RP solar car team heads off to Australia

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

FOR the next seven days, Team Sinag will be doing final checks and testing on the country’s first solar-powered vehicle that will be an entry to the upcoming World Solar Challenge from October 21 to 28.

The 15-man team composed of students from the De La Salle University flew last Friday night to Australia to compete in the biennial event. Being their first time to compete in such a prestigious international contest, they feel the pressure of performing well. However, they remain confident and relaxed and are hopeful that their car, aptly christened “Sinag” (Filipino for “sunlight”), will be able to survive the trip from Darwin to Adelaide, a grueling 3,000-kilometer run under Australia’s hot sun.

In an interview, Sinag team leader Robert Obiles said the team will immediately make final preparations upon reaching Australia. It will include more tweaks on the car as well as a test run to ensure that the car will be running smoothly all throughout the trip.

Obiles said they have already tested the car on local roads, particularly in Pasay City’s Macapagal Avenue and in Batangas’ Star Toll. “So far, everything is running smoothly. We’ll be making more calculations to ensure maximum performance of the car and to draw up a strategy.”

Noteworthy is Australia’s climate, which could be extremes during winter and summer. For example, Darwin’s temperature around this time could reach as high as 33 degrees Celsius and 25 degrees Celsius at night. Luckily, Adelaide has a more comfortable weather with temperatures reaching a maximum of 21 degrees Celsius to as low as 11 degrees Celsius.

“We were told that Australia’s in their spring season and the temperature is almost the same as in the Philippines so we’ll be able to adjust there easily,” Obiles said.

The WSC is both a trial for the drivers and the cars. Under the rules of the contest, each team should have at least two main drivers and another pair of back-up drivers. Each driver would have to drive nine hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There would be several checkpoints where racers can stop for a minimum of 30 minutes for rest and maintenance but strictly no repairs. Batteries cannot be replaced during these checkpoints but in case of a breakdown, batteries may be replaced but at cost of time penalty.

Not surprisingly, the vehicles will not have airconditioning units and drivers may have to rely on the momentum of the cars to receive wind to cool them down. Orbiles said they put a few holes in the body of Sinag so that air will flow through though these should be minimized to reduce drag on the car that could slow it down.

Orbiles and teammate Sherwin To will be the two back-up drivers for the competition while the primary drivers will be Ivan Porcalla and Eric Tan.

The rest of the team are Rene Fernandez, Jack Catalan, Isidro Marfori, Emmanuel Gonzales, Noriel Mallari, Prince Ang, Mico Villena, Martin Sy-Quia, Vincent Yao, Kaiser Fernandez and Walter Chua.

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