Magnificent Melbourne, nearly exhausted from staging the best ever Commonwealth Games, hosts another international sporting event this weekend, the 3rd round of the Formula One Championship for 2006.

Considered the best of the street circuits the track near the centre of Melbourne, Albert Park, will reverberate to the sounds of the new V8 Formula One engines and the renewed battle between the Renault, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Toyota and other great teams for supremacy in this extreme form of motor racing.

The world's most successful solar car, Melbourne based Aurora 101, will be on show and on the track; quietly.

This is not the first time a solar car has zipped around Albert Park. The Canberra based team from Lake Tuggeranong College was there in 2000.

The Aurora team loves racing and support motor racing in all forms. At this meet Aurora team member Ian Dyk will be racing in the Porsche Cup event. Another team member Darren Trafford will be a flag marshal at Turn 7. The solar car itself will join the group of energy efficient vehicles organised by Greenfleet both to be on display and on track.

Aurora 101 driver Derrick Rodgers, from Hamilton Victoria, has set solar car records at the Suzuka and Shanghai Formula One tracks and after Melbourne will pilot the solar car around Ferrari's home circuit at Fiorano, Italy and the new F1 track in Istanbul, Turkey later in 2006.

Apart from the sheer sound and speed differences there are some similarities between the ultimate technology of F1 and the ultimate efficiency of solar car competition.

Michelin produces special tyres for each category. Solar car tyres are designed for extremely low rolling resistance, their F1 tyres for maximum grip.

Aerodynamics is the crucial performance factor. Solar cars try to achieve lowest drag with no uplift or down-force whilst aerodynamics are designed for generating maximum downforce in F1.

Telemetry is essential to achieving the best performance in both technology categories. This provides key engineering information to the pit crews on how exactly the car is performing.

Thanks to Greenfleet and the organisers of the Grand Prix event in Melbourne the famous Aurora 101 solar car will join many faster interesting cars on six occasions in on-track demonstrations in this festival of speed. We are still trying to find a way to generate a lot more noise. Just hope the sun shines!

For more information please contact Co Chairman of Aurora Vehicle Association Inc, David Fewchuk at 0411 250 464