solar car race australia 2023

Australia's 2023 solar car race is the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a 3,000 km dash from Darwin to Adelaide where sunshine is your fuel card.

University teams and innovators from around the globe turn up with ultra-aero, featherweight machines that sip photons and can cruise at around 80 km/h or more when the skies behave.

It runs in October, with classes like Challenger (single-seat, speed-focused) and Cruiser (multi-seat, efficiency/practicality), each tightly regulated for solar array size and battery capacity.

Strategy is half the race: chase tailwinds, baby the tyres, and decide whether to creep under cloud or bolt to outrun it.

It’s equal parts engineering exam and outback endurance; wonderfully mad, and very, very Australian.