Dutch Team Wins Solar Car Endurance Race. The Nuna 4 has won the 3000 k endurance race for solar cars by covering the distance in 33 hours and 17 minutes. The race, run from Darwin to Adelaide, has been contested for about 20 years, and the technology continues to improve. The cars must run under the legal speed limit of 130 kph (northern Oz) and 110 kph (southern Oz) and last year's cars were so efficient that they set top speeds of 150 kph!

The surface area of 9m2 was reduced to 6m2 for this year's race in an effort to slow the cars. The cars drive for 9 hours a day. The winning car averaged 90 kph including stops for driver changes, etc.

I am impressed! The car will drive along all day in bright sunshine at 100 kph using absolutely no fuel whatsoever.

A previous thread

video link to Numa

I thought that many of you were "green" and would comment on an event like this. It's not F1, but I find it to be amazing that a car could run the speed limit all day long for a couple of weeks on sun power only.

Of course, the sun is generally absent in the UK for most of the year, so it wouldn't be relevant to you guys anyway. <devil>

It is indeed impressive! I have an interest in electric racing vehicles and hybrids and if you can make one that fast powered by solar alone then it deserves respect - untill the sun goes down.

There is a team over here trying to build a 4wd 650bhp electric hillclimb car - and there's now a couple of insanely quick electric sportscars on the market. but with a range of only 60miles they're not that practical.

I had posted an article here when the race started, and it also only got 1 reply :(