By most engine-powered automotive standards, a car than can run
88.8 km/h (55.2 mph) is best described as a snail trapped in an
enormous steel chassis. That’s how far technology has come in
today’s world with supercars capable of running over 250 mph on
a good day. But if you take away a car’s engine - the heart and
soul of any vehicle – then you’re pretty much stuck with a car
that can only go as fast as how hard you push it. That is,
unless you rely on another understated energy source, one that,
ironically, is the most powerful form of energy in the universe:
the sun. Over the past few years, numerous people have built
solar-powered cars with the intention of setting the land-speed
record for such a vehicle. Entering the year, the world record
for the fastest solar-powered car belonged to the General Motors
Sunraycer, a car that clocked in a top speed of 79 km/h while
being powered by silicon solar cells back in 1988. Two weeks
into 2011, a team from the University of New South Wales in
Australia broke the