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Event Summaries

SUMMARY of the 2008, VICTORIAN MODEL SOLAR VEHICLE CHALLENGE by Paul Wellington

Sponsored by:

Monash University, Faculty of Engineering, Scienceworks, Engineers Australia.

The 19th Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge was held at Scienceworks on October
18th and 19th, 2008. Forty four student designed Cars, 28 Advanced Boats, 109 Junior
Boats (51 from regional schools & 58 from metropolitan schools) and 32 Sheridan event
kit cars were entered from 59 schools along with 2 non-school entries. A feature of this
year’s event was the exhibition of Aurora, Victoria’s entry in the World Solar Challenge
which came third behind the ultra expensive Dutch car, Nuna 4 with an average speed of
over 85 kph all the way from Darwin to Adelaide.

Saturday afternoon was hot and sunny after a cloudy morning, enabling the student
designed cars to set fast times in the last 2 round robin races, with a fastest time of 18.6
seconds for the 100 metre distance being set with 80% of full sun by Box Hill High
School’s NFG.

The Junior Metropolitan boats raced in the Saturday afternoon sunshine, and set fast
times. Two pools were used for the round robin and the first knockout rounds, before the
top boats from the 2 groups raced off. Birmingham PS almost scooped the pool with three
of their boats, “The Dark Knight, The Daring Devils and Electric Angels” finishing first,
second and third respectively, with “Totally Technical” from Springview PS coming 4th.
However, Sunday proved to be a very cloudy day with 40% solar energy being the
maximum available. Accordingly, times for both cars and boats were much slower than
the Saturday.

The Junior boats from regional schools saw a number of new and very small schools
make a strong impact. Four boats from a regional event held in September at
Bannockburn PS provided formidable opposition to entries from Geelong College and the
one teacher Boorhaman PS (near Wangaratta). The catamaran from Newlyn PS was the
first boat driven by an air propeller ever to reach the last 6. However, the final saw
“Lethbridge 1” from Lethbridge PS come first, “Legends” from Bannockburn PS come
second and “Phar Lap” from Boorhaman come third. The top 6 boats from the
metropolitan section were invited to return on the Sunday and the metropolitan boats
proved just a bit too good for the regional boats with “The Dark Night, Electric Angels
and Daring Devils”, all from Birmingham coming first, third and fourth with
“Prestissimo” from Ruskin Park PS coming second.

The Advanced Boat race was also held on Sunday with “Black Magic and Highwind(2)”
from Benalla SC coming first and second with a non-school team, the 1st Red Hill Scout
group entering “Gunshot” which came third and “Foop”, again from Benalla coming 4th.
The early rounds for the Sheridan event for Kit Cars was held as a pursuit, with cars
starting on opposite sides of an oval track, with the faster cars catching the slower ones.
Unfortunately they had to resort to battery power when the very low sun levels were too
low for meaningful performance as these cars have small solar panels and no electronic
controllers. However “TEP” from Glenferrie PS proved too good for “Little Miss
Sunshine” from Camberwell PS, with third place going to “Blur” from Camberwell with
“Burnanator” from Elwood SC coming 4th.

With some cars unable to start on the Sunday, 6 cars were automatically given byes in the
first knockout round, leaving the remaining 20 cars to battle for the 10 remaining places
in round 2. The gloomy conditions saw a number of entries unable to climb the hill, and
even the fastest cars were taking well over 20 seconds to reach the finish line.
Four cars, two from Box Hill HS, and 1 from Syndal South PS and Melbourne HS
defeated “Fab Go Go Mobile” and “NFG” from Box Hill, “Ethereal” from Genazzano
FCJ College, and “Red” from Geelong Grammar. In the 2 lap semi-finals “My Little
Pony” from Box Hill HS beat its stablemate “NOBN” in the first semi-final with “Velox”
from Melbourne HS defeating “Catch Me If You Can” from Syndal South PS in the
second. These top cars were able to climb the hill and complete the 186metre, 2 lap
journey in under 50 seconds, even with solar intensity under 40%.
In addition to the main prizes, a range of discretionary prizes were awarded for best
uniforms, team work etc. which are all separately listed under the Results drop down
menu on the site www.modelsolar-vic.net.

Victoria sent 7 cars, 4 advanced boats and 6 junior boats to the national finals held in
Hobart on November 22nd and 23rd, with the wildcard car “NFG” from Box Hill HS
winning with “Velox” from Melbourne HS coming second. This was the first year a
Victorian car had won, although an earlier iteration of Velox had come 2nd in 2007.
“Daring Devils” from Birmingham won the junior Boat Race with Benalla College’s
“Black Magic” winning the Advanced Boat race.

All in all, it was a very good year for Model Solar Car and Boat racing in Victoria.
 

THE 2007 VICTORIAN MODEL SOLAR VEHICLE CHALLENGE 

Paul Wellington, Chair VMSVC

 The 18th Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge. was held at Scienceworks on the weekend of Saturday October 20th and 21st, 2007.

However, the advanced boat event was run in conjunction with SEES (Social, Environmental, Economic, Sustainability) at Albert Park on September 15th. Sees has run manned and radio controlled solar boat competitions in Sydney for several years and decided to hold a similar event in Victoria, with our “wire guided” event as an option for year 7 to 9 students. Thirty two boats competed with multiple round robin heats in the morning providing information to be used in the seeding for the afternoon knockout event. Benalla Secondary College’s The Lance and SS Smurf finished first and second ahead of Billanook SC’s The Bomber and Wesley College’s Hydro Bullet. A lovely sunny day and the delightful venue made for a most enjoyable event. Benalla, Billanook and Wesley were joined by newcomer, Blackburn SC in sharing the discretionary prizes.

In 2006, the junior boat race for primary school students, had attracted 163 boats and almost exceeded the capacity of the 2 pools erected at Scienceworks, so it was decided to hold junior event over 2 days – the 83 entries from metropolitan schools competed on the Saturday and 43 rural and regional boats raced on Sunday the 21st. The top 4 Metropolitan schools returned on Sunday afternoon to race the top regional schools for the state titles and the chance to travel to Adelaide for the national finals. Clover, Ruskin Devil, Misile and YW1 from Birmingham, Ruskin Park, Birmingham and Yarraville West Primary Schools respectively were the top placed boats in the metropolitan event with Bannockburn’s Storm and Bad Boys first and second regional boats with Boorhaman’s Phoenix third and Geelong College’s EET fourth. The state finals saw the metropolitan boats perform brilliantly despite cloudy weather to take out the first 4 places, but under the different solar intensity, Misile was the winner from Ruskin Devil, followed by YW1 and Clover. Discretionary prizes went to Ruskin Park, Spensley St PS, Springview PS, Bell PS, New Gisborne PS, Romsey PS, Meeniyan PS, Ballarat Christian Coll. and Tarwin Valley PS. Special commendations were also awarded to Syndal South PS, Leongatha PS, Spensley St. PS, Bannockburn PS, Tarwin Valley PS, Trinity College, Flemington PS, Croydon Hills PS, Bannockburn PS.

The Mars rover demonstration event was held at the lunch break on Sunday 21st with 11 cars competing. This is the one event not confined to school students but has attracted interest from teachers, university students, most notably the University of the Third Age and committee members. The track involves sand, pebbles, “cattle grids” and a pool, so reliability, stability and low speed torque are needed rather than speed.

The Sheridan kit car competition has continued to grow over recent years from 12 in 2005 to 31 cars in 2007. The modestly priced kits can be constructed in one day but the good teams then spend a number of free periods trialling their cars to get the best possible performance from them. Thunderbolt from the Maroondah Cluster was the winner, with Black Bullet from Camberwell PS second, Cheeta from Canterbury PS third and Backlash from Benalla SC fourth.

Well over 100 kits went to schools throughout Victoria and to Queensland, Tasmania and the UK and even more are likely to be in demand in 2008..

The main car event saw 55 entries, a couple more than in 2006. Stitch Face from Box Hill HS’s all girls team was just too good for Velox from the Evil Chicken Racing team (a student formerly from Syndal South PS) with Blue Torp (Box Hill) third and Gyrone from Mentone Grammar fourth. The discretionary prizes were won by Glen Eira SC, Gennazano FCJ Convent, Box Hill HS, Syndal South PS, Collingwood College and Trinity College.

The student enthusiasm continues unabated and it is likely that even more students will have the chance to participate at the 19th VMSVC at Scienceworks on October 18th and 19th 2008.
 





























© Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge 2008