2010 American Solar Challenge (June 16-26)

[Agent 47]

Here is the route for the 2010 American Solar Challenge cars...

2010_AmSolChall_MapOfUSA_735x545.jpg (242.66 KiB) Viewed 761 times

The 2010 American Solar Challenge starts in a town in Texas called Cresson, just out of Fort Worth, where there is the "Formula Sun Grand Prix"/Qualifying on a racing circuit there, from June 16 to 18.

Then the actual "Road Race" is on from June 20 to 26 -

Sun, June 20: Start in Tulsa, OK,
(Bass Pro Shop, 101 W Bass Pro Avenue North, Broken Arrow, OK 74012);
Must reach Neosho, MO checkpoint
(Crowder College, 601 Laclede Ave, Neosho, MO 64850).

Mon, June 21: Finish in Topeka, KS
(Ramada Inn, 420 Southeast 6th Ave, Topeka, KS 66607).

Tue, June 22: Start in Topeka, KS
(Ramada Inn, 420 Southeast 6th Ave, Topeka, KS 66607);
Must reach Jefferson City, MO checkpoint
(Missouri State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 65101).

Wed, June 23: Finish in Rolla, MO
(Missouri S&T, Gale Bulman Multi Purpose Building, Rolla, MO 65401).

Thu, June 24: Start in Rolla, MO
(Missouri S&T, Gale Bulman Multi Purpose Building, Rolla, MO 65401);
Must reach Alton, IL checkpoint
(Lock and Dam / National Great Rivers Museum, IL-143 and Lock and Dam Way, Alton, IL 62002).

Fri, June 25: Finish in Normal, IL
(Illinois State Campus, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790).

Sat, June 26: Start in Normal, IL
(Children's Discovery Museum, 101 East Beaufort Street, Normal, IL 61761);
Finish in Naperville, IL
(Naperville North High School, 899 Mill St, Naperville, IL 60563).
Awards Ceremony - 6:30 pm, Wentz Hall, North Central College, Naperville, IL.


That's the basic route description, but if you want all the excruciatingly fine details of the route, then download the following Excel spreadsheet. It gives you all the road names and landmarks etc. that the drivers use, so you could use it to work out exactly where to go to see the solar cars if you wanted to - (click on the tabs at the bottom of it) -

ASC 2010 Route Steps (194 Kb) -

http://americansolarchallenge.org/event ... -Steps.xls

If you get a chance, definitely go and have a look at them. They truly are amazing machines to see. Cars that run on nothing but sunlight! At full highway speed! I want one!

And of course for all the latest general information, see the main American Solar Challenge website -

http://americansolarchallenge.org/

[Agent 47]

There is now a great little PDF "Event Program" available for downloading from the main American Solar Challenge homepage.

Here is a preview of it as a jpeg.

Apologies for the low image quality, but it give's you the general gist of it though...

2010_ASC_EventProgram_740x2853_600_76.jpg (252.66 KiB) Viewed 728 times

You can download a high quality version of this Event Program as the original PDF document here (4.0 Mb) -

http://americansolarchallenge.org/event ... ram-v2.pdf

And the actual event has started now, and so don't forget you can follow all the daily progress updates of it on the main American Solar Challenge website -

http://americansolarchallenge.org/

[Fat Man]

Yeah! This is the only sports event I would like to see.

This makes NASCAR look like baby-buggy ride by comparison!

[Agent 47]

Yeah, solar car racing just doesn't seem like a "sport" somehow. It's really more of a proving ground to test out the latest developments in solar vehicle technology. Solar car racing is science in action.

So it's all been run and won now for this year of course, and a good indicator of the realistic on-road performance that these machines are capable of, is the average speed that the cars achieved during the event. Here is a summary of the average speeds...

The first part of the event was the "Formula Sun Grand Prix" which was actually the qualifying event for the main road race. The FSGP was basically doing as many laps as possible, over 3 days, around the following track in Texas -

2010_ASC_FSGP_Track_CressonTX.jpg (67.48 KiB) Viewed 622 times

It's a 1.7 mile track, and there were 2 cars that equaled the fastest lap time of 2.05 minutes. So the fastest lap for the "Formula Sun Grand Prix" averaged 49.7 miles per hour. (80.0 kilometres per hour).

Then, after the FSGP, began the main 7 day Road Race from Broken Arrow, OK to Naperville, IL, (1,192.8 miles, or 1,919.5 km), which produced results for each of 3 separate stages, in addition to the main overall combined result...

2010_ASC_RouteMapUSA.jpg (76.89 KiB) Viewed 622 times

The following results are for the fastest car in each case -

Stage 1 - Broken Arrow, OK to Topeka, KS - 359.2 miles in 7:25:03 = 48.4 m.p.h. average. (77.9 km/h average).

Stage 2 - Topeka, KS to Rolla, MO - 363.7 miles in 8:35:16 = 42.3 m.p.h. average. (68.1 km/h average).

Stage 3 - Rolla, MO to Normal, IL - 359.8 miles in 9:20:08 = 38.5 m.p.h. average. (62.0 km/h average).

Overall Combined Result - Broken Arrow, OK to Naperville, IL - 1,192.8 miles, (1,919.5 km), in 28:14:44 = 42.2 m.p.h. average. (67.9 km/h average).


Don't forget that these average speeds include time wasted on the road by getting stuck in slow moving traffic etc, so the actual top speeds would be higher than that.

These machines are built by University students studying electrical and mechanical engineering etc, so I guess you could say that this event is just one big science project!

So don't worry people, solar car racing is not a sport - it's the practical application of science.

(And I still want a solar powered car!).

[The Imperialist]

Science Matters (in a German accenet....)

I would laugh if people do something similar with nuclear fission powered cars. (Or fusion or whatever the next energy source people want)