The team is now back in Sydney, grudgingly getting back into the swing of normal life (exams, thesis, work…), after a week that was nothing short of an adventure. As we recall last week’s race, we realise that what made it so much more interesting, stressful and exciting was the ever changing weather that affected all the teams. Nature really dealt solar cars an interesting hand, with its share of bushfires, 60kph winds, pouring down rain and idyllic clear blue skies.

Throughout these ever changing conditions, we were very lucky to have detailed weather updates from our sponsor Weatherzone. Weatherzone’s Opticast data and meteorologist briefings allowed us to make sure our energy usage was on track, and to adapt our strategy quickly when there was a change in predicted weather conditions. This data was absolutely essential to the team, and we are very grateful for their support. Weatherzone has been on board as a Sunswift sponsor for the 2009 Global Green Challenge and this year’s Veolia World Solar Challenge, making it possible for us to have greater confidence in our race strategy – thank you Weatherzone.

We’re currently on the route back to Sydney, expecting to get back this afternoon. We’ve got a whole lot of pictures we’ll be putting on our facebook and blog very soon.

Sorry for the delay guys, internet has been quite patchy!

– Dan

Ready for the first morning rays. Sunswift next to team Twente.

We all got up well before the sun to set up the array (or take pics in my case). It was a bit cloudy in the morning and we had quite a bit of smoke haze after getting away.

Not long on the road and we came across solar car Apollo that had lost it on a cattle grid with a suspension problem, ploughed off the road and did some damage to their array. No one hurt and our trailer vehicle stopped to lend assistance.

Something like 7 hours to Tennant Creek. We came in 7th, 9 minutes behind team Twente.

Once into Tennant Creek we find out that the Highway ahead has been closed by fire.

We are forced to all remain at the control stop for the night. Not sure what that will do for the race strategically, but certainly everyone is getting a charge in now for the remainder of the day.

Everyone is still smiling.

Matt

Alex checkin the array power

Somewhere on the Stuart Highway north of Tennant Creek

Group shot at Tennant Creek. Road closed, staying the night. Smile everyone.

At the control stop in Dunmarra catching the last of the sun

A good run today. An 8:30am start from Darwin in grid position 4. Passed several cars with mechanical issues but Sunswift had some too which were fixed after the first control stop. We ended the day in about 7th position in the fleet. After a great dinner the team are working on various maintenance issues. Getting data live to Sunswift Live, fixing tyre pressure issues and checking the array.

It has been an action-filled four days since we arrived in Darwin Monday night. Here are the highlights:

As soon as we hit Darwin pavement we unloaded the solar car at Hidden Valley Raceway and met some of the other teams such as Stanford, CalSol from Berkeley, and ETS from Montreal.

Unpacking Monday night.

Besides acclimating to the blazing heat and humidity, Tuesday we worked on getting the car up to scratch for scrutineering. Robby also had her first go on the track. She loved the hairpin turns and reaching 100 km/h on the straight.

Robby getting comfy for her first track run.

Wednesday we picked up our star driver Barton Mawer from the airport and he immediately got in some hot lap training. At full throttle he reached 115 km/h on the straight, which is the limit we set electronically to not drain the battery in the endurance race.

Bart about to hit the track.

We also had scrutineering on Wednesday. While all the major mechanical and electrical elements passed, we had to improve a couple minor issues, namely the hand brake and rear vision camera.

Scrutineering at Darwin Showgrounds.

Thursday we completed more hot lap training, fixed the scrutineering issues, and our chief mechanical engineer Tommy reinspected the entire car, performing checks such as bleeding the brake lines to ensure there were no trapped air bubbles.

Escorting Ivy through the pit lane.

We also had a media shoot Thursday at sunset on the track for the Sydney Morning Herald and the NT News.

The team watching Ivy get paparazzied.

Friday morning we visited Kormilda College, the high school that our electrical engineer Glen graduated from. The students were keen and had a lot of great questions.

Showing the Kormilda students Ivy's innards.

Now we’re on the track for some final hot lap training with Bart. We have already implemented a few ideas to allow the car to reach an even higher speed in the time trials for for pole position tomorrow.

Achieved 115 km/h Wednesday. Today's top speed TBA.

Today was a big Mock Race Day for the Sunswift fleet. We travelled one of the most gruelling stretches of the WSC, starting in Glendambo in SA and finishing at the NT border.

The car was on the road by 8 AM as planned. With all systems functioning seamlessly, the fleet drivers perfected their radio protocol, the team engaged in timed control stops, and the solar car drivers practiced their maneuvering techniques for the cattle grids and road trains of the Stuart Highway.

We even managed to get some Sunswift Live testing done. It all looks ready to go, just a few tweaks and we’ll have it beaming data straight from the solar car via space!

Not only did the car run smoothly, but the team ran smoothly as a unit. We’ve set up camp in Kulgera, and are about to hit the sack before starting an epic two day journey to Darwin.

Sunset over our array in Kulgera

We’ve come a long way and we look forward to meeting the competition. See you in Darwin on the 11th!

P.S. This post is coming to you via satellite! Thanks Addcom!

Driver controls are one of the critical components of any car. In a solar car, not only does there have to be a mechanical connection to the front wheels via a steering column, but also a connection to the drive train to control torque and velocity. There is no gas pedal in IVy, only a pair of hand paddles – one to control torque and another to control regenerative braking. There is a mechanical foot brake, which should only be used in emergencies, as all motive power is lost to heat during its use, which is inefficient!

In 2011, we redesigned our driver controls to be more robust, resulting in a new steering wheel, shown below.

The steering wheel is a node on our telemetry network and sends commands to our new Tritium Wavesculptor WS22, shown below.

The steering wheel design project was a big project, with help from many parties, including Luke and Cam from the mechanical team, Glen and Etienne from the electrical team, and others helped out with construction too. Driver controls are critical and making them comfortable and easy to use for our drivers is paramount. We believe our new steering wheel is a step in the right direction!

During the last few weeks, on top of all the work going on at the workshop, we have been also been busy testing and characterising Ivy in preparation for the World Solar Challenge. We’ve been fortunate enough to get access to the Sydney International Regatta Centre, which has a beautifully flat stretch of road alongside the Olympic Competition Lake. This has allowed us to do coasting tests and collect data on the mechanical performance of the car. This data is valuable both for tracking the effect of changes on the car, and for accurately modelling Ivy for use in race strategy simulations. As a bonus, it means we’ve had some gorgeous days out on the lake!

Coasting tests at the Sydney International Regatta Centre

Throughout the year we have also been doing preliminary testing and driver training at the Sydney Dragway in Eastern Creek, and the Honda Australia Rider Training (HART) facility in St Ives. Sydney Dragway kindly gave us access to both their drag strip and a wide open testing area, where we could start to train our new drivers and test our systems before heading out to the highway.

Preparing the car for testing at the Sydney Dragway

We are very thankful to the venues that make controlled testing of our solar car possible – these testing days have been so important for us before taking our car out to the open road.

Speaking of open road, over the last month we’ve taken Ivy on some big trips to Lake George and Berrima, to train the team in mock race conditions and measure the car’s performance on the highway. I might leave that one hanging, and wait until the next update to post some nice pictures of Ivy out in her element.