Images of Bethany have been released to the press, resulting in widespread coverage including front cover of The Engineer magazine and articles in Wired.co.uk, Professional Engineering and Autoblog Green. We also took Affinity down to film an episode of Channel Five’s The Gadget Show.

Now we just need to make the real car look as good as the pictures…

We are proud to be able to present our new car design, codenamed “Bethany”. The new vehicle will improve hugely on the performance of Affinity, showcasing cutting-edge technology as it cruises at around 60mph using pure sunshine. Aiming for a top-ten position against the best teams in the world this October, we hope that Bethany will be Britain’s brightest hope for success in solar racing.

The final design is the culmination of months of work by our Aero, Mechanical, Electrical and Strategy teams. Huge thanks also go out to our academic supervisors, specialist advisors and sponsors. Bethany is now being manufactured and we expect to officially launch the car in July.

For the full press release and pictures, click here. A Bethany mini-site will go live soon. If you are interested in supporting the project, please see our Friends of CUER scheme or our sponsorship page.

CUER’s second generation vehicle has been completed! The array has just been attached to the shell, which was then fitted perfectly to the fully working chassis. She drives like a dream, and all systems are functioning perfectly! Now for a good four months of solid testing to really refine the design. Preliminary data suggests a CdA of 0.5 and cruising speed of 95mph. Good work, team!