In a few short months, a team of University of Toronto students will pack their solar-powered car into a crate and ship it to Australia for the race of a lifetime.
The World Solar Challenge is an intense solar-vehicle race across the Australian outback. Competitors from over 30 nations speed from Darwin to Adelaide, harnessing the power of the sun by day and camping in the desert at night.
In 2017, the U of T team had a tough trip, pushing through the some of the worst storms to hit the region in 20 years. Despite cloudy/rainy/windy conditions, the car reached speeds of 105 km/h and finished 11th worldwide, #1 in Canada.
Today, you can watch the new team prepare for Australia on Instagram or their blog. They’re redesigning and rebuilding the car, hoping to win the world title in 2019.
We at Artik are proud to work with this incredible team every year, printing t-shirts for their uniforms and cheering them on along the way.
Our team has been through laughter, tears, and countless all-nighters. With many new races to look forward to, several members have taken the initiative to get the ball rolling and gather together a whole new group of ambitious individuals for a new adventure. As for the alumni who are graduating or leaving the team, well… the team never leaves them. Together, we are and will always be the Blue Sky family!
Twenty-two years of solar car evolution:
As Blue Sky Solar Racing’s first project, Blue Sky Project served as an experimental effort for the team to learn more about the production of solar vehicles. The vehicle was designed as a single-seated four-wheeler with a weight of 850 lbs. The project was completed in 1997 and was immediately put to test at the Florida SunDay Challenge 1997. The vehicle achieved extremely encouraging results for the rookie team and created a solid foundation and strong motivation for the team to continue developing solar vehicles.
Upon the success of the Blue Sky Project, Blue Sky Solar Racing decided to immediately begin production of an improved solar vehicle – Blue II. With a much greater power output than the Blue Sky Project, Blue II was capable of achieving a top speed of 110 km/h and it was as a key milestone in the technical development of the team. Blue II was completed in 1999 and competed in SunRayce ’99. After the vehicle was decommissioned, it served for several years as the main display in the team’s community education events in recognition of its milestone achievements.
Faust
After learning from the experiences of their previous experimental vehicles, Blue Sky Solar Racing was prepared to make a splash on the international stage. In the design of their third generation vehicle – Faust – the team focused on several key concepts to produce a solar vehicle that was competitive in international competitions; mainly, to minimize drag and weight. This led to several drastic departures in their design traditions. First of all, in contrast to Blue II, Faust was designed as a three-wheeler to minimize rolling resistance and decrease the overall weight of the vehicle. Secondly, the chassis for Faust was made of an extremely lightweight hollow tube aluminum space frame which decreased the overall weight of the vehicle to only 440 lbs, nearly half of the weight of Blue II. These departures in design lead to vast performance improvements which made it possible for the vehicle to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Construction Faust was completed in 2001 and it participated in two competitions in the same year.
Faust II
Looking to improve upon the success of Faust, its successor – Faust II – aimed primarily to strengthen the build of the body and reduce weight, thus allowing it to achieve faster speeds. Learning from the damage that the grueling road conditions in the American Solar Challenge 2001 brought to Faust, the team fitted Faust II with a composite fiber cloth body which made it extremely durable while also reducing the vehicle’s body weight by 40 lbs. Several other improvements were also made to the battery and motor of the vehicle. Production of Faust II was completed in 2003 and it participated in the American Solar Challenge 2003.
Cerulean
While in the production phase of Faust II, Blue Sky Solar Racing began design on their fifth generation vehicle – Cerulean. Unlike its predecessors, Cerulean was designed as a double-seater vehicle; this allowed the team challenge themselves by attempting a new solar vehicle design with entirely different specifications and constraints.
As a double-seater vehicle, the team was allowed to double the solar array output to 2300W and the motor power output to 13.4 hp. The team was also capable of keeping the vehicle lightweight by constructing a chassis from carbon board rails, thus minimizing the weight at 500 lbs. Despite being their first attempt at constructing a double-seater solar vehicle, Cerulean proved to be their most successful vehicle to date. With construction complete in 2007, Cerulean participated in the World Solar Challenge 2007 and placed 5th in its class, ranking it the highest amongst all Canadian teams.
Blue Sky Solar Racing’s sixth generation vehicle, Azure, placed 24th in the World Solar Challenge 2011, in the Challenger Class. The design of the vehicle was guided by three requirements: The vehicle must be able to achieve high speeds yet have low power consumption, exhibit great stability at high speeds yet have a low drag value, and have a great safety margin in critical components yet remain lightweight. The vehicle was officially unveiled on August 6, 2011.
On July 28th, 2013, Blue Sky Solar unveiled its seventh generation vehicle, B-7. The car features a five-fairing design. B-7 placed 8th in the World Solar Challenge 2013, 2nd among North American teams, and first among Canadian teams, in the Challenger class.
Horizon was unveiled to the world on August 7th 2015 as the Blue Sky Solar Racing team’s 8th generation car. This was the first generation to move the driving compartment to one side to maximize effiencey. The car competed in Australia for the 2015 World Solar Challenge where it placed 12th overall, 3rd in North America. In 2016 the team brought the car to the American Solar Challenge where they placed 3rd overall and 1st in Canada.
Horizon was unveiled to the world on August 7th 2015 as the Blue Sky Solar Racing team’s 8th generation car. This was the first generation to move the driving compartment to one side to maximize effiencey. The car competed in Australia for the 2015 World Solar Challenge where it placed 12th overall, 3rd in North America. In 2016 the team brought the car to the American Solar Challenge where they placed 3rd overall and 1st in Canada.
On October 8th the World Solar Challenge officially began. We started on our 3021 km journey down the Stuart Highway in 6th place with strong sunlight and clear skies ahead.
On Day 3, the team ran into trouble when we encountered heavy cloud cover, forcing the car to reduce speed. Due to this weather, many other teams were forced to stop their race, so we had to carefully optimize our battery usage in order to continue competing.
After a rainy night, we were woken up early on Day 4 by severe winds and thunderstorms. While the storm was certainly unexpected in the Outback, fortunately we were well prepared, and managed to pack everything up quickly. By Day 5 we reached clear skies again and were able to finish the day in 8th place. On Day 6, Polaris reached its top speed of 105km/h but encountered some very strong headwinds, forcing the team to finish the day just 150km outside of Adelaide.
On the morning of Day 7, we arrived in Adelaide in 11th place! We had completed the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, traversing 300km in some of the worst storms the region had seen in 20 years.
Designing the team’s new embroidered uniforms
This year, Blue Sky Solar Racing designed an alternate version of their uniforms from the bright blue screen-printed shirts to darker embroidered polos. The secondary uniforms are more serious polo shirts that say “we’re here to win.”
“The polos were meant as a business look that we use at events and publications before the next race,” explained Project Manager Hubaab Hussain. These secondary embroidered golf shirt uniforms encourage sponsors (and competitors) to take the team seriously.
We love that the team keeps elements of their brand consistent while changing things up with new creative uniforms each year.
Annual Redesign
Many student groups order freshly designed t-shirts, polos and hoodies annually. Wouldn’t it be easier to keep wearing the same uniforms? Yes, but there are some advantages to redesigning:
New students can represent their year and keep their uniforms as keepsakes
Redesigning uniforms allows the new team to express their unique identity
New sponsors and updated event info can be printed on the new uniforms
We enjoy seeing Blue Sky Solar Racing come back each year with new plans, new team members and a passion to drive across Australia in pursuit of the sun.
Watch the race!
Check out this documentary to see their car in action:
More info from the team’s website: “University of Toronto Blue Sky Solar Racing is an undergraduate design team that designs, builds and races solar powered vehicles. The team has existed for over 22 years, building 9 solar cars in this time and a 10th one is being built currently.
We aim to compete in the bi-annual Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a 3,000 km endurance race across the Australian Outback. This competition provides the perfect proving ground for the team’s latest designs.
The team reaches many undergraduate programmes including those from the Faculties of Engineering, Arts and Science and Business. When students join the Blue Sky team, in addition to joining one of Canada’s top design teams, they are taught industry standard practices and develop skills they will use when they go into their chosen careers.
We are proud members of our university community and are excited to help cultivate the next generation of innovators.”
Good luck this year! We’ll be rooting for you 🙂
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