The winners of the South African Solar Challenge the team of Tokai University, are currently leading the Challenge Class of the Global Green Challenge 2009 in Australia.

JAPAN’S TOKAI CHALLENGER LEADS SOLAR CARS WHILE ECO CARS ASTOUND WITH IMPROVED FUEL ECONOMY AND LOWER EMISSION FIGURES

The Tokai University solar car entry #60 Tokai Challenger is in the lead on day 1 of the 2009 Global Green Challenge.

The Japanese entry heads University of Michigan’s entry #2 Infinium, from two teams from the Netherlands -  #3 Nuna V (Nuon Solar Team) and car #21 21Revolution (Solar Team Twente) respectively.

The leading four cars had covered 633 kilometres from the start before camping on the roadside.

These teams had opened up a huge gap on the rest of the field with the fifth car #8 Umicar Inspire (Umicore Solar Team) Belgium plus a host of others travelling 318 kilometres on the first day.

Thirty one solar vehicles from 16 countries made the start in Darwin this morning.

Flagged off by the Chief Minister of the NT, the Hon. Paul Henderson MLA, the first car away was the Aurora 101 machine from Victoria in Australia.

Second away was the Nuon Solar Team from The Netherlands with its Nuna 5 vehicle and high hopes of making it five wins in a row in this bi-annual event.

The Dutch team had (prior to the start of the event) severely damaged the highly advanced machine when it crashed during testing as a result of a suspected tyre blowout, but it had been fully re-built in time for yesterday’s speed trials that determined today’s starting order.

Aurora 101 set the fastest time around Darwin’s Hidden Valley race circuit averaging 91.83kph to start first in the event.

Nuna 5 set an average speed of 85.49kph with the third fastest time being that set by the German BoCruiser car at 82.52kph.

Car # 8 Umicar Inspire (Umicore Solar Team) from Belgium crashed 380 kilometres from the Darwin start at 13.03 Darwin time. It is reported that no injuries were suffered.

The explanation for the crash was loss of control as a result of a wind gust. The car has officially been withdrawn from the event.

The two entries from the Aurora Vehicle Association (Victoria Australia) – Aurora 101 and Southern Aurora both had problems some 40 kilometres north of Katherine.

Car #101 Aurora 101 is reported to have spun and suffered suspension damage, while car #99 Southern Aurora struck electrical issues.

Both vehicles were to be transported to Katherine for repairs and will be taken back to where they were stranded for tomorrow’s start.

Cont.

In the Eco Challenge the fleet of 17 vehicles completed day 2 of the event travelling from Katherine to Tennant Creek.

Taking part are the all electric Tesla sports car driven by Internode’s Simon Hackett, the modified petrol/electric Holden Viva entered by South Australia’s Annesley College, a Suzuki Alto GLX manual, two Hyundai Santa Fe SLX diesel models, a petrol Holden Sportwagon, two Kia Sorento 2.2 litre diesel 6 speed manual models, a petrol HSV Maloo Ute VE2 , a modified Honda Civic electric, a petrol Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo, the diesel  Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, a diesel Skoda Superb, a fleet of three Mini Cooper D diesel models and a modified Honda ‘postie’ bike running on alcohol.

Where applicable the cars and teams are ‘competing’ against themselves to gain the largest percentage increase in fuel economy and hence carbon emission figures as compared to the ADR rating for each model.

Some staggering improvements have been made with the ‘big cars’ in the Challenge being very impressive on day 2.

The Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo has thus far improved its ADR stated figure by some 39.41% (7.09 litres/100KM) while the HSV Maloo Ute improvement is reported as a staggering 44.99%. (8.00 litres/100KM)

The Holden Sportwagon improvement was 33.43% (6.19 litres/100Km) while the Skoda Superb improvement was listed as 31.93% (4.70 litres/100km).

Both Hyundai Santa Fe models improved and were remarkably similar with improvements of 21.77% and 21.23%. Best fuel consumption figure for the Hyundai Santa Fe entries was 5.24 litres/100Km.

There was more variation in the two Kia Sorento entries with one vehicle improving by 26.68% and the other by 19.72%.  Best fuel consumption figure was 4.91 litres/100Km.

Fuel consumption figures have been interesting to say the least with the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic diesel achieving a figure of 3.13 litres/100Km on the Katherine to Tennant Creek stage over 600 kilometres plus.

The best of the Mini D’s achieved a fuel consumption figure of 3.30 litres/100Km.

The Suzuki Alto achieved 3.88 litres/100km.

For further information contact:

Mike Drewer Publicity Manager Global Green Challenge

Mobile: 0419 273 333

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Visit the event web site www.globalgreenchallenge.com.au Go to Live Event on the home page for the latest information