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The challenge: build a car capable of crossing this vast and imposing continent using nothing but the sun's rays - then start driving.
The Nuon solar team from the Netherlands has won the Panasonic World Solar Challenge for the fourth time. It was a remarkable feat in the 20th anniversary year of the event in which solar-powered vehicles race across Australia from Darwin to Adelaide, a distance of more than 3000km. |
Taking advantage of fine, sunny weather, Nuna4, the Dutch team’s aerodynamic new wedge design, reached north Adelaide in late afternoon on Day Five of the Challenge, arriving well ahead of its nearest rivals.
This year’s Challenge drew 58 teams from 17 countries, entered in three classes in a broadening of the event’s original aims. Solar cars were grouped in two classes: the Challenge class for solar cars compliant with new stringent international rules (such as upright seating); and the Adventure class, for older, non-compliant vehicles.
A separate Greenfleet category allowed everything from efficient production cars to scratch-built, alternative-fuel entries to take part. These vehicles did not race but travelled as a demonstration of leading-edge technology.
Hyundai’s new i30 CRDi proved the most frugal of the Greenfleet runners, consuming an average of 3.2L/100km and emitting just 97g of CO2 equivalent during the event.
Max Berry compiled this day-by-day account of the Challenge as he partnered photographer Peter Watkins in the Greenfleet Class, driving a Leaseplan Toyota Prius.
Day 1: Darwin to Katherine – 317kmAt 7am on this bright Sunday morning, Darwin’s State Square is filled with Solar Challenge participants, onlookers, and vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
Vehicles are marshalled and final preparations made for the race ahead. For the non-solar Greenfleet Class vehicles competing for fuel economy, race officials seal fuel tanks with tamper-detecting red tape. In Adelaide, consumption figures for a range of fuels will be reduced to a common measure of carbon emissions.
Competitors are waved away motor racing style with the NT flag from the steps of Parliament House. Photographer Peter Watkins shoots the start before we head through the Darwin streets to the Stuart Highway. For at least the first 50km, there are groups of spectators out for a morning’s entertainment.
I am enjoying the combined performance and economy (average 5L/100km) of the Prius’s hybrid powerplant when our first overnight destination, Katherine, looms up in time for lunch at the control point. The temperature peaks at 38 degrees on Day One, making it tough for solar car drivers with only flow-through ventilation.
In the evening, as we dine al fresco on crocodile and other delicacies, I learn about an unfortunate collision between the University of Michigan solar car and a support vehicle within 10 minutes of the start.
After confusing the morning check-in point, we head south of Katherine on the equal longest stage of the event. We see some solar teams camped among the anthills, angling their photovoltaic panels east to catch the sun’s rays.
About 260km south of Katherine, we stop at Daly Waters, which hosted one of many World War Two air force bases in the Top End. Northbound army trucks, each carrying a tank, regularly pass us on the Stuart Highway.
From Daly Waters, the tropical savanna thins out and we enter the so-called Never Never, the red zone. On the Tennant Creek outskirts, a sign proclaims ‘Desert Harmony’ but some things about the town give a different impression.
The organisation Greenfleet has planted a tree outside the Civic Hall, one of several plantings along the route that reflect its carbon abatement mission. Formalities over, we enjoy pasta at the Tennant Creek Memorial Club.
Day 3: Tennant Creek to Alice Springs – approx. 500kmAbout an hour after Tennant Creek, many participants have made their first stop at the Desert Marbles rock formation. By late morning we reach Barrow Creek, a control point where some teams have lunch and refuel. (The Prius has a range of about 800km at highway speeds and needs no intra-day refuelling.)
Among vehicles refuelling is the University of Adelaide’s EcoTrike, a scratch-built three-wheeler with a 20-year-old Daihatsu Charade engine tuned to run on canola oil.
Then it’s the long haul to the Red Centre, with the terrain becoming undulating as the MacDonnell ranges approach. At Alice Springs, I am most intrigued by the NZ-based Biosfuel team, running a 1989 Toyota LandCruiser diesel on a 60-40 mixture of waste oil and water.
Dinner tonight is a buffet with the Peugeot crew. Peugeot Australia entered three vehicles in the event (two 207 HDi diesels and a 307 HDi).
The day starts with my realising I have forgotten to recharge the CB radio battery and it is flat. This is not critical for us, but the two-way radio is certainly useful for the multi-vehicle solar teams which need to protect the low and hard-to-see cars via messages from scout cars.
With the solar vehicles pressing on towards Adelaide, the Greenfleet class diverges from the Stuart Highway at Erldunda, taking the Lasseter Highway west to Yulara. However, officials are not present to witness and record refuelling at the Curtin Springs roadhouse, an official control point.
An hour later, participants check in to the luxury of the Yulara resort. Most watch Uluru change colour at sunset.
Day 5: Yulara to Coober Pedy – approx. 700kmWith Peter doing an early morning photo shoot in the dunes, today is a later start. We head back to the Stuart Highway in the Prius a little after 9am. Lunch is barra burgers at the Kulgera roadhouse.
Entering SA, I take note of the state’s lower 110km/h speed limit and use the cruise control as a speed limiter. The approach to Coober Pedy is obvious from the lunar-like landscape of mullock hills, marking the shafts dug for opals.
We hear an ABC radio report that the Nuon solar team from the Netherlands is already in Adelaide and has won the challenge – for the fourth time. We pass several solar teams camped at Pootnoura, 900km from Adelaide.
I start the day by photographing some of the underground dwellings for which Coober Pedy is famous.
Just outside the town, Peter and I stop to shoot the passing procession at the truck-on-a-pole town marker. When we reach Glendambo, we part company for a while with Peter jumping into a Peugeot in search of a ‘hero shot’ of the team.
Salt lakes become a feature of the landscape and I stop at the unfenced Lake Hart rest area. I briefly walk on the dry salt-pan, but soon retreat when I encounter military warning signs.
The terrain becomes undulating again approaching Port Augusta. The gulf is my first sighting of a water body since taking a Katherine Gorge tour five days earlier.
On the final stage there is an abrupt change in the weather, with an overcast sky and high winds.
Peter, an Adelaide resident, is at the wheel for the final stretch and we stop at his Brompton house to give the Prius a good scrub. We then head to the Torrens Parade Ground where teams are waiting for the final formalities.
After the final refuel, I have a ride in the two-seat solar/4-stroke/battery and pedal-recharged three-wheeler Twike, finding the tiller steering disconcerting.
Finally, we move off in ceremonial convoy down King William Street to Victoria Square, where vehicles will be on display over the weekend.
I’ve had a fascinating week and would jump to enter another Solar Challenge, even by volunteering to clear roadkill from the highway!
Open Road January/February 2008
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