Qualifying laptimes and changes to new old cars

Scrunity engineering.. qualifying..laptimes I want to make a short start about these subjects
First this pdf is nice to read and I will discuss it later:
Introduction Aurora solarteam (Australia).

I am intending to tell a bit about the new old cars if you know what I mean...
It seems Nuna and Umicore both took more of the aerodynamis from Aurora while Michigan did not move the cockpit/canopy to the back. It seems a bad sight to me..driving in the backseat.

Second about the qualifying laptimes


Michican Infinium's second lap this week was a 2:13

From 2007's qualifying, some reference times are:

Umicore: 2:08 (Challenge class pole position, Final 2)

Aurora: 2:09 (Challenge silicon class, Final 3)

Nuon: 2:10 (Challenge class, Final 1)

Continuum: 2:30 (Challenge class,Final 7 after Solarworld and Twente)

Positie	Racewagen	Land	Tijd	Snelheid
1	Aurora 101	Australia	00:01:53.69	91.83
2	Nuna V	Netherlands	00:02:02.12	85.49
3	Bo Cruiser	Germany	00:02:06.52	82.52
4	Tokai Challenger	Japan	00:02:07.54	81.86
5	Apogee	USA	00:02:08.74	81.09
6	Infinium	USA	00:02:09.95	80.34
7	Sunswift IV	Australia	00:02:16.02	76.75
8	Saguar	Turkey	00:02:24.33	72.33
9	Umicar Inspire	Belgium	00:02:26.89	71.07
10	Solar World No 1	Germany	00:02:32.57	68.43

It seems that qualifying times are a good forecast for the final result....


I read that the previous Nuna solarcars were equiped with solarcells orignating from the University of Eindhoven and that Solar Team Twente were making the solarcells themselves in a special laboratory. Can anyone verify this ? I did hear that the crew of Solar Team Twente has a satelite modem..so we will be able to broadcast a video movie every day.
Watching all those cars the Umicar and the Nuna5 seems to be quite similar..but there are also a lot of differences..the solarcells, electronics, batterypack..The location of the two wheels. The front wheels of the Belgium car is much more to the back site. Further are the front wheels of the Nuna5 position under the car while Umicar they are more situated beside the car. If you look how the solar panels are arranged you see quite a difference..The Nuna has rows of 3 solar panels while the Umicar has only two rows of solar panels.
The Umicar has very small twistable wheelholders with a different shape. Altough the canopy/cockpit from both solarracers are small the aerodynamica is different. One can see this in the lines of the canopy. The Umicar canopy seems a bit more like the one on the Aurora. But both cars has decreased in height and canopy size last years.
But the results of these solarcars...yes, i must admit..the results are quite competitive..



1. Oldtimers, the Aurora 101

While the Nuna keeps on climbing in versionnumbers the Aurora seems to be quite old..but this is not the real truth.......
Following a tragic fire in Spain on 1 June 2006 the solar car 'Aurora 101' was totally destroyed and the Aurora team of volunteers created a new solar supercar for the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge. As a memory to the last decade it is also named 'Aurora 101'. So actually..it is a totaly new car designed by the art of technology in 2007.

The Aurora-team has an other structure than the teams from Europe. Several participants take the WSC Global Green Challenge tour for a fourth of fifth time. Totaly different than the Dutch student teams and they reuse the cars from earlier participations. In 2007 the Aurora group participated with the 20 year oldtimer (Christine) who got a throughly facelift. Another problem is the budget (I thought about $240.000)which makes it difficult to build a new car with every competition.

The Dutch teams are refreshed with every competion and have only one chance to get their moment of fame..and to achieve a better result and the previous team.








2. Oldtimers, the SolarWorld No.1

An other well known car, especially its design, is the SolarWorld No.1. While the Dutch and Belgium teams where taking their rest this car went to the North American Solar Challenge (NASC) and was quite succesfull with a third place. Altough the car did not change much outside a large check was carried out, especially for the different weather conditions. The cells are inspected and sorted and the car is all-weather proof. In WSC 2007 some solarcars had to stop driving when it was raining..their electricity circuit was not rain resistent and should not get wet.

The lithium ion rechargeable batteries receive a new management system and will from now on be actively cooled. In order to comply with the American safety requirements, the roll-over bar must be strengthened and the mechanism for driver entry optimized so that the driver can exit the vehicle is less than 10 seconds.

Length	5 m
Width	1,80 m
Weight	230 kg
Solar cells	6 m²
Maximum speed	~ 120 km/h
Average	85 km/h

3. Willetton Senior High School in Perth

Probably one of the teams with the tightest budget...but last year they were not wearing the Red Latarn! If I understood it right they re engineer every time the car..to make the car lighter and add new batteries. The high school is already participating since 1999.



Does anybody know anything about budgets ? The British CUER has a budget of about £250,000 car but other teams go up to seven figure budgets. Michigan did have a $2.000.0000 budget..but they do a lot of races..and have to repair their vehicle all the time!