At the end of day 3 of the 3000-kilometer Darwin to Adelaide solar car race, Qazvin Islamic Azad University is in 17th place just ahead of MIT. There are currently 22 teams out of 37 that are still in the race. Tehran University trailered its promising Persian Gazelle on day 2 after 373 kilometers. UC Berkeley’s CalSol also trailered its entry on day 2 after 763 kilometers. UK’s Cambridge entry was trailered after 615 kilometers. Canada still has University of Calgary’s solar car in the race in 20th place, after losing their University of Toronto and Eclipse 7 vehicles.
At the end of day 3 the leading 5 teams are:
1 Tokai Solar Car Team Japan 1766 km
2 Nuon Solar Car Team Netherlands 1766 km
3 University of Michigan USA 1766 km
4 Ashiya University Japan 1492 km
5 Aurora Australia 1492 km
Turkey’s Istanbul University and Skaraya University have vehicles in 9th and 14th place respectively. Stanford Solar Project is in 11th place. Team Solar Philippines had a fire during a battery charging. Fortunately the driver was not in the car at the time and no one was injured. They are hoping to fix the car and continue.
The cars drive during daylight between 8 AM to 5 PM and are limited to 110 kilometers per hour, even though some can exceed 130 kilometers per hour. Above is a video from the first day of the race.
Go Qazvin!
