By Barry Bateman
Clear skies and purple trees made the day for the Japanese team in the inaugural South African Solar Challenge which ended at the Innovation Hub on Wednesday.
"Everything was nice for us, especially when we got off the highways and saw the beautiful Jacarandas," said Team Tokai University driver Kenjiro Shinozuka.
The final leg of the race saw five solar-powered vehicles glide down the N4 from Ermelo, Mpumalanga, to the capital, bringing to an end the gruelling 4 200km challenge.
Six teams, including three South African teams, set off from Pretoria on September 28 and travelled to Cape Town and back via Durban.
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Five teams crossed the finish line.
The Japanese team of two professors and six students cheered as Shinozuka entered the final stretch.
Driving solar cars is a change for this driver; in 1991 Shinozuka became the first Japanese competitor to win a World Rally Championship event; and in 1997 he became the first Japanese winner of the world's most famous endurance rally - the Dakar Rally.
"I am getting a bit old for that now. In this race the driver just drives. The professors and the team make all the changes to the car by remote control," he said.
Hideki Kimura, team leader and engineering professor - the youngest at the Tokai University - said depending on available sunlight, they would vary the amount of power from the battery to the motor.
By reducing speed they save energy and allow the solar cells to charge the batteries.
He said the entire vehicle weighed 150kg and generated 1 200 watts of energy, which was equivalent to about 1,6 horsepower.
"It's very light, like a motorbike.
"We reduced the aerodynamic drag and use a special motor.
"This is our first race in Africa and the longest route we have ever raced. We are happy with the result," he said.
Race organiser Johan Viljoen, of the Advanced Energy Foundation, said the challenge allowed the entire country to learn about solar power.
"People were made more aware of alternative energy and different ways to generate automotive energy."
He said the next local event would be in 2010 and was convinced more South African teams would take part.
"Along the route we met several universities which expressed interest in competing in future events.
"The local teams didn't do too well, but the next time you see them race they would have conducted research and their vehicles will look like the Japanese vehicle," he said.
Georg Brasseur, the International Motorsport Federation (FIA) Alternative Energies Commission technical delegate, said there was a huge gap in technology between the Japanese entrants and the likes of South Africa and India.
"Most of the SA cars were developed from scratch; they have never done this before, but they'll learn from the top teams," he said.
Brasseur said there were 22 of these FIA-sanctioned events across the globe each year.
"South Africa is the ideal environment for such a race.
"We need to be careful when choosing roads to race on. They must not be single lane and the quality must be acceptable. South Africa is good," he said.
- This article was originally published on page 4 of Pretoria News on October 09, 2008
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