The World Solar Challenge, Darwin to Adelaide, Australia, a car race of 1800 miles across the Australian outback, has been run every other year since 1987. No flame breathing dragons allowed, all the entrants must be 100 percent sun-powered. A Dutch team from Delft University has won this thing four times in a row, and Nuna 5, this year's entry, is a heavy pre-race favorite.
MIT wants to give the Dutch something scary to look at in their rear-view mirror and has sunk a quarter of a million dollars into its entry, Eleanor.
Writers who are covering this event have pulled out all the metaphoric stops in describing the racers. Eleanor has been called 'a funky, hump-backed IKEA table,' and Nuna 5 'looks like a pool table that's gone through a Pininfarina wind tunnel.'
The starting flag drops on Oct.25, and the winning speed should be in excess of 90 KPH. Hey! Wanna see what these babies look like? Click on 'read more.'
Here they are! Delft is on top. (For the history of this race, click on the headline)
Update: Click here for race results.
Addendum: In the Apres moi le deluge category, there is a fire-breathing Eleanor out and about, a licensed replication of the 1967 Mustang Nicholas Cage drove in the movie, 'Gone in 60 Seconds.' With a carbon footprint the size of a shopping mall, this piece of super-fast Detroit iron will cost you $100,000 plus!
Wanna see her built and running? Click here.
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