[Attention: in this post I will order the updates differently; the most recent will be at the top]
[22:30 CET] Beautiful impressions from the Nuon Solar Team who were leapfrogging with Michigan today:
[22:15 CET] About the team in first position, Tokai University from Japan, there is very little information online that I can find. What sites there are I can’t read because they’re all in Japanese, and Google Translate is not much help with that language. Here is a short movie showing the Tokai Challenger on racing day three:
(If the embedden movie does not work, here’s the link)
[22:00 CET] The Solar Team Twente also has put a movie online about their third racing day. It seemed to start out great, but then disaster struck: the crash:
[21:45 CET] Despite reports to the contrary, the Nuon Solar Team website still does not work. Dutch news site has a short movie about them:
[18:00 CET] Solar Team Twente has published several photos on their website of the aftermath of their crash. Despite my interest in the WSC I’m of course only an amateur, but it looks hopeless to me. I hope they can get the car running again…
[15:45 CET] Solar Team Twente has published a moment-by-moment ‘storyboard‘ on their website described what happened during and after the crash. A few points:
- The 21Revolution was travelling at 95 km/h
– Something went wrong with the rear right wheel
– The solar car swayed from left to right all over te road
– Driver Mart tried to keep the car on the road with all his might
– The wind came under the wing and te car flipped over
– De wing detached from the body and landed upside down on the asphalt
- It’s dark now in the outback but bright lights are illuminating a a hard-working Solar Team Twente. Work will continue deep into the night to try to get the car roadworthy again.
- During the repairs new problems have come to light.
- Photographer Gijs is busy taking pictures zo that everyone at home can see what’s going on
- The media crew has turned back to Alice Springs to upload the much awaited videos. It’s coming to the Netherlands as fast as possible.
– In the Netherlands a news editorial staff of four is working hard keeping everyone informed.
That all sounds very nitense – but also very controlled, the way I read it the team responded very professionally to the crash. It looks like we can expect images and video soon.
[15:00 CET] The bad luck does not seem to stop: there is an unconfirmed report report (there’s nothing on their website or Twitter) the McMaster seems to have had an electrical fire in the solar system which damaged it.
BOcruiser ladend op de aanhanger
[14:30 CET] The German teams from Bochum Hochschule have updated their website with news about racing day three. The Solarworld No.1 seems to be doing nicely, it’s still driving under its own steam at position thirteen. The BOcruiser, as announced yesterday, is actually being transported by trailer and as soon as the battery is charged enough it will drive as far as it can under its own power. The adversity that struck quite a lot of other teams in the WSC did not pass Bochum by: one of its fleet vehicles was involved in a car crash wich fortunately left all people unharmed, but car cannot drive anymore. This means that all kind of logistical stuff has to be arranged differently on very short notice to enable the BOcruiser to continue in some way.
[14:00 CET] Nuon Solar Team’s website is still offline. Does anyone know what’s going on? It’s not a DDOS by Michigan, is it? 
I’m really curious about how Nuna5 is doing.
[13:00 CET] Solar Team Twente has put a photogallery online about their crash. very, very sad to see all that damage. staan van hun crash. Erg, erg triest om te zien. I wonder if they can get the car on the road again.
Een gehavende 21Revolution
[11:30 CET] Solar Team Twente has updated their website about their third racing day – and their crash. It seems to have been caused by a tyre problem again, something that very nearly did Nuna in before the race, which sent the Belgians home and has struck Twente. From the article:
The car is heavily damaged. Both left and right rear suspension as well as the front suspension are damaged. All fresnell lenses are cracked and the right wheel pant is destroyed because it hit the asphalt. The wing landed upside down which damaged not only the structure of the wing but also many solar cells. Directly after the crash the team took stock of the damage and started repairs immediately. During the evening the extent of the damage will become clear, it’s too early to say much about it.
The team has hope of being able to continue the race, but it remains to be seen.
[10:00 CET] In the phone interview of the Dutch radio show Overijssels Hart the het Solar Team Twente reports that their car, 21Revolution, is severly damaged in a crash – probably after a blown tyre. Especially the solar panel is damaged. The team still has hope that the car can be repaired enough during the night so that they can continue the race. The chance of winning is just about gone, the team has dropped from its fourth position yesterday to a seventh opsition today.
[09:15 CET] Unconfirmed reports are popping up thet Twente has crashed. I’ll keep en eye on it, extra information is very welcome.
[08:20 CET] Both a few comments and the WSC’s website indicatie that the Nuon Solar Team has overtaken Michigan and is now in second place. That same list puts Twente still in fourth place. Nuon Solar Team’s website can’t be reached, it might be swamped with visitors. Dutch DJ Giel, at Radio3, did not mention the World Solar Challenge this morning, which is a pity.
Blijkbaar heeft het Umicore Solar Team vanmorgen een bericht “De crash één dag later” gepost op het niet-publiek toegankelijke deel van hun website. Het eerste gedeelte staat op hun facebook (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=187272856059&ref=nf of zie hieronder). Heeft iemand de rest?
De crash één dag later
Vandaag om 7:32
De crash die het Umicore Solar Team uit de World Solar Challenge gooide ligt nu al meer dan 24 uur achter ons, maar de impact die deze gebeurtenis op het team heeft achtergelaten blijft enorm.
Daarom hebben we deze gisterenmorgen de tijd genomen om met iedereen de afgelopen dagen nog eens te overlopen om zo te kunnen achterhalen wat de juiste oorzaak van dit verschrikkelijke ongeluk was.
@ Ronald. Nou, dat is wel vaag ja, ik had het bericht al helemaal gelezen op hun site, maar ik dacht dat ze het weer verwijderd hadden. Blijkbaar staat het dus ergens anders dan, maar ik kan niet vinden waar.
Het bericht kwam erop neer dat de auto na de kwalificatie al zo beschadigd was, dat ie niet meer 100% goed te besturen was. Toen ook de wind erbij kwam kijken werd hij geheel stuurloos..
“Is de gemiddelde snelheid bij de Japanners nu hoger dan bij de Nuna? ”
Even los van het feit dat de wedstrijd regels elke keer veranderen, toch wel benieuwd hoe sterk toch weer het veld gegroeit is dit jaar. Iemand hier een antwoord al op?
En idd de jappaners, hebben stiekem al een hoop prijzen binnengehaald voordat ze langskwamen op deze race.
Benieuwd of ze weten niet om te waaien morgen..
Volgens http://www.solarteam.nl/index.php?page=guestbook rijd de 21R weer.
Ik dacht dat de japanners nu al weer tegen de maximum snelheid aan zitten..veel zon en volle accus..dus het tweede gedeelte kan nooit sneller afgelegd worden dan nu. En ik dacht uit een kryptische forum post ook te begrijpen dat het eerste gedeelte ook sneller afgelegd werd dan de Nuna na twee race dagen.
na twee racedagen was de Tokai verder dan de nuna.
Dat kan ook goed want de Nuna kwam vorige keer 6 minuten voor sluitingstijd aan..terwijl ze nu al verwachten dat de Tokai morgen om 15:00 aankomt, dat is ruim twee uur voor sluitingstijd. Dus sneller dan Nuna4 twee jaar geleden.
Please correct me if I am wrong
Dat zou extra knap zijn met de andere banden en de mindere accuus.
Daarnaast wordt nu NIET gestopt in Alice SPrings..zodat je niet de dag er voor de accu leeg kunt rijden omdat je die toch weer op kunt laden in Alice Springs.
Als je dan toch een betere tijd neerzet…
Infinium weighs 650 pounds (including a 170-pound driver) and has “space-grade” Emcore solar panels which are the same as NASA puts on satellites. The Infinium batteries are from A123 Systems (which also supplies Chrysler’s Electrical Vehicles)
The guardian heeft een filmpje van de japnners met engelse ondertitleing en ten dele een japanner die engels praat…http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2009/oct/27/solar-power-car-tokai-university
of zie mijn facebook pagina
Overigens word het klassement voor de silicium klasse (Hoorde op RTL dat EEN panel van de Nuon 400.000 euro kost..ik mag hopen dat alle panels bij elkaar 400.000 Euro is) waarbij de solarcar net zo duur is als een panel van de Nuna..nog erg spannend gaat worden:
(van Mit Sevt)
We arrived at Kulgera with 16 h, 43 min elapsed. We’re in fourth place in the Challenge class overall; first in the Silicon category, which is exciting. Today we passed Team Twente from the Netherlands who had quite unfortunately rolled their car, breaking suspension and array components. Hopefully they’ll get back up and running soon. They took a picture of us passing.
Teams that had trouble at the beginning of the race (UNSW, Aurora 101) are catching up, so it’ll be an exciting finish.
Oh, jongens, de strijd tussen Nuna en Michigan is een strijd der titanen! Ze rijden even hard en ongeveer naast elkaar! Het wordt heel spannend of ze de tijdsfinish gaan halen!
http://twitter.com/racer_d