Racing With the Sun: Solar Cars Strut Their Stuff
Swooping down a tree-lined avenue in a contraption that looks like a tinfoil-topped model airplane on wheels, James Worden drew plenty of attention as he demonstrated his self-built, solar-powered racing car.
The sleek racer and a chunkier commuter version, both designed and built by a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students, were on display as entries in the America’s Solar Cup road race scheduled for next Saturday in Visalia, Calif.
Worden and his team members tout the prototype models as a shining example of low-cost, pollution-free transportation and say they hope to raise the profile of the oddly shaped cars through development and racing.
Drive for Consciousness
“We really want to raise Americans’ consciousness about this,” said Mark Wintersmith, a 20-year-old marketing senior from Denver.
Most of the attention at a recent demonstration went to the racing car, a slim, snub-nosed fiberglass shell slung close to the ground and topped by a wing-like sheet of solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity.
But Worden said the commuter car, which resembles an aluminum golf cart, has more practical applications. Worden, 21, a mechanical engineering senior, uses the car for his 10-mile commute from Arlington. The car, which reaches 35 m.p.h., can travel as far as 40 miles on a sunny day.
Worden said he became interested in solar-powered cars in his high school days and hopes racing will draw attention to the vehicles as alternatives to pollution-causing conventional engines.
‘Something’s Got to Be Done’
“People won’t do anything about pollution until fireballs rain from the sky. That’s my personal theory,” he said. “Something’s got to be done.”
Worden raced the Solectaria V in the Tour de Sol in Switzerland last July, finishing sixth overall in the six-day race. The 300-pound racing car is 12 feet long, 5 feet wide and 30 inches high.
The California race is being held in conjunction with the 14th annual Human Powered Speed Championships and will cover more than 185 miles of relatively flat terrain with the challenge of negotiating traffic and gusty winds.
The solar car project is supported by the MIT engineering department as well as several corporate sponsors, said school spokesman Robert Di Iorio.
Wintersmith said the racing car cost about $100,000 to build, with half the cost due to the special zinc batteries. But the commuter car, which uses a conventional car battery, cost about $4,000 to build, he said.
Production Plans
The students are considering producing the commuter vehicle after graduation, possibly as a golf cart pitched to golf courses in the sunnier South, Wintersmith said.
“I’m not sure how we could compete against mainline vehicles,” he said, noting that the construction of the vehicles is sturdy but small.
The unorthodox style of the 400-pound car, which seats two and is equipped with headlights and a radio, proved to be an advantage when the car was stolen last month, Worden said.
Thieves apparently were thwarted by the vehicle’s unusual ignition and dumped the car at a nearby location.
