Sunshark Solar Car Team

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The Sunshark Solar Car Team was a solar car racing team at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

Contents

The Sunshark team was made up of students from the University of Queensland. Through sponsorship the team was able to enter solar car races in Australia and overseas.

Car

The Sunshark solar car is based on a tear drop design to reduce energy loss to wind drag. It has three wheels, with the single rear wheel positioned at the centre of the vehicle and connected to the drive chain. It was the precursor design to the UltraCommuter.

Races

The Sunshark's first race was in November 1996 for the 3,010 kilometres (1,870 mi) World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide where it placed 5th and was the first Australian car to finish. [1]

In August 1997 the Sunshark team travelled to Japan for the Akita Solar Car Rallye and placed 5th overall and 1st in the Stock Car class.

In January 1999 the Sunshark team raced in the 1,790 kilometres (1,110 mi) CitiPower SunRace from Sydney to Melbourne and placed 2nd. [2]

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References

  1. Solar Car update University of Queensland solar vehicle SunShark was the first Australian car across the line and was fifth overall in the 3010km World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide. - UQ News Online - The University of Queensland Archived 26 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. SunShark finishes second in CitiPower SunRace The University of Queensland solar racing team's entrant SunShark finished second overall in the gruelling 1790km CitiPower SunRace from Sydney to Melbourne which finished today at Melbourne's Albert Park. - UQ News Online - The University of Queensland