Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge – wrap-up

The 2015 Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge is over. There was excellent coverage of this interesting event on Twitter, especially from solarracing.org. The race was also covered in local news, and some teams (like Michigan, Principia, and the Belgians) blogged about it. The map below shows where the various teams hailed from.

Although I previously estimated the final order, based on times for all three days, here is the order based on official results. Note that Tokai is now in 7^th place.

2: University of Michigan Quantum (Twitter, Facebook, blog) – 1^st, official time 13:26:47
1: PI Solar Car Team (Twitter, Facebook) – 2^nd, official time 13:29:15
8: Punch Powertrain Solar Team (Twitter, Facebook, blog) – 3^rd, official time 14:10:02
34: Istanbul SOCRAT (Twitter, Facebook) – 4^th, official time 14:27:06
30: Team Arrow (Twitter, Facebook) – 5^th, official time 14:58:05
32: Principia Solar Car Team (Twitter, Facebook, blog, Picasa) – 6^th, official time 16:26:36
75: Tokai University Solar Car Team (Twitter, Facebook) – 7^th, official time 17:11:13
55: Hiroshima Institute of Technology – 8^th, official time 17:16:44
95: Apollo Solar Car Team (Facebook) – 9^th, official time 17:19:38
9: Team Onda Solare (Twitter) – 10^th, official time 17:53:25
15: ZHAW Solar Energy Racers (Twitter, Facebook) – 11^th, official time 20:42:33

The 2^nd to 11^th teams were behind Michigan by the number of minutes indicated: 1: 2.5, 8: 43, 34: 60, 30: 91, 32: 180, 75: 224, 55: 230, 95: 233, 9: 267, 15: 436. In graphical terms:

It is worth noting that Punch Powertrain (the Belgian team) were the fastest of the 4-wheel cars, and that the World Solar Challenge, in the Challenger Class and Cruiser Class, requires four wheels.

These last four teams all experienced trouble of various kinds (and therefore penalty time), but should be commended for participating:

256: Oregon State University (Twitter, Facebook) – 12^th, official time 27:11:29
17: Illinois State University (Facebook) – 13^th, official time 34:47:06
29: Eco Solar Breizh (Twitter, Facebook) – 14^th, official time 38:32:00
90: Team Okinawa Solar Car Project (Twitter, Facebook) – 15^th, official time 53:05:30

To finish my commentary, the picture below shows Michigan leading the way through the desert yesterday (photo: Noah Kaczor). Well done, Michigan!

This post has been updated with official times.

Advertisement