1. Sungroper Solar Car Building and Racing Sungroper

2. World Solar Challenge Runs from Darwin to Adelaide - 3010km; Racing is from 8AM to 5PM; Cars can be 6 x 2m with 8 sq. m of cells or 5m x 1.8m with cells anywhere on the car; Minimum braking performance is stated; Maximum 5KWh of energy storage; There are very few specifics in the rules.

3. Building Sungroper

4. The Chassis How much space does someone take? Is it comfortable sitting in the seat for 2 hours? Can you get in and out with a bar across your waist?

5. How the Chassis Turned Out No steering Brakes partially complete Working front and rear suspension Battery box holders Array mounts

6. Double Wishbone Suspension Double wishbone suspension consists of 3 primary components –A shock absorber –Upper Wishbone –Lower Wishbone

7. Rear Swingarm Pivots at the front. Has shock absorbers at the rear. (Note the extremely stiff dampers currently installed.) Motor pivots with the wheel.

8. Our steering Boat Steering mechanism. Runs via a flexible cable that can be folded out of the way to a bar running across the car to the wheels.

9. Going for a drive

10. Vacuum Bagging Vacuum bagging improves the quality of the job and helps removes excess resin. Helps the job set flat as long as your mould is flat. Works well for large or small objects.

11. Complex Shapes Conventional process is to build a “Plug”. This is a life size model of the finished product. You construct it using whatever materials and techniques you can.

12. Building a Plug Start with MDF Ribs Cover the MDF Ribs with strips of plywood.

13. Building a Plug (cont) A layer of fibreglass helps hold everything in place.

14. Building a plug (cont) Apply filler Sand Apply filler Sand Apply filler Sand Apply filler Sand

15. Building a Plug (cont) When the shape is right use finer and finer sandpaper to get a shiny finish. This will reveal new defects you couldn’t see before. Repeat until “correct”. Note the reflections.

16. Building the Mould (cont) Well over 100 hours of work sitting smashed on the floor of the fibreglass shop. Assuming your mould has worked you can make a new plug or finished product out of fibreglass.

17. The Finished Nosecone Coat your mould with release agent. Apply a thin layer of fibreglass inside. Carefully remove your finished product from the mould.

18. Putting it all Together

19. Our Array We are the proud owners of 1000 10x10cm 16% efficient solar cells. Array contains 5000 solder connections. Finished car should have approximately 630 cells = 1000W.

20. The Panels 3 hours fibreglass panel, 1 hour drill and tape, 4 hours tab and solder cells, 1 hour attaching cells = 9+ hours per panel. 23 panels - 21 on car, 2 spare = 200+ hours.

21. Telemetry and Control Electronics

22. What do you get?