The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Sprint cars are high-powered open-wheel race cars, designed primarily for the purpose of running on short oval or circular dirt or paved tracks. Historically known simply as "big cars," distinguishing them from "midget cars," sprint car racing is popular primarily in the United States and Canada, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of track types including road courses and street circuits. Trans-Am is split into the TA and TA2 classes for silhouette racing cars, while its production classes are the GT, SGT, and XGT.
Electrathon is an electric vehicle endurance racing competition. The winner is determined by who traveled the farthest in two 1-hour races on 1kwh of battery power in each race. The cars are generally 3 wheeled, hand built vehicles although some kit-built cars have been available in the past. Cars are similar in size to a go-kart and frequently have an aerodynamic body. Unlike a go-kart, they are powered by electric motors and rechargeable batteries, industrially produced. The battery is limited to 1kwh of capacity. This equates to approximately 73lbs of lead-acid battery. Other battery chemistries are allowed but the weights are restricted accordingly to maintain the 1kwh capacity limit. This type of lightweight car appeared in Australia in the late 1970s and was warmly embraced and introduced into American culture as early as 1980.
Nuna is the name of a series of crewed solar powered race cars that have won the World Solar Challenge in Australia seven times: in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2015 and 2017. The vehicles are built by students who are part of the "Brunel Solar Team" at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, sponsored by Brunel.
The Stanford Solar Car Project (SSCP) is a student group at Stanford University that designs, builds, tests, and races solar-powered vehicles. The SSCP, a student-run, donation-funded organization, has been building and racing solar-powered vehicles since 1986. It has competed and placed at The World Solar Challenge, the Global Green Challenge, and American Solar Challenge.
Sunswift Racing is the solar car racing team of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The team currently holds a number of world records and is best known for its participation in the World Solar Challenge (WSC). Since its founding in 1996 by Byron Kennedy, the Sunswift team has built a total of 7 cars, the most recent of which is Sunswift 7.
The University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project, or UMNSVP, is a team of undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota that designs and constructs solar-powered cars. In its 31 years, it has established itself as one of the world's top solar racing teams, and the top Cruiser/Multi-Occupant Vehicle team in the Western Hemisphere, with top-two finishes in eighteen of thirty-four events entered.
Durham University Solar Car, formerly Durham University Electric Motorsport, is a student-run team in the United Kingdom that designs and constructs solar powered cars to compete in international competitions. It is the longest running solar car team in the UK and is financed entirely by third party donations and sponsorship.
Open-road racing is a form of regularity rally carried out at high speeds on closed public highways, most commonly in sparsely populated parts of the Southwestern United States. Competitors attempt to set specified average speeds which can range from 80 to 150 mph or higher along courses ranging between 50 and 110 miles in length. At the lower speeds, unmodified production cars can be used, while straightforward safety modifications can permit powerful sports cars to reach speeds of 165 mph (266 km/h).
The 1993 Maize & Blue solar car was built by the University of Michigan Solar Car Team during the period from 1990 to 1993.
A solar car is a solar vehicle for use on public roads or race tracks. Solar vehicles are electric vehicles that use self-contained solar cells to provide full or partial power to the vehicle via sunlight. Solar vehicles typically contain a rechargeable battery to help regulate and store the energy from the solar cells and from regenerative braking. Some solar cars can be plugged into external power sources to supplement the power of sunlight used to charge their battery.
Solar car racing refers to competitive races of electric vehicles which are powered by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the surface of the car. The first solar car race was the Tour de Sol in 1985 which led to several similar races in Europe, US and Australia. Such challenges are often entered by universities to develop their students' engineering and technological skills, but many business corporations have entered competitions in the past. A small number of high school teams participate in solar car races designed exclusively for high school students.
The Cal State LA Solar Car Team was a group of engineering students at California State University, Los Angeles that developed the Solar Eagle series of solar cars that competed in solar car races in the United States and Australia.
Modified stock car racing, also known as modified racing and modified, is a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other on oval tracks. First established in the United States after World War II, this type of racing was early-on characterized by its participants' modification of passenger cars in pursuit of higher speeds, hence the name.
The Sunseeker Solar Car Project, Sunseeker for short, is Western Michigan University's solar car team. Each vehicle is designed, built, maintained, and raced by students. Sunseeker has competed in all of the American Solar Challenge events, going back to 1990.
Blue Sky Solar Racing is a student-run team at the University of Toronto that designs and constructs solar powered vehicles to race in international competitions.
The University of Texas Solar Vehicles Team (UTSVT) is a student-driven effort to design, build, test, and race solar vehicles for the purpose of reinforcing skills learned in the classroom, raising awareness of solar power, and bringing solar power closer to practicality. To accomplish this task, a multidisciplinary group of students from various disciplines in the Cockrell School of Engineering, and from other schools across the University of Texas, such as the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Natural Sciences come together to design and construct the most efficient vehicle as possible.
The Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) is an annual solar-car race that takes place on closed-loop race tracks. In the race, teams from colleges and universities throughout North America design, build, test, and race solar-powered vehicles.
Stella and its successors Stella Lux, Stella Vie and Stella Era are a series of solar racing family cars, built for the World Solar Challenge in Australia, sofar winning its Cruiser Class all four times it was held – in 2013, 2015, 2017 and in 2019. Stella is considered the world’s first solar-powered family car and was given the 'Best Technology Development' Award at the 8th annual Crunchies in San Francisco in 2015. Being the only competing vehicle with a license plate, the road registration of Stella contributed to the winning score in the races. The vehicles are designed and built by "Solar Team Eindhoven" (STE) — some 26 students of different faculties of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands. The group have set up a non-profit foundation to promote their concepts for practical solar vehicles for adoption on a broader scale.
