The boys and girls at University of New South Wales recently
“smashed” the world solar car speed record, reaching speed of
more than 54 mph on January 7, 2011. The Sunswift IV was speed
tested at the HMAS Albatross navy airstrip in Nowra, Australia,
and officially entered the Guinness World Record book for the
fastest speed attained by a Solar-Powered Land Vehicle, beating
the old record of about 49 mph. Green resources report that the
milestone is for cars powered exclusively by silicon solar
cells. “We broke the record at 10.32 AM (on January 7),” said
Sunswift project manager Daniel Friedman. “The Guinness World
Book of Records adjudicators were on hand, so it’s all official.
We’ve even been handed our certificate.” Friedman seemed
surprised that they were able to break the record so early in
the morning. “We were expecting to get our peak sun at noon, so
the fact we broke the record so early was a great result.”
Designed, built and normally captained by UNSW students, for the
record breaking attempt UNSW