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16 December 1998: Packing
After a night with little sleep we were up early to finish the packing whilst the media took photos and filmed us. Zen navigated to the Aurora workshops in Melbourne.

17 December 1998: Bourke St Mall
Our display in Bourke St Mall (right in front of the Post Office) was very successful and luckily we packed up right before it started to rain. Meanwhile back at the Aurora workshops the Telemetry Bus wiring up was being completed and sanding of the Saturn Array progressed. Thanks again to Aurora! After dinner entertainment consisted of a one sided game of 'Kill the Dill with the Pill' in which 5 players could not stop Sammy 'Fabio' Diasinos.

18 December 1998: Adelaide
Travelled to Adelaide today, highlights of the trip included passing by the 'Giant Koala' a 5 metre high bronze statue with trees growing out of its ears and the madman crop duster who appeared out of nowhere! The locals were not impressed with the classical music and ABBA blaring from the Prado's stereo whilst travelling down the main street....

19 December 1998:
Displayed the car in Rundle Street Mall in Adelaide. Work on the electrical parts of the Saturn Array and Saturn Canopy was finished.

20 December 1998: Ceduna
Travelled from Adelaide to Ceduna, we will begin testing tomorrow.

21 December 1998: Nullabor Plain
Due to overcast weather this morning we agreed to delay the testing until tomorrow. Travelled to the Nullabor Plain and camped about 50 kms from the SA/WA border on the cliffs above the Southern Ocean. The night was windy and freezing cold.

22 December 1998: West Australian border
After warming ourselves up after the cold night, we checked over the car's systems this morning decided to begin testing. We drove to the West Australian border and unloaded the car. Peta Tracey hopped in first and on one of the downhill runs set a cracking pace of 80 kms/hour. Both Emily Harper and Bronwyn Sutton had drives of NRMA Sunswift II and suggested improvements for the steering and driver visibility. With low light and successful testing behind us we headed to Madura.

23 December 1998: Testing
Practice Race Start today, so we were up bright and early. Today's testing, with Dot Sikorska driving, included changing from the wheel motor to the T-Flux motor on the side of the road and an unscheduled stop to repair a broken wire in the motor controller control cable (which was easily fixed). Mid afternoon we decided to head for Norseman. Halfway along the road we picked up Shane Strofeld who had been waiting at a service station for us for a day and a half. Today was Michael Wheatley's and Margaret Ferguson's Birthdays, luckily we arrived in Norseman in time for Ben and Mike to go on a beer run and grab two cases...

24 December 1998: University of Western Australia
Everyone was woken up early (4.30) by Shane and we set off early for Perth. Many people stopped at some of the larger towns to pick up their Cris Cringle presents (which of course they had left until the last minute...). Arrived at Kingswood College on The University of Western Australia in the late afternoon. The UWA Chemical Engineering school has lent us their loading dock as a work space.

25 December 1998: Christmas Day!
Rest day for the entire team. The Chris Cringle presents were handed out after lunch and some were well thought out (Fabio soap, Dot's beer opener...)

26 December 1998:
Mark Hewitt and Scott Ridell arrived late tonight. Testing of various components and improvements to the car were started.

27 December 1998:
Early this morning we were to have dropped our two American guests (Brian and Randy) off at the airport for their 7 am flight home. It turned out that Brian had mistaken the flight, the flight was really was at 11.55pm! Shane Stone arrived on the Indian Pacific this morning.

28 December 1998: More testing
Testing and modifications continued at the workshop.

31 December 1998: Media Day
We set off early to Channel 9 in Perth to tape Bronwyn with NRMA Sunswift II (and the team holding up the banner in the background) for tomorrow's Today show. At 11am the team gathered at the workshop and drove from there to the edge of the Swan River to film Emily being Random Breath Tested by the Perth Police. Mark Hewitt, Elissa Fletcher and Ben Blake were interviewed on ABC radio at 2.30pm. Our official observer for the event, Mark Burns, arrived at 9pm tonight.

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01 January 1999:
Due to cloudy weather several hours East of Perth we decided not to start today and to set off tomorrow. Instead further training and repeated checking of the car was conducted.

02 January 1999: We're off!
Set off at 10am from Scarborough beach with Peta Tracey as the first driver. Made it up the 6% incline of Green Mountain with no problems, in fact the Telemetry Bus had trouble keeping up! Bronwyn had heaps of fun with passing road trains. Emily had the final drive for the day and we are camped at Yellowdine Roadhouse about 412kms from where we started.

03 January 1999: 520kms
Started charging the batteries from the first minutes of sunrise and set off at 7.50. Started off using the wheel motor, but due to temperature worries this was changed to the T-Flux motor. Several times the chain broke on the rear wheel but this was changed quickly. The car traversed a set of roadworks about 20kms west of the Balladonia Roadhouse well and without incident, albeit cautiously and slowly. At 6pm we reached the Balladonia Roadhouse after travelling 520kms.

04 January 1999: Madura Pass
Very Cloudy weather today, with several hours of rain. We confirmed the NRMA Sunswift II was waterproof. The car ran flawlessly all day with no problems at all, but we ran it at 30-40kms/hour on average all day due to little or no sunlight. The wheel motor was run all day with no hassles with its temperature. We arrived at Madura Pass late this afternoon having covered 336kms, but the weather is still overcast.

05 January 1999: Yalata
Tilted the array before sunrise for the early morning charge. The weather remained heavily overcast until midday. The Lithium Ion batteries are working fantastically, especially since we have been relying on them heavily due to the clouds. As soon as the sun came out from the clouds the NRMA Sunswift II travelled at 50km/hour and still had enough power to charge the batteries. We have stopped at Yalata (449kms from Madura) to charge the batteries and we will be setting off before the sun rises in the morning to cover the maximum distance tomorrow.

Charging the array

06 January 1999: Rain...
We set off at 6.40am to still more very cloudy weather, which broke into patchy clouds and direct sunlight between 10am and 11am. The car travelled at an average of 50kms/hour during this time. However after leaving Ceduna the weather deteriorated to cloudy, windy and rainy. Several Willy Willies rocked the solar car and the telemetry bus behind it. During a very heavy dust/wind/rain storm the canopy came partly loose from the main array. The team proved how well it worked together by quickly making sure that the driver, Bronwyn, was kept safe and that the car was kept dry from the pelting rain. Due to heavy cloud cover and low batteries we stopped 5kms outside Poochera having travelled 363kms. Because of the weather we have experienced it is now unlikely that we will be able to make it to Sydney it time to break the record.

07 January 1999:
Very cloudy weather again today (unfortunately a recurring theme), we charged the batteries all morning and set off at 1pm. Travelling at an average speed of 30kms/hour along the flats and up to 70kms/hour downhill. Due to the shocking weather we completed only 150kms for today. Stopped 28kms from Kimba at the Thompson Farm, who were very hospitable. We are putting in 100% effort to get to Sydney but Mother Nature is not coming to our party.

Clouds...

08 January 1999: 293kms
After a pleasant evening with the Thompson's we started off to another cloudy day, however around midday the cloud thinned somewhat and we were able to run the car (at 30kms/hour) and charge the batteries. Finished the day with 293kms under our belt at Crystal Brook under scattered cloud and set up the array to charge. The clouds soon disappeared for the first time this week and allowed us to get a good charge. The team's morale is high and we are confident of proving the capabilities of our car over the next few days.

09 January 1999: 100 km/hour
This morning there was little or no cloud, so we managed a good early morning charge. Set off into the hilly country between Crystal Brook and Renmark at 60 km/hour. Going down a hill, less than 1 hour from Crystal Brook, Peta had the car up to 100 km/hour (a new Sunswift speed record). NRMA Sunswift II ran reliably as per the previous days, but today at a good speed. We stopped 20kms from Balranald due to low batteries, and worries about the seemingly endless hill we were climbing, we then titled the array and started charging. Just before the sun went down we packed up and drove the car into Balranald and set up camp at the Showground (thanks to the Balranald Council). After travelling 580kms we have confirmed the car's capabilities and the team is very happy with the day's performance.

10 January 1999:
Another sunny day! We used the early morning sun to charge the batteries to a good level and set off. We ran the car at a constant 60 km/hour all day similar to yesterday. The car ran flawlessly all day and it ran very well in the hilly country between Wagga Wagga and Gundagai. We stopped for the night in 2kms west of Coolac (or 20kms east of Gundagai) having completed 490kms. Bronwyn has set a new speed record of 110 km/hour downhill. Tomorrow we hit the hills again, and should make the outskirts of Sydney.

On the road

11 January 1999: Camden
With the hills stopping the sun, we drove NRMA Sunswift II several kilometres up the road to get better sun, but we could not find a good spot. Stopped just over an hour later just before Bookam to tilt the array and charge the batteries. After charging for an hour and a half we continued on. The car was very impressive in getting up the hills, but even more so in coasting down them. Getting into the outskirts of Sydney on the Hume the car coasted up and down hills for about 30 mins. During this time Emily reached 120 km/hour on one of the downhill runs. We reached Camden and camped for the night after covering 300kms.

12 January 1999: Sydney Opera House!
Set off for the Opera House via the Hume Highway under Police escort. NRMA Sunswift II arrived at the steps of The Sydney Opera House at 10am. We may have been 2 days late, but we know with sunny weather we would have beaten the record. NRMA Sunswift II has been proven to not just work, but perform magnificently. At the finishing line Dick Smith offered $5000 if the team attempted and beat the record within 12 months. Before that however is the CityPower Sun Race which we will start in next weekend.