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WELCOME TO SUNSWIFT
Welcome to Sunswift! We are a full-scale, multi-disciplinary, student-led solar racing team. Volunteers from faculties all over the University of New South Wales offer their time and skills to design, build and race a state-of-the-art solar-powered car. Funding is provided by our generous donors and corporate sponsors, and of course by UNSW.
We hope you take the time to learn about the Sunswift team, our vehicles, our community involvement, or our sponsors.
SUNSWIFT NEWS
Nov/01/2009 - Race Day 5 - Thursday
IVy on the finish line.
Summary
With 567km to go before the finish line, and MIT hot on our tails, we had a big day ahead of us. If we wanted to make it straight to Victoria Square we would have to arrive in Angle Vale before 3pm. We arrived at 3:08pm. Not only were we the first Australian team, we were the first silicon solar powered car to cross the finish line. We placed 4th overall, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with our result. We’re the highest placing Sunswift team ever!
Electrical
In the morning at Glendambo we noticed that 2 out of 33 battery modules were charging quicker than the other 31. There was a potential safety issue if the modules were to overcharge, and they could also potentially discharge far quicker than the rest of the battery. Should they overcharge, worst-case scenario, they could set on fire. Should they discharge too much, they could make the battery unusable. The prudent option was to bypass them entirely to mitigate any potential safety issues. This took about 2 minutes at the control stop, and the electrical team were happy that the battery was now safe.
Mechanical
No issues.
We could not have accomplished all that we did without the help of our supporters, friends, family and sponsors. We'll keep updating this page with more information and pictures as we get back to Sydney on Wednesday/Thursday.
Thanks for keeping up to date with our progress through the race. We're really excited about Sunswift.com's popularity lately.
Sunswift pretty happy at the 'end of timing' control stop.
Sunswift taking a celebration dip in the fountain in Victoria Square[read more]
Oct/29/2009 - It's picture time!
IVy going around the track at Hidden Valley the day before Scrutineering
IVy at the starting line of WSC 2009
The team enjoying their burgers at our campsite near Devils Marbles
Clara and Helga at the control stop at Kulgera
Around here we call this the money shot
[read more]
Oct/29/2009 - Race Day 4 - Wednesday
Summary
We passed MIT at about 3pm and are now the number 1 silicon solar car in the race! We’re 5th in the whole race, and 4th in Challenge class. MIT are about 10 minutes behind us so we feel the pressure but are running the race how IVy needs it to be done. Tomorrow will be an intense day as we want to make it into Port Augusta by 3pm, in which case we can go straight onto Adelaide. Overall we travelled 663km today at an average of about 84km/h.
Mechanical
No issues.Electric
No issues.
Camp
We made it to Glendambo control stop. We're camping at the camp site there and should be out of here by 8:20am. It's going to be an exciting day.
The fact that we have so little to update on mechanical and electrical is a testament to IVy and the technical teams. The car is running fantastically, with every component on its best behaviour. Merely the fact that we have reached this point is incredible, and we are having a great time.
Keep an eye on the WSC page for our placing at the next control stop sometime tomorrow.
[read more]Oct/29/2009 - Race Day 3 - Tuesday
Summary
We covered 681km today. No issues encountered at all, and we were cruising on average at 90km/h. We gained about an hour on MIT today and are hot on their tails for the top silicon car in the race.
Mechanical
No issues.Electrical
No issues.Camp
We managed to pull into the 10 minute control stop at 5:08pm at Kulgara, 2 minutes short of the 10 minutes grace given by the regulations. This meant in the morning we would begin the control stop and leave at 8:18am. We got a massive charge from the morning and this allowed us to run 2km/h higher than our previous estimate.
We had sausages with mash potato for dinner. It was awesome, and finished an overall awesome day for Sunswift.
