Before the World Solar Challenge, I made up up some posters of personal picks (below, click to zoom). How did I do? The top five Challengers these year were indeed as in 2015, although in a different order. Eindhoven and Bochum indeed look like they will be first and second in the Cruisers (although Sunswift, with their car problems, did less well than I expected).
Among my “dark horses,” Western Sydney improved on their 2015 result to come 6th (making them Australian champions!) and Kogakuin’s radical design came 7th. Aachen did not do as well as I expected; nor did the South African car. Stanford look like they might come 11th, but none of my speculative Cruiser picks made the top 3 (which makes me sad; I like those cars even more now I’ve seen them up close). At the time I made the picks, Arrow had not revealed much information, so I did not anticipate how strong their Cruiser debut would be. Congratulations to them and to all the teams!
Scientific Gems 
Thank you Tony forever for your interesting and precious work. I write from Italy. This year there were no Italian cars at WSC. This is sad. My friends from the “Onda Solare” Team are building a cruiser car and will certainly come to Aussie in 2019. Cruiser Class is undoubtedly very interesting. I love Arrow, the first solar car to be sold to private individuals. Best regards.
Filippo
It will be great to see you back at WSC!
Whill there be any gems this time?
Opal (sexiest looking car?): Blue.cruiser. Just a opinion
Good point.