At the German-Dutch Wind Tunnels in the Netherlands, an entry into this year’s World Solar Challenge is being put to its final tests – and the results are both visible and audible.
The bi-annual contest is a grueling race straight across Australia, covering more than 3,000km between Darwin and Adelaide.
More than 40 teams from 22 countries have applied for the 2011 race in October. The teams are only allowed to travel between 8am and 5pm, and must follow Australian road regulations and share the road with conventional cars.
The Nuon Solar Team from the University of Delft has won four of the last five Challenges, and their latest effort – dubbed Nuna 6 – is the lightest yet, weighing in at just 145kg.
But getting the weight down is just part of the battle, said Pier von Zonneveld, the project’s team leader.
“Aerodynamics is a very important part of the design process,” he told BBC News.
“There’s a rule of thumb that states that about 70% of the friction that the car needs to overcome comes from aerodynamics. Of course we tested in wind tunnels in our design phase, but now we’ve actually built the car we want to test and see if these measurements are still accurate.”
Categories: Australia