UNSW car breaks solar speed record
UNSW car breaks solar speed record
By Robert Clark | Jan 28, 2011
Thumbnail:
A solar car built by the University of New South Wales team, has broken the Guinness World Land-Speed record for a solar-powered vehicle.
The car, Sunswift IV, was clocked at 88km/h January 7, beating the previous 78km/h record reached by General Motors’ Sunraycer in 1988, using roughly 1500 Watts.
Sunswift IV set the record on a day that was mostly cloudy, the team said. The record-breaking run came at 10:30am “when we got lucky with enough of a break in the clouds.”
The car used about 1050 watts to travel at the speed it did for the record run, with the batteries removed, so as to compete on the grounds of energy efficiency alone.
”This means that Sunswift IV, with approximately 25% less power than the previous record holder, went 13% faster. We've come a long way since 1988.”
Reading about solar powered
Reading about solar powered cars makes me so happy. We are on the right path to driving green cars that do not pollute the environment. Maybe one day the Tucson used cars dealership in my area will cars like this.