The University Of New South Wales Solar Racing Team attempts to break record

Currently, the record for traveling from Perth, Australia to Sydney, Australia in a solar vehicle is 8.5 days. The Jaycar Sunswift III team expects to break that record by 1.5 days with their newest solar-electric powered vehicle.

According to their site, the vehicle is constructed mainly of carbon-fiber. The motor is a 3 phase, 40 pole DC brushless motor directly powering one of the vehicles rear wheels, eliminating the power-losses of a chain, shaft, belt or gears. The vehicle can cruise at 90 kilometers per hour, and has a top speed of over 120 kilometers per hour.

The solar array boasts 1,800 watts of power in the form of electricity. There are just over 1000 Sunpower A-300 silicon solar cells with an efficiency of around 20 percent when converting sunlight to energy.

[Source: Sunswift via science.slashdot.org]