Solar Car Racing in the USA

The 20 solar car teams below are on the board for the Formula Sun Grand Prix this July (with 7 teams currently all green, 6 yellow, and 7 red). The event will, once again, take place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas (above). Because the World Solar Challenge (WSC) is on this year, several teams (including Michigan, the champions) will not be attending the FSGP. It is also a little sad to see that some teams have fallen behind in building their car (and in a few cases seem to have run into major showstoppers).

   3 – Kentucky 

This team completed 40 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 12^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge.

   4 – SRM (ETROS) 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year. I am not expecting them to show up this year.

   5 – University of Florida 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year. Their involvement in the FSGP this year is uncertain.

   6 – Berkeley (CalSol) 

This team completed 203 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 9^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge.

   7 – SF State 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year.

   8 – UT Austin 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year, but did 133 laps in 2015.

   11 – Northwestern 

This team completed 21 laps in the FSGP last year.

   13 – Michigan State 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year.

   17 – Illinois State 

This team completed 327 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 11^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge.

   26 – British Columbia 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year.

   32 – Principia Solar Car Team 

This team completed 454 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 5^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge. They came 17^th in the Challenger class at WSC 2015. They also plan to race at the WSC this year. A car reveal is promised for 3 July.

   42 – Missouri S&T 

This team completed 195 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 4^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge. This team has reported that they are not attending WSC this year.

   49 – Georgia Tech 

This team completed 0 laps in the FSGP last year. Their team number (49) is taken from STS-49, the maiden flight of the space shuttle Endeavour.

   55 – Poly Montreal (Esteban) 

This team completed 321 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 10^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge. Their team number (55) is the year that Western Electric began to sell licenses for silicon PV technology.

   57 – SIUE 

This team did not pass scrutineering for the FSGP last year.

   92 – ETS Quebec (Eclipse) 

This team completed 308 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 8^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge.

   96 – Sunstang 

This team did not attend the FSGP last year, and did 0 laps in 2015.

   786 – Western Michigan 

This team did not pass scrutineering for the FSGP last year. Their team number (786) is the sequence of digits for S-U-N on old phones.

   787 – Solar Car UPRM  

This team did not attend the FSGP last year, but did 57 laps in 2015. Their team number (787) is the main telephone area code for Puerto Rico. They are building a new car for FSGP 2017, although they appear to have financial problems.

   828 – Appalachian State University 

This team completed 414 laps in the FSGP last year, and came 6^th in the 2016 American Solar Challenge. Their team number (828) is the telephone area code for western North Carolina. This team has reported that they are not attending WSC this year.

This post last updated 09:56 on 23 June 2017 AEST

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