Endeavour is loaded onto the trailer, having reached Port Augusta. Credit: CUER

We’ve made it! Today we covered about 300 solar kms and this takes our total to over half the race distance driven on solar power alone. Endeavour rolled into Port Augusta this afternoon at 3:30pm to complete her final race driving. We are not allowed to drive solar the final 300km to Adelaide because we arrived in Port Augusta after midday, but we have officially crossed the continent!

We could not be more pleased with how it has gone considering the problems we’ve had. We’ve covered 1600km using solar power alone and reached speeds of 108kph with the first race car CUER has ever built. The work that has gone towards making this possible is vast, it works out at about 1 man hour for every 100 metres! The team here in Australia and at home have put their all into making this possible and even though we did  not reach Adelaide solely under solar power, we are very proud of Endeavour and how far she has taken us.

This afternoon we drove out of the desert and in to the verdant countryside around Adelaide. The difference was incredible, and the return to civilisation certainly raised team morale after the baking heart of the red centre. We are camping tonight in Mount Remarkable National Park surrounded by kangaroos and green grass, quite a change from the dust and sand of Coober Pedy.

Tomorrow we trailer to Adelaide and drive the final stretch in to Victoria Square to display the car with the rest of the competitors. We may be a day late, but we made it and the lessons we learnt this time around will bring the dream of being several days ahead closer to becoming a reality. We’re looking forward to finding out our final race position based on our solar kilometres and catching up with the other teams at the Award Ceremony tomorrow night.

The solar array is replaced over driver Laura Hughes after essential repairs at Marla on the South Australian border. Credit: CUER

Another day full of ups and downs for CUER, we were obliged to trailer the car in the morning as per yesterday to try and catch up the rest of the pack. We managed to drive about 200 solar kilometres over the middle part of the day but unfortunately further battery problems put paid to this. Even more cells have died and Chao our battery surgeon had to perform an emergency cell bypass seeing as we are now completely out of spares. This is not an easy thing to do at the best of times, never mind in the back of a truck in the Outback!

On a positive note, we did see Leeming High School on the road which means that we have caught up the back of the pack. Although unfortunately we were on the side of the road when they passed by us…

We arrived at Coober Pedy this afternoon having trailered the final part of the day and bumped into Stanford and McMasters at the Control Point. To give some perspective, Stanford have got this far travelling at an average speed of about 40kph without having trailered. McMasters have trailered since Sunday when their car caught on fire, the motor burnt out and one of their wheels collapsed! We are not alone in having problems and finding trailering a necessity, but when we are going we average 75kph and have reached 100kph. If it were not for our hardware failure, we would be much further up the pack. This is obviously frustrating for the team but we continue to do everything we can to make crossing the finish line under solar power a reality. We now anticipate arriving in Adelaide on Saturday morning; we have already driven over 1300 solar kilometres which puts us in quite a strong position with regards to our race position so the race remains to be played out.

Coober Pedy is at the heart of the Red Centre of Australia and it is in some truly incredible country. The vastness of Australia really became apparent as we topped the crest of a hill and saw kilometre upon kilometre of desert scrubland stretching out in front of us. We may not be far from Adelaide in terms of the race, but we are certainly a long way from anything most of us have ever experienced before. This landscape has an ancient, permanent sense to it and the sight of the future focused Endeavour travelling through it is a truly incredible one.

Tomorrow brings our final day of trying to clock up solar kilometres before CUER beginnings to close in on Adelaide, out of the outback and back to civilisation.

Endeavour doing what she does best on the Stuart Highway just north of Alice Springs Credit: CUER

Today Endeavour rolled into Alice Springs after four hours of flying along the Stuart Highway at an average speed of 73kph, at times travelling at over 100kph. We have reached the half way point despite our dying battery pack and this is thanks to a caffeine saturated electronics team and the determination of 17 Cambridge students ready to battle on through the Outback whatever it takes.

We may have had to trailer Endeavour in both the morning and evening but we still covered 286 solar kilometres. Endeavour is still very much in the race even if she is some way behind it. With over 1500km under our belt, CUER is ready to face the second half of the race and clock up as many kilometres under the sun as possible. We can still make a good race position regardless of the time or day we arrive in Adelaide and the team are all working flat out to make that happen.

We know that even against all odds; the battery cells are dying off one by one, time is running thin, almost 1500km stretch out ahead of us, but we will make it. Endeavour heads down the Stuart Highway at 8am tomorrow with nothing but red sand and scrubland stretching for thousands of kilometres around us but with a sense of adventure and desire to succeed driving her on. At 5pm we shall stop as we have every night, and camp wherever we find ourselves. It is 10:10 in the evening here in Australia and we are camped out on the red sand of the desert under the Southern Hemisphere stars whilst the electronics team work on Endeavour under the glow of a flood-light to make sure that she is ready to roll again tomorrow.

Endeavour is not out of it yet!

Chao Yu, battery guru, contemplates the implications of a defunct battery, near Dunmarra, NT. Credit: CUER

Today we attempted to make up lost time caused by our troubled batteries. We needed to get through the Tennant Creek Control Stop, after its official 11am close, and then on to Barrow Creek by 5pm.  If not we would find ourselves in a position where we were forced to trailer the car in order to catch up with the pack. CUER’s aim had always been to finish the race on solar power alone so this was not an option that we were willing to take.

The day started well, we set off from Dunmarra at 8:27am after serving our 27 mins of battery time penalty, and then maintained an average speed of 70kph until 11:30am. It then became clear the battery problems that we suffered from yesterday were not resolved and the battery pack was under considerable pressure. Chao, Jonathan and Julian, our ace electronics team, managed to get the car back on the road and nurse it through another few hours driving.

However, despite the determined effort of the electronics team, the problems did not subside and we were obliged to pull off the road again. This did not bode well for our 5pm deadline in Barrow Creek. We decided that we would attempt driving the car by remote cruise control as it seemed that the motor controller within the car was what was exacerbating the problems within the battery.

It was at that point that CUER had to make a decision. We were now going to have to trailer the car at some point, there was no way we would make Barrow Creek by 5pm but we were in with a chance of making Tennant Creek by 5pm. We were told that if we could reach Tennant Creek, we would be allowed to continue with solar power the following day to attempt to reach the next Control Point; or we could trailer on to attempt to catch up with the rest of the pack and then put Endeavour back on the road. We had to reassess our aims.

Endeavour can still be placed in the race even when trailering to catch up is a necessity; finish positions are measured according to how many solar kilometres you cover in total over the race regardless of the speed. We decided to drive using remote cruise control at the fastest possible speed in order to attempt to reach Tennant Creek in time, and cover as many kilometres as possible before end of race time at 5pm. This decision was a tough one to take because it severely decreases our chances of completing the race, but we decided that whilst there was a chance to stay in the race before trailering we should take it.

Driving using the remote cruise control was very successful for a while, we averaged 90kph and Endeavour was looking great. However, the problems with the batteries were not completely solved by this strategy and we had to pull over a few more times to deal with minor problems. As a result, we did not manage to reach Tennant Creek but we did make it to Attack Creek Rest Area which is 70 kilometres outside by the time it reached 5pm and we were forced to trailer in to Tennant.

We must now trailer to Alice Springs tomorrow to try and catch up with the rest of the pack before attempting to put Endeavour on the road again. We can attempt to reach a good finish position dictated by the kilometres we can cover under solar power alone. We still believe that we are in this race and the today’s problems will not dampen that determination.

The events of today may sound disappointing, but it is worth remembering that this is a first attempt at the GGC for Cambridge University Eco Racing and by no means the last. We may not be in the position that we wanted to be and that we are capable of being in, but we have covered almost 1000 kilometres under solar power alone and this is a huge achievement.

All members of the team have worked tirelessly to produce a car that runs as it was designed to do and this is exactly what it does, it is parts that are letting us done and not people. The hardware problems and the lessons we have learnt from them will be invaluable to the 2011 team. CUER have always been forward looking and whereas this year we aim to finish the race, in 2011 we aim to win it. It is experiences such as the ones we have had this year that will provide the tools and information that future teams need to finish first.

Endeavour makes good progress on the Stuart Highway. 26th October 2009. Credit: CUER

Day 2 of the Global Green Challenge has certainly had its ups and downs. We find ourselves tonight in the lap of luxury, in a real campsite at Dunmarra. We’ve had big problems today with our battery pack – unfortunately one of the worst parts to go wrong, since we generally can’t even use the array to charge the battery whilst any repairs are done. Time penalties are also imposed for replacing battery cells which we had no choice but to do. Chao, our battery guru, did an absolutely brilliant job of replacing the dead cells firstly, at dawn in the campsite, and then in the back of a broiling truck in the Outback. He succeeded in getting us back on the road and back in the race.

Even with a 2.5 hour stop to replace battery cells and the 36 minutes of time penalty that this involved, we still managed to cover 268km at an average speed of 53kph which is an increase of yesterday’s average of 49kph. This is a very good sign and it is only unfortunate that although the battery pack was functioning exactly as it was designed to do; it suffered from unforeseeable cell death.

We arrived this afternoon at Dunmarra Control Stop, an hour after it officially closed at 3pm and were obliged to stop the night here because of further time penalties relating to the battery, still 353km from the next Control Stop at Tennant Creek, which we must reach by 11am tomorrow.  According to race regulations, two missed control stops in a row would mean that we were obliged to trailer the car to catch up. We are confident that we can complete the race fully on solar power it we maintain a constant speed, if we have to rush to reach the Control Point tomorrow morning we would severely reduce this possibility. The aim of CUER throughout this process has been to finish the race, in the best position that we are capable of course, but ultimately to finish. After a discussion with the GGC officials they have agreed to count this Control Point (Dunmarra) as completed to recognise the fact that we are capable of completing the race and it is only due to a serious technical problem that we are not further along. Whilst we know that we will miss the Tennant Creek control stop tomorrow morning, we are confident that we can reach the afternoon Control Stop at Barrow Creek at 5pm close of play. If we do not reach this point, then we will have to trailer the car to catch up or withdraw from the race.

Tomorrow then, is the crunch point. Tomorrow is the day that we see whether the goal that we have all spent the last two years working towards is achievable. We still believe we can do it and there is nothing but determination amongst the team members to make this happen. Every effort is focused towards that final goal. If it should so happen that it does not work out tomorrow and that something prevents us from reaching Barrow Creek in time forcing us to trailer, then this has still been an incredible journey and an amazing experience. Cambridge University Eco Racing may not win the race, we may not even finish, but we are going to do our utmost to make that happen.

Photo by CUER, Stuart Highway near Katherine, 25/10/09

Day One has turned out to be an event full of eventful eventualities. The start itself was remarkably smooth and well-attended for a Sunday morning. Forty cars lined up gleaming for the last time. Forty teams did something remarkably similar. Small pcokets of national pride prevailed and as each car started off from Parliament Square (to the theme tune from ?)

While Endeavour trundled trustily towards Katherine at around 60kph, the scout vehicle and truck remained behind to do some last minute shopping, which then allowed them to beast it down the Stuart Highway to catch up to the convoy. We were all surprised to see so many solar cars at the side of the road, presumably stopping due to problems, so very early on – we spotted the Eclipse VI team stopped just outside of Darwin. It was a journey almost as exciting as that of Endeavour. We had no idea how far the convoy had travelled and who they had overtaken. For every solar car convoy we overtook, we felt a little bit of glee that Endeavour was ahead of another car. This glee rapidly turned to downright surprise as we passed both Bochum entries – SolarWorld No 1 and BoCruiser – with still no sign of Endeavour.

Eventually we caught up to the convoy travelling at a good speed, just outside of Katherine and finally the scout car was able to scout ahead of the convoy for the first time. It turns out that reporting on the weather patterns once the car has passed through an area isn’t immensely helpful.

As we reached the first control stop, the standings were as follows:

1. Tokai (JPN)

2. Umicore (BEL)

3. Michigan (USA)

4. Nuna5 (NDL)

5. Twente (NDL)

6. MIT (USA)

7. Principia (USA)

8. Stanford (USA)

9. Sunswift (AUS)

10. Nanyang (SIN)

11. Saguar (TUR)

12. Belenos (FRA)

13. Endeavour (GBR)

Leaving Katherine, we were not overtaken by any other teams, so our guess is that at the end of Day 1, we have jumped a phenomenal 7 places from 20th to 13th.

However, due to circumstances that we would rather not have happened, we soon jumped up another place. Today has been a day of extremely serious incidents. Both Aurora cars suffered tyre blowouts and electrical failures and had to be trailered to Katherine – not even making it to the first control stop. Michigan lost four tyres (although this in a controlled failure, and not all at once!), Nuna lost an MPPT, and, worst of all Umicore lost their car. A severe gust of wind blew them into a tree and destroyed UmiCar entirely. This placed Endeavour 12th in the field.

This series of incidents and the first day of travelling have suddenly brought it home to us just how tough this race is going to be. We have overcome all obstacles so far – from the Big Hill outside of Darwin (which some teams struggle to climb) to problems with the array that have led to a 45-minute stop at the roadside. We attempted to get one up on the road trains early by having a drag race against one at a traffic light. This turned out to be an epic fail.

Overtaking and being overtaken by other teams is difficult enough. A 35-minute trek at 40kph behind BoCruiser before we could safely overtake is a case in point, and there was an incident early on involving the Goko car, whose truck pulled out sharpy in front of Endeavour. The first road train to overtake the convoy was positively terrifying.

However, we survived our first WSC race day pretty much intact, and, although we lost a few team members along the way, we have reached our first campsite outside of Katherine with both a full complement of people and car parts. Expect great things…

After a successful day out on the track Endeavour has qualified for the Global Green Challenge 2009!

Only a flat tyre just before our brake test prevented us from getting through in one go, but one quick change later and we were given our start time of 8:15am from State Square, Darwn tomorrow morning. It was a great experience to be out in the pits at the Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin with all the other teams with some of them looking very competitive indeed around the track. Aurora and Nuon fighting it out for fastest lap time with Aurora beating Nuon’s lap time of 2min 2secs by a significant margin. We were perhaps not the fastest at 3mins 40secs so let us be thankful that it is a stamina race! It was really exciting to see all the teams out on the track and there was a gre at sense of team spirit and sportsmanship, and only a little healthy competition!

The team are all really looking forward to setting off down the Stuart Highway and starting on our epic 3000km journey across the Outback tomorrow. It has been a long time coming in preparation and a great deal of hard work has gone into getting us this far so tomorrow will be a very exciting day for us all.

Look out for our first live race report tomorrow after Day 1 out on ‘the track’.

A quick report to test out our satellite internet connection. Six hours until qualifying begins!

With the start of the Global Green Challenge just a few days away, this morning marked Endeavour’s first test: scrutineering. Race officials checked over every minute detail of the car, to check that we had complied with all the regulations. Endeavour passed with (mostly) flying colours – great work by the technical team, all those hours pouring over the rule book paid off!

There was excitement during the driver ingress/egress tests. Each of our four drivers had to demonstrate that they could get in and out of the car unassisted in under 15 seconds. Unfortunately, Mike’s bleeding shins were rather obvious proof that the front edge of the cockpit needed some sharp edges removing, but once this had been fixed Endeavour met all the organisers’ requirements. There was some disappointment too, however, when we found out that we were not going to be able to run using Dunlop’s specialised Solarmax tyres. Tests over the last few days have shown us the potential huge improvement in performance that these tyres could give, but it appears that our wheel rims are slightly too large.

It was great to see some of the other cars at the showground today. The Umicore car is looking impressive, as are the Principia and Sakarya University cars. Also fantastic to see Bochum’s BoCruiser and Leeming High School’s two-seater – makes a nice change from the Nuna-esque designs!

Chris finally meets his match: a giant Cathedral Termite mound in Litchfield National Park

Hi all! Time for another non-work-related blog post from me.  This one is about the “adventure days” that CUER have had whilst in Darwin.  I personally have had three great days off, though not all in a row, don’t worry.

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