ALL GO FOR 2009 GLOBAL GREEN CHALLENGE
Men, women and machines from all corners of the globe have assembled in Darwin in advance of the 2009 Global Green Challenge that is to commence on October 24.
ECO CHALLENGE
The event that is an evolution of the legendary World Solar Challenge has been expanded to include production and prototype eco friendly vehicles that are, or soon will be available to car buying public.
Starting from the NT’s Parliament House in Darwin on Saturday October 24, the Eco Challenge ‘fleet’ will consist of seventeen entries with a diversity of technology in respect of fuel efficient, low emission solutions.
Head lining the Eco Challenge entry list is the world’s fastest all electric sports car the Tesla to be driven by Simon Hackett the founder of internet service provider Internode, together with Kym Cleggett
At the other end of the range the mass circulation auto magazine Top Gear Australia has entered a Honda ‘postie bike’ running on alcohol fuel to be ridden by James Stanford
The world’s major car manufacturers are well represented with multiple entries from Ford, Kia, Hyundai, and BMW Mini.
Holden, Skoda, and Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) have single car entries, while Deep Green Research has entered an electric Honda, with Annesley College from Adelaide contesting the event in a modified Holden Viva.
BMW Mini has entered three vehicles with drivers including Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan, ABC motoring commentator Will Hagon, and motoring writer Bob Jennings together with V8 Touring Car racer Chris Smerdon, Andy Ford, Jaedene Hudson, and Toni Andreevski.
Motoring writer Peter McKay will be behind the wheel of Ford’s Fiesta Econetic with Carolyn Barry from gmagazine.com. The second Ford entry is a Falcon XR6T driven by motoring writer Damien Smy and Russel Christophers.
The Suzuki Alto entry is to be steered by Carsguide’s Karla Pincott and writer Feann Torr. Karla Pincott will also swap manufacturers to drive sections in a Hyundai Sante Fe.
Skoda Australia has Petra Beneda and Jenny Wu in the Superb model.
Holden have entered its Sportwagon 3.0 SIDI nominating drivers Andrea Matthews, motoring writer Scott Heyward, and Simon Cassin.
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Kia has entered two Sorento models with the crew comprising of rally drivers Brendan Reeves and Glen Raymond, Geoff Forshaw and Anthony Caldwell.
Hyundai Australia has entered two Sante Fe models and has headed up the driver team with rally champion Ed Ordynski together with Motoring Editor Keith Didham, motoring writer John Cadogen and Chris Riley.
Another exciting entry is from Holden Special Vehicles with its Maloo Ute to be driven by writer Joshua Dowling, and Gary Bechet.
The Annesley College team of students has nominated drivers Courtney Branningan and Della Hannaford.
Kaz Nogita and Ben Guymer will be doing driving duties for the Deep Green Research Honda Civic.
Eco Challenge entries in the 2010 Global Green Challenge will be testing the environmentally friendly aspects of their vehicles in relation to fuel/energy consumption and emissions against the vehicles stated Australian Design Regulation figures.
Eco Challenge vehicles will undertake an ‘urban’ cycle in Darwin before setting off on the 3,000 kilometre journey to Adelaide. A further urban cycle will be conducted in Adelaide as part of the event.
The vehicle will compete in stages with overnight stops along the route as listed below.
Darwin - Start Saturday October 24
Katherine – Overnight Saturday October 24
Tennant Creek – Overnight Sunday October 25
Alice Springs – Overnight Monday October 26
Cooper Pedy – Overnight Tuesday October 27
Port Augusta – Overnight Wednesday October 28
Adelaide – Overnight Thursday October 29
Adelaide – Urban cycle Friday October 30
Adelaide – Carsguide.com.au Global Green Challenge Awards Ceremony Saturday October 31 (Adelaide Convention Centre 6.30pm – invitation only)
WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE
The solar vehicles competing in this year’s Global Green Challenge number 35 from 15 countries.
Twenty eight of the entries are running in the Challenge class for outright honours while seven are listed in the Adventure class for earlier model vehicles built for any previous ISF (International Solarcar Federation) events.
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The big question is: Can the Netherland’s Nuon Solar Team with its new car Nuna5 achieve another victory in 2009?
Consecutive victories by the Dutch team in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007 for the event that is held every two years would appear to make them the firm favourites, but not only will they be contesting the odds, they have already been put under extreme pressure before the event begins.
A testing accident in Darwin saw the car badly damaged and the race against time has been to rebuild Nuna5 before the start.
Strong performances can be expected from the University of Michigan (USA) with its vehicle Infinium, the Belgium entry from Umicore Solar Team with Umicar Inspite, the UK’s Cambridge university entry Endeavour, Germany’s HS Bochum BoCruiser and another Dutch outfit Solar Team Twente with its car Twente Two.
The Swiss Heliox team with Heliox II could also be strong.
Aurora Vehicle Association with Aurora 101 from Australia can never be discounted given their impressive results in previous events.
First in 1999, second place in 2001, 2003, and 2005 and a third in 200y7 speaks for itself.
Keeping with the Aussie participation there is also Willeton SHS running Solar Flair from Western Australia, UNSW with Sunswift IV, and the TAFE SA entry Solar Spirit in the Challenge class.
Special mention must also be given to Kormilda College from Darwin in the Northern Territory with Towards Tomorrow and Energy Education Australia’s entry from South Australia, Kelly.
As for picking a winner Event Director Chris Selwood says ‘it’s a difficult task’.
‘We won’t really see the technology and ingenuity until the cars are scrutineered in Darwin and a lot of things can happen on the journey south’.
The record for the World Solar Cars Challenge was set during the 2005 event by Nuon Nuna III (Netherland) with an average speed of 102.75kkph
In the last event (2007) Nuon Nuna 4 won the event with an average speed of 90.87 kph BUT IT MUST BE NOTED RULE CHANGES REDUCED THE SOLAR ARRAY BY 25%.
The World Solar Car competition sees the vehicles compete over the 3,000 kilometre journey with cars only able to travel in prescribed time periods.
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On day one from Darwin the World Solar Cars will run from 8.30am to 5.30pm and on all other days will compete from 8am until 5pm. Solar cars must ‘camp’ on the roadside where-ever they finish at the cut-off time for each day and commence from that point next morning.
There is a series of controls for solar cars where the vehicles must stop for 30 minutes. These control stops are at Katherine, Dunmarra, Tennant Creek, Barrow Creek, Alice Springs, Kulgara, Cooper Pedy, Glendambo and Port Augusta.
The actual (timed) finish is north of the Adelaide CBD and solar vehicles will parade into the city for the ceremonial finish in Victoria Square.
For further information contact:
Mike Drewer Publicity Manager Global Green Challenge
Mobile: 0419 273 333
Email:
m.drewer@bigpond.com
Visit the event web site
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