About the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge

The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is gruelling journey across the Australian outback where teams from around the world design, build and race a solar powered vehicle from Darwin to Adelaide.

With 3 different classes of cars and a total of 42 teams competing this year across 5 days, UNLIMITED 2.0 has been designed to compete in the line honours class – Challenger. However, here is a quick breakdown of 3 categories competing this year.

Challenger 

Objective: To cross the continent from Darwin to Adelaide as fast as possible using the least amount of energy

Max. Length: 5m
Max. Width: 2.2m
Max. Solar Array: 4sqm
Wheels: 4
Driver: 1
Stages: Single stage, Darwin to Adelaide

Cruiser

Objective: To design a vehicle for practicality and acceptance in a given market segment

Wheels: 4

Drivers: 1 or more

Max Solar Array: 5sqm

Adventure

Objective: The Adventure Class is non-competitive and allows cars built for previous editions of the event to run again

With a total distance of 3022km from Darwin the Adelaide, the challenge is completed mostly on the Stuart Highway with UNLIMITED 2.0 travelling on public roads completely unsealed from normal traffic. During the 5 day challenge, we will experience road trains, convoy vehicles, caravans and other road users as we traverse from Darwin to Adelaide.  During this year’s challenge the team must complete 9 mandatory control stops each lasting 30 minutes. This allows the team to swap drivers and to charge the battery housed in the car.

However, this year there have been a number of regulation changes. In the previous Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, the driver was assisted by the team at each control stop, however this year, the driver needs to complete all control stop procedures unassisted as well as run to a control stop timing booth before control stop time begins. These procedures include tilting the array, exiting the vehicle and putting the race tape on solar array seam.

For more information about the challenge itself, head over to the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge website