during the week?

Yael on a Test Run

Garage 22 with Flags

UNSW: 7 Days to Go

After a week on the road the team has become conditioned to the impossible, be up and going before 6am. Today completed the end of the 3800km epic journey to Darwin spanning seven days, three states, two time zones and one altercation with the locals in Mount Isa. The worst that has happened to date is another chip on a tiring windscreen on our lead vehicle. Mataranka provided the opportunity for a famous Mataranka pie for ‘morning tea’ (at 9am) with most of the team realising that ‘sharing’ was the only way these feats of meat and pastry would be finished. Clara, proved to be as adept behind the still camera managing to sell the team’s favourite iced coffee and landmark pie.

The final 500km highlighted the diversity of the Australian landscape as red earth transformed into blackboys, small eucalyptus trees and sporadic creek beds full of carved granite rocks and the iconic termite mounds of the north littering the landscape. Despite the regulations suggesting that Hidden Valley race track would be closed on Sunday, the race track proved to have a number of teams on hand both unpacking and beginning to test their vehicles. We unloaded into our new home, a garage we are sharing with the Ashiya a professional looking Japanese team which no doubt we will be getting to know in the coming days.

Farmers Union and Ice Coffee

Our New Home

UNSW: 8 Days to Go

With the biennial ladies night at Barkly Homestead today we decided to leave the campsite early before it was inundated with Northern Territory girls. Most of the day was spent building up Yael and Smithy’s driver hours in the solar car while the fleet became familiar with radio and formation protocol. Roadside operations including control stops and wheel and tire changes were drilled in an attempt to get them going smoothly. It was a long day with many stops and starts and everyone was exhausted when we finally arrived in Elliot, a town with a population of 432 on the Stuart Highway. There was a great bloke helping to run the little caravan park behind the pub where we stayed, he was interested in the solar car and what we were up to and informed us of random facts like the Japanese team had been through that afternoon and stopped for eight burgers with the lot. Tomorrow we plan to leave early for Darwin to arrive in Hidden Valley on schedule.

Packing Trailer

Testing near Barkly

UNSW: 9 Days to Go

After an early start to prepare our morning routine for race procedure we took to the road for our first test run. The test was cut short by issues with the wheel motor which was having difficulties with the load so we returned to Barkly Homestead for another solid days work.

Despite the heat and flies the electrical team took over the cooking shed once again, mechanical set up in the trailer and the two old boys had a nap.
After a successful adaptation to the wheel motor we had a few hours on the road in the late afternoon with all four drivers having a test run in the car before packing up at sunset and heading back for an widely renowned Barkly burger at the pub.

Jack and Arthur

Packing up the solar car

UNSW: 11 days to go

Today we reached Barkly Roadhouse, - just inside the Northern Territory. We will be camped here for three nights, to test the car and get the drivers used to driving in desert conditions.

Along the way we stopped in Mount Isa, where we did our (hopefully) final shop for supplies, and two interviews, - for ABC radio and the newspaper the NorthWest Star.

The mech team are doing final adjustments to the wheel alignment, and working on the spats and the canopy, while the elec team are attempting to code, and being dive bombed by some of the biggest bugs we’ve seen (no pun intended). In particular, a fairly persistent (and very large) kamikaze grasshopper.

Everyone is in good spirits, largely due to the excellent meals we have been receiving, and we are all looking forward to seeing the car we built at speed on the desert highway tomorrow.

Anthony enjoying his first NT sunset

The biggest moth so far..

UNSW: 12 days to go

Monday night we stayed in Charleville caravan park. During dinner it had been raining intermittently, so there was some debate as to whether to stay under cover or not. Fortunately we chose undercover, and about half an hour later we were in the middle of our first summer thunderstorm, - It was raining too hard to see more than a few metres in front of us, and the lightning struck across the road from the caravan park. It was absolutely beautiful.

Tuesday we drove the furthest yet - 916km to McKinlay. The trip included a media interview in Longreach. Enjoying dinner by our master cook, we watched a storm approach, and smelt the smell before rain. Fortunately or unfortunately, the storm missed us, and we met mosquitoes for the first time. The record for the night was 87 bites on one arm. We are definitley in outback Australia...

Dinner at Charleville

Jaycar Sunswift III in Longreach

UNSW: 13 Days to Go

The second day on the road took us from Dubbo across the Queensland border to Charleville, a solid ten hour 800km drive. The day went smoothly and was generally uneventful the highlights including crossing the border into Queensland and the inevitable entertaining banter and trivia over the CB radio that seems to have become tradition on these WSC trips.

We were warmly welcomed to Charleville by the locals at the caravan park who were keen to see the solar car and full of questions. Everyone settled down to a good few hours work before bed, the electrical team working on the driver display, mechanical working on aerodynamics of the spats and the rest of the team occupied in various logistical, safety and media tasks.

Crossing the Border into Queensland

Evening work at the Campsite

UNSW: WSC 2007- 14 Days To Go

The past week has been busy down at the workshop with final alterations to the solar car, and packing and cleaning the three support vehicles. This morning we finally set off from Randwick at the civilised hour of 9:00am for the first leg of our trip up to Darwin for the World Solar Challenge.

The NRMA car towing the solar car trailer took the lead driven by the capable veterans Jack and Arthur. The hired Tarago followed behind and the trusty UNSW Rodeo brought up the rear with the array tilter trailer.

The day passed quickly, at least for those of us who dozed in the back seat. We made it to Orange for a leisurely lunch and arrived in Dubbo just after four. While the team stickered and reorganised the cars, Jack prepared and served up a gourmet meal of honey soy chicken (with vegetables!), and we crawled into our swags for a well earned sleep.

Team Photo on Departure

Trailer, Lead and Control in Orange