Solar Freaks

Hi all,

If anyone didn't already know, Sunsprint 2011 will be held next week on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd of September. Good luck to everyone taking part and hopefully the Sydney weather will be a little better than it was last year.

In other news, the Victorian Committee will be running the annual Pursuit event at the Melbourne Museum on Tuesday the 6th of September and this is aimed to give Victorian teams a chance to test their cars out before the Vic event in October. Even cars that aren't yet fully race ready or are still in the construction phase can be brought along as a number of committee members will be at hand to provide teams with useful advice and answer any questions.

Marc

So how was today's Sunsprint seeding and Sydney weather? Did many teams elect to run without electronics?

Todays weather was quite annoying for all the teams i think today. Varied between 90%-10% sunlight, changed from 80% to 18% in a second on one of my runs. A lot of different designs, some very interesting. A lot of competitive cars.

Im not exactly 100% sure but i think that

1 - SNAP - St Pauls (i think it was 18.3 seconds at 75% light)
2 - CRACKLE - St Pauls (i think it was 18.6 seconds at 75% light)
3 - KARO VI - All Saints Grammar (i think/hope) 19.02 at 75% light

I have video of that run, ill upload maybe soon.

Might be a late night for a lot of the teams, should be around 70%-100% sunlight tomorrow. Good Luck to all teams!!

Sounds like an eventful day with some reasonable times too.

Yes, please do upload any video footage that you may have. Some photos would be great too if anyone has any.

Was wet and rainy in the morning when we arrived to the track. Rain cleared and track dried by around 10am. Consistent cloudy condition maintained till sunset. Overall, race light measured from 9-85% sunlight, with small bursts up to 105%.

Some Photos below..

Car tech data will be uploaded shortly, Ben??




I have more photos and some videos, just need more upload time.

Keep 'em coming Tony.

Looks like quite a few different designs turned up today which is good to see. Were there any takers of the no-electronics option? Also, did anyone try going with a sub 6W panel?

I'm sure that someone would have already pointed it out to them today, but if Team Stiletto were to streamline that cylinder containing the drag plate into an aerofoil then it ought to bring down the car's air drag markedly.

HAHA Nice photos Tony
At my photo :/

Thanks for the photo uploads
& yes, altering the cylinder is certainly a change that would be made if we have the opportunity to progress on the competition
Today was a great day, so good to see everyone again! Tomorrow should be even better... EXCITING

Are any overnight modifications allowed to be made to cars at the NSW event Tony?
It's not meant to be allowed at the nationals but state events don't necessarily have to enforce the rules down to the letter.
I'd expect that a little more leniency may perhaps be given in this area since it would be the first time that virtually teams have had a chance to run their cars on the track.

Marc

miseli wrote:Keep 'em coming Tony.

Looks like quite a few different designs turned up today which is good to see. Were there any takers of the no-electronics option? Also, did anyone try going with a sub 6W panel?

Yes, team Solarion had origonally decided to use a maxamiser, but we also asked to be scrutinered based on without using it so we had weights for both occasion's, and due to having to add nearly another 1.2kg of weight compared to without it, we tried to run without the maxamiser and recieved better results.

So how did things pan out at today's main event?

Much better day for racing today. Sunlight was mostly in the 60%-80% region with some times being in the 40% and 90%. Overall, a real fun day for everyone!!

1st - Speed of Light - Strathfield South
2nd - Stiletto - Morebank High
3rd - Crackle - St Paul's
4th - KARO VI - All Saints Grammar

Congrats to all teams!!

Well done on your 4th place finish Karo.
Sounds like it was a great day and it looks like a good spread of schools in the top 4. It's also great to see a new school win although I'm sure that having Moorebank's ex mentor Steven So at the helm would have had a fair bit to do with it.

Were places 5th to 8th also determined as I mentioned to Tony that this would probably be worth doing in order to prevent race-offs being needed at the nationals? NSW are being granted 6 definite entries at this stage.

I look forward to seeing some more photos as well as car data, videos, etc.

Marc

miseli wrote:Well done on your 4th place finish Karo.

Thanks Marc. I was hoping for a better result, but still happy with 4th place.

miseli wrote:Were places 5th to 8th also determined

There were no actual race-offs to determine these positions, unless they will be put in order of fastest times or something like that. Tony would be able to answer this question.

What a good day of racing ! Congratulations to Speed of light, STILETTO KARO VI with their mega cheer squad and SNAP! and of course all others who raced today. A special thanks to the girls from Stiletto (Sam and Sanjana) for lending us gears and the constant supply of stickytape , without the gears im sure we wouldn't have made it to 3rd so thanks for that .. Thanks to All the officials who ran the event!

Cheers guys
Jordan

Was a great day even though Solarion only made it to round 2.
During one of the breaks we attached a camera to the car and ran it around the track. In the video the car gets stuck due to the guide system, but shortly fall's off then zoom's around the track...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXqm1rgEBU

BLUR wrote:What a good day of racing ! Congratulations to Speed of light, STILETTO KARO VI with their mega cheer squad and SNAP! and of course all others who raced today. A special thanks to the girls from Stiletto (Sam and Sanjana) for lending us gears and the constant supply of stickytape , without the gears im sure we wouldn't have made it to 3rd so thanks for that .. Thanks to All the officials who ran the event!

Cheers guys
Jordan

Well done on your 3rd place Jordan.

It looks like NSW will be bringing a few good quality cars down to Tas this year. Hopefully some of the local teams from down here will be able to give you guys a run for your money .

starpwnage wrote:During one of the breaks we attached a camera to the car and ran it around the track. In the video the car gets stuck due to the guide system, but shortly fall's off then zoom's around the track...

Nice vid starpwnage. I have a similar clip on youtube somewhere with the 2009 test car that is up here on solarfreaks clocking a 15.5s lap. This was filmed with a small 15 gram keyring camera from ebay and I'm looking at possibly getting a few more in to stick on cars at the nationals this year.

Marc

Cheers Marc


QUOTE" It looks like NSW will be bringing a few good quality cars down to Tas this year. Hopefully some of the local teams from down here will be able to give you guys a run for your money ."QUOTE
Can not wait XD

Nice vid starpwnage. I have a similar clip on youtube somewhere with the 2009 test car that is up here on solarfreaks clocking a 15.5s lap. This was filmed with a small 15 gram keyring camera from ebay and I'm looking at possibly getting a few more in to stick on cars at the nationals this year.

That will be cool! Cameron from Gilbert put his ipod in and filmed the race. pretty good quality !

Jordan

Were scrutineering pics of all the cars taken Tony?