World Solar Challenge 1996
In 1996 the Honda team went home with the spoils again. The Aurora car was running 4th when an accident forced its withdrawal from the race. For the 1999 race, further work to improve the utilisation of the solar cell array, the brakes, the suspension, and data telemetry from the car to the support crew, is taking place.
The overall placing achieved by NTU's Desert Rose did not really reflect its performance. Severe technical problems on day one put this car in 40th place, 640 km behind the leader, but the car went on to average over 74 km/h and overtake 33 other teams on the remainder of the trip to Adelaide.
Race Results
| Placing | Team | Car | Origin | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Honda R & D | Dream | Japan | 33:32 h:m | 89.76 km/h |
| 2nd | United High Schools of Biel | sCHooler (*) | Switzerland | 35:00 h:m | 86.00 km/h |
| 3rd | Aisin Seiki Co Ltd | Aisol III | Japan | 37:18 h:m | 80.70 km/h |
| 4th | Mitsubishi Materials Corporation | Sun Challenger | Japan | 45:07 h:m | 66.72 km/h |
| 5th | University of Queensland | Sunshark | Australia | 46:24 h:m | 64.87 km/h |
| 6th | Waseda University | Sky Blue Waseda II | Japan | 46:38 h:m | 64.55 km/h |
| 7th | Northern Territory University | Fuji Xerox Desert Rose | Australia | 48:02 h:m | 62.66 km/h |
| 9th | University of New South Wales | Sunswift (*) | Australia | 56:32 h:m | 53.24 km/h |
| 16th | Lake Tuggeranong College | Spirit of Canberra (*) | Australia | 67:15 h:m | 44.76 km/h |
| DNF | Aurora | Aurora 101 | Australia | Did not finish, owing to accident on day 1 while running 4th | |
(*) The car sCHooler was the Spirit of Biel/Bienne III from the 1993 race, with work done to remove some of its previous problems. The car Sunswift was formerly our Aurora Q1 from the 1993 race. The car Spirit of Canberra was formerly our prototype car (and backup car) for Aurora Q1 in the 1993 race.
