We’ll admit it: We’ve never totally understood Nascar’s appeal. I mean, come on, it’s just a bunch of cars going round and round a track like a zillion times! But the World Solar Challenge? Now that is one car race we can really get behind. The event, which started way back in 1987, features solar-powered vehicles created by some of the world’s top engineering colleges. Using the power of the sun instead of polluting fossil fuels, the cars race across thousands of miles in order to advance solar and electric vehicle technology — and to achieve the satisfaction of winning, of course.
Infinium Sun Car Races Ahead
by Kevin Gardner, 08/25/09In a converted warehouse on the outskirts of Ann Arbor (Michigan’s other city), swarms of brilliant students harness conceptual, terrestrial and solar power for unusually racy, million-dollar road trips. Enter the Infinium 2009 solar car. Strips of photovoltaic panels (the space-age, gallium-arsenide kind) absorb the sun’s energy along a sleek and light carbon-fiber shell, and a 16-hp electric motor in one of its three wheels propels the 600-lb coupe up to 90 miles per hour and 98 percent efficiency. Awesome aerodynamics and innovative innards apparently allow the Infinium a driving range of 200 to 300 miles without any sunlight at all.
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