14 DAY TRIAL // The new world’s fastest solar car was designed and built by University of New South Wales students, and the old record was replaced today, in presence of the Guinness World Book of Records officials.
The name of the little wonder is Sunswift IVy, and by becoming the fastest solar vehicle in the world, it has lived up to it.
The car broke the world solar car speed record at the HMAS Albatross navy base airstrip in Nowra, traveling with a speed of over 88km/h (54.68 miles per hour).
This may not look like much, but the old speed record was of only 79km/h (49.09 miles per hour), and for a silicon-solar-cell powered car, this is quite impressive.
Sunswift Ivy normally uses a 25kg battery to charge its cells, but for the record attempt, the battery was removed.
Also, normally, students would have also driven the car, but this time, the drivers were Barton Mawer and Craig Davis – professional racing drivers from electric car firm Tesla’s European operations.
“We were confident … we only needed a little bit of sunshine and that was enough,” said Mawer.
“I’ve been lucky enough to drive racing cars all around the world but this was right up there as a buzz.
“To grab the world record is just great for the whole team, and the University of New South Wales put in a big effort to get this done and hopefully we can keep chipping away at it to raise the bar.”
Mawer added the car handled quite well, “although I think I gave the team a bit of a scare when I got up on two wheels on the turn.”
Sunswift project manager Daniel Friedman, said that the record was broken at 10.32 this morning.
“The Guinness World Book of Records adjudicators were on hand, so it’s all official.
“We’ve even been handed our certificate.”
Friedman added that the team was excited that the car performed so well, and that they were really surprised to get the record so early in the day, because they “were expecting to get our peak sun at noon.
“We hope the news will spur a lot more interest in solar energy and the debate about renewable energy technology,” he said.
IVy produces about 1200 watts, which is about the same power it takes to run a toaster.
During the 3000km (1,864.12 miles) Global Green Challenge race from Darwin to Adelaide in 2009, in which the team won their category, the car hit a top speed of 103km/h (64 miles per hour).