Japanese Tokai University: in the lead (more pics below)The solar powered vehicles arrived in Cape Town on the 30th Sept and left the Mother City this morning as part of the round-the-country South African Solar Challenge 2008.

We managed to get a quick peek last night as the cars were displayed at Century City's Canal Walk shopping centre near the MTN Sciencentre for the best part of yesterday. Some of the crew were working feverishly last night to get the cars ship-shape for today's leg of the race.

When the solar powered car challenge was announced last year it was expected that a field of forty competitors would take part; twenty from SA and twenty international teams. This unfortunately dwindled down to only 6 teams entering, three local ones and a Malaysian, Indian and Japanese team. By yesterday evening there were only two teams actually competing - the South African Divwatt team and the Japanese Tokai University team. Ian from Divwatt told me that the Japanese team was leading by far, but he was very proud of Divwatt's second position!

The Tokai University's car is able to reach speeds of 85 km/h with the Divwatt team doing around 40 km/h.

The two other cars that were supposed to be competing were having problems with their controllers - the electronics that manage the power transfer from the batteries to the drive train. The Netarji Surhas Institute of Technology Team from India had apparently not yet arrived to compete as they were held up in customs, but were due to start from Cape Town this morning.

It was interesting to hear that Solar racing is recognised by the FIA as a formal competitive motorsport event which has strict regulations regarding the car specs. The panels, for examples can only be six squared metres in area.

The Japanese competitive edge is apparently due to their more efficient gallium-based photovoltaic panels, whilst the Divwatt team relied on traditional (and cheaper) silicon panels. When pressed about thin film technology, Ian said that currently the efficiency with which they are able to capture solar energy is still too low (at around 4%) for them to be used in competitive racing.

The Divwatt team in a typical show of South African ingenuity were able to produce their vehicle for around R120 000 and used motorbike and quadbike components to reduce the cost.

The Oelsner Group's (read Darling Windfarm) Silver Fox was by far the sexiest vehicle on show. It was apparently a former solar race competitor and has been hauled out of mothballs and refitted with all-new components from the tyres through the electric drive and solar panels. The helmuts displayed were decidedly retro! From what I gather the Darling SEES Silver Fox team were also having technical problems and weren't able to compete in the leg to Cape Town.

The cars should be in Plettenberg Bay later today (thank goodness the sun came out) and they head on along the coast via East London, Port Shepstone and Durban before heading inland over the Drakensberg, then through Ermelo before finishing up in Pretoria. Check the details over here for where you can catch a glimpse of the cars. See route map here.

South African Team Sunna: second place

Oelsner Group's Silver Fox: a beauty but unlucky no. 13

Malaysian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Scooter

Tokai Uni Repairs