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| Team Eindhoven's social media star and Stella Lux driver, Liselotte Kockelkoren |
WHILE KZN enjoys a brief respite from the summer heat today, in
Australia, two university teams from South Africa are chasing the 38-degree Celcius sun Down Under for a top 10 spot in the biennial Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.
The solar teams from the universities of KZN (UKZN) and the North
West (NWU) are the first teams from Africa to compete in this historic race, which this year attracted a field of 47 teams from 25
countries and ends on Sunday, after a 3 000 km route
from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south of Australia. The
UKZN team named their one-seater car Hulamin, while the NWU called their light car Sirius X25. Both are racing in the Challenger class, which UKZN co-leader Kirsty Veale described as the “F1 of solar car racing.”
UKZN team named their one-seater car Hulamin, while the NWU called their light car Sirius X25. Both are racing in the Challenger class, which UKZN co-leader Kirsty Veale described as the “F1 of solar car racing.”
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| Cathcing some last rays near Alice, the one-seater solar car from the University of the North West in South Africa. |
Laying in the 11th spot yesterday, the tiny KZN team had the best shot
at ending in the top 10 against some of the wealthiest universities in the
world.
UKZN co-leader Dr Clint Bemont said while the KZN team are the underdogs, they are aiming for medals: “We hope to beat teams from some of the best Universities in the World like Stanford, Cambridge, MIT and even Delft.”
UKZN co-leader Dr Clint Bemont said while the KZN team are the underdogs, they are aiming for medals: “We hope to beat teams from some of the best Universities in the World like Stanford, Cambridge, MIT and even Delft.”
Stella sets new record
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| Stella Lux |
In the more sedate Cruiser class, the car that is
drawing the most attention is called Stella Lux.
Built by the students at the Eindhoven University of Technology at a rumoured cost of close to R30 million, the comfortably big AND street-legal Stella Lux has already proved at least as fast as any of the tiny one-seater Challenger cars, which makes it very effective.
And now, it has proved to be supremely efficient too.
On Tuesday, the ecstatic “sparky” for Team Eindhoven, Qurein Biewenga — who schooled at Waterkloof High in Pretoria, South Africa — tweeted Stella had raced a record distance of 1 500 km on a single charge, driving at an average speed of 80 km/h.
Built by the students at the Eindhoven University of Technology at a rumoured cost of close to R30 million, the comfortably big AND street-legal Stella Lux has already proved at least as fast as any of the tiny one-seater Challenger cars, which makes it very effective.
And now, it has proved to be supremely efficient too.
On Tuesday, the ecstatic “sparky” for Team Eindhoven, Qurein Biewenga — who schooled at Waterkloof High in Pretoria, South Africa — tweeted Stella had raced a record distance of 1 500 km on a single charge, driving at an average speed of 80 km/h.
To put this record in perspective, the team’s spokesperson and one
of Stella’s drivers, Liselotte Kockelkoren, said a Toyota Prius can only do 60
km on the same charge at the same speed.”
Stella Lux is the second iteration of the solar car that achieved 875
km in the 2013 race and in the two years since, the Dutch students have put in
thousands of man hours to make the world’s first road-legal family saloon that
they say makes more power than it consumes, using only sun light.
