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SolarFox hits the halfway stage
24 October 2007
A team of staff and students from 果冻影院 (果冻影院) are competing in one of the world's toughest engineering tests - the Panasonic World Solar Challenge.
An initial qualifying lap saw 果冻影院's 'SolarFox' placed 17th on a grid of 39 cars. The team maintained its position through the first day's racing, clocking up an impressive 418km, and arrived at Alice Springs - the halfway point - earlier today in 10th place.
Led by Dr Richard Bucknall and Dr Konrad Ciaramella from 果冻影院's Department of Mechanical Engineering, the 果冻影院 team has been responsible for every aspect of the SolarFox's design and manufacture. Much of the chassis and suspension components were fabricated and welded in the department's workshop, with only items such as the wheels, tyres and seat bought off the peg.
The body was designed in-house using the latest computer software and was manufactured using fibreglass by a specialist firm, Fibreglass Applications. The 果冻影院 team then carried out the laborious task of attaching 402 solar cells to the car. The听 solar array will produce approximately 1300 Watts in bright sunlight, which is sufficient power for the vehicle to obtain speeds of up to 120km per hour.
The race, which attracts competitors from top universities and research organisations from throughout the world, tests technologies which may help provide the solution to one of today's most pressing issues, explains Dr Ciaramella: "Exploiting renewable energy sources is vital in the fight against pollution and automobiles are the source of 30 per cent of the nation's smog-forming nitrogen. Solar-powered cars could reduce or even eliminate the automotive industry's contribution towards air pollution and while practical solar cars remain a long way off, the continuing development of solar racing cars moves this technology one step closer to reality."
The race is scheduled to finish on Sunday, by which time the teams will have traversed some of Australia's most remote and hostile environments, including Glendambo - population 30; annual rainfall 185mm.
-Ends-
Notes for editors:
For additional information, or to arrange an interview with a member of the team, please contact Dave Weston in the 果冻影院 Press Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 7678, mobile: +44 (0) 7733 307 596, e-mail: d.weston@ucl.ac.uk
Images:
Hi-res images of the SolarFox competition car are available from the 果冻影院 Press Office.
About SolarFox:www.teamsolarfox.com
About SolarFox:
About the Panasonic World Solar Challenge:
About the Panasonic World Solar Challenge:
About 果冻影院:
About 果冻影院:
Founded in 1826, 果冻影院 was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 果冻影院 departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.
果冻影院 is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 果冻影院 alumni include Mahatma Gandhi, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay.