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2/20 SOLAR CAR

2/20 SOLAR CAR (DEVELOPED FOR “WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE”, AUSTRALIA)

Taking on new challenges in totally different areas that apply new ideas and metrics has been core to Andy’s career, while at the same time training others in the pressurized environment of an ambitious project that will live or die by how it unfolds.
One such example was a project to develop a solar powered car for the World Solar Challenge (WSC), a biannual event which challenges participants to build solar powered cars that must travel 3,000 kms across Australia from Darwin to Adelaide in 6 days.

Andy was brought in to head an entry for the department of Engineering (IVE) of Hong Kong’s Vocational Training Council (VTC) which saw more than 300 students participate in the project with an eventual 24, along with selected staff, being chosen.

A single seater prototype was built first, but the bar was really raised with the enactment of a successive project, a 2-seater format solar car that would involve fresh thinking as well as an entry into a highly competitive category.

The 2-seater project’s first big challenge was the available timescale which meant training the students while working around the clock and further big hurdles to overcome included designing a suspension system suitable for the requirements of the car and the monocoque design, which was all carbon fibre in basically two clam shell pieces that were then bonded together.

In particular, a key objective of the project was to challenge the students to think out solutions themselves and incorporate them into the project, although in many cases adjustments or even reworking these solutions was required, which also had a knock on of delaying the project’s razor tight schedule.

In the end the 2-seater solar car, dubbed Sophie IV, finished third runner up in the hotly competitive GoPro Adventure class which was far ahead of expectations.

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2/20 SOLAR CAR

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