Benz World Blog » Road

Final Parade

Jason Benz — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 05:13:54 +0000

This is the Cambridge University Eco Racing teams car, Helia, leaving the centre of Adelaide a few moments ago for the final parade of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. It has been an epic race of 3000km from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia. It has been an honour to share the road with these amazing solar-powered cars and to meet the teams along the way. Their engineering and imagination have been awe-inspiring.

I will be continuing my journey east to the Blue Mountains but not before I have caught up on a week of sleep.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Editorial Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Hover Car

Jason Benz — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 11:01:49 +0000

This beautiful machine which appears to hover is called Violet, A solar powered cruiser from the Sunswift team, based at the University of New South Wales. The Cruiser class of vehicles have much more variety in design than the speedy Challenger class which are generally either asymmetric catamarans of mono hulled bullets.

I photographed this solar car earlier today leaving the Glendambo control stop, which is the 8th of 9 compulsory half-hour stops between Darwin an Adelaide on the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

Tomorrow they will be the first Cruiser to cross finish line. However, the first Challenger already crossed the line today in a time of 34 hours, 52 minutes, 42 seconds. Less than 3 minutes separated the two lead cars during the final leg when the reigning champions caught fire leaving Belgiums BluePoint to claim their first title.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Editorial Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Solar Swedes

Jason Benz — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:42:18 +0000

In what is becoming a common sight on the Stuart Highway in Australia, teams in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge tilt their solar panels towards the sun to get the last few drops of energy into the batteries ahead of tomorrow’s day of racing. This is Jonkoping University Solar Team with their solar car Axelent. They are the only Swedish team left in the race from the four that started. They are hoping to improve on the 8th place they achieved in the last race. Behind them is the Japanese team Nitech Solar Racing with their car Horizon Ace who also just passed the halfway point south of Alice Springs at the end of the 3rd day of racing.

Tomorrow I will pass the turnoff to Uluru (ayers rock). Along with the Sydney Opera House it cannot be used for commercial stock photography. However, it is currently a newsworthy event which qualifies it as editorial photography. The reason is, in 11 days the rock will be closed to climbers permanently. As the deadline approaches the number of climbers has increased dramatically. This has resulted in even more visitors relieving themselves on what is a sacred site to the traditional owners (the Anangu people). It would be difficult to fit in a 525km detour in the middle of a race, so visiting Ularu will have to wait until it is not crawling with bogans.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Editorial Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Champion Cruisers

Jason Benz — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 06:51:13 +0000

This is Stella Era from Solar Team Eindhoven who are the reigning champions in the Cruiser Class of solar cars in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Unlike the Challenger Class, which is all about speed. The Cruiser Class provides a platform where ideas can be tested for their practicality and commercialisation. This car, for example, not only seats 4 people, the battery has a 1800km range, and it can sense if it is parked in the shade and automatically move itself into the sun to charge. Despite its size, this is no slow coach, It currently leads the Cruisers and many of the Challengers too.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Editorial Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Race Begins

Jason Benz — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 11:09:14 +0000

Today saw the start of the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. After a discussion with the Benz World Blog readership, and given my van is older than most of the contestants, I decided to get a head start. I left Darwin 30min before the start and 15mins down the road. It was just enough to spread out the field and support cars. 1 hour and 80km from the start I was overtaken by my first solar car, BluePoint from Belgium closely followed by RED E from the Netherlands. This is exactly as they appeared in the prophetic Track Testing post. Next was Top Dutch Solar who started in pole position. Then this car from Kogakuin University Solar Team with their car KUTE Eagle. Their car, whose shape is based on the beak of a bird also has a unique air-oil suspension. Unlike most teams who have prioritised aerodynamics over power, this Japanese team have built a tilting panel which can maximise the power from the sun. Unfortunately, their motor blow out just after the first control stop in Katherine giving them 1hr of roadside repairs. In what must be one of the races outstanding performances they rejoined the top quarter of the field at the second control stop in Daly Waters with 2 minutes to spare.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Editorial Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Line Up

Jason Benz — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 07:56:45 +0000

These are the competitors for the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. I spent the day watching teams complete their hot lap to secure their place on the start line tomorrow. Debutante team Top Dutch Solar Racing (on far left) got pole position with their car Green Lighting in a time of 1:51:99 (92.3km/h)

I had been trying to get a photo of the Cambridge University solar car all week. The hot lap would be my best chance so far. Unfortunately, they ran out of time and could not record a lap. Hopefully, the race will go better for them as they are yet to finish a Solar Challenge.

I was surprised not to see more UK university teams as the challenge is perfectly suited to any engineering department. Especially as the development of this technology is essential if humans wish to continue living on this planet. My own experience studying engineering in UK did find some of the lectures had a Brunellian approach to all design. This is fine if you are making bridges from cast iron but of no use when it comes to lightweight efficient designs. Fortunately, the rest of the world has stepped up to the challenge with teams from Thailand, Chile, Poland and Morocco. Japan even has a high school team.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Editorial Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Track Testing

Jason Benz — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 08:46:05 +0000

This is BluePoint from Belgium at the Hidden Valley test track for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The Agoria Solar Team, designed and produced their own solar panel for the event and hired professional Nascar driver, Bert Longin to take the wheel.

Behind their car is RED E from the Netherlands who have the smallest car at the event. The Solar Team Twente have decided to use a shingled GaAs solar panel.

The event attracts designs with all the variety of the Wacky Races. However, at the top end of the hyper-efficient Challenger Class the shape of the solar cars show a degree at convergence as an asymmetric catamaran style with a single powered wheel under the driver proves to be consistently hard design to beat.

The Dynamic Scrutineering starts on the 12th October before the race starts on the 13th.

UPDATE: BluePoint went on to win the race in 2019

Open Road

Jason Benz — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 13:50:55 +0000

I am finally back on the road again after a prolonged wait in the Blue Mountains for my bike to clear customs following its journey from the UK. While the welcome has been warm the weather was not. There has even been snow a few times. I will start by going North to find temperatures more suited to #vanlife. After finding some suitable remote spot to photograph the Milky Way during the winter solstice I will go west into channel country where I hope to see a natural event which only happens a couple of times every 100 years.

You may have heard some parts of Australia are experiencing drought. Describing this as a natural disaster is not entirely accurate. The amount of rainfall which qualifies as a drought today would not be in the days before large scale agriculture and industry started taking huge quantities of water from the river system. The difference in the supply and demand for water is both an economic and environmental problem.

The 2018/2019 drought is mainly in the heavily used Murray-Darling basin. It is over 1 million square kilometres and covers most of New South Wales, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory and parts of Queensland and South Australia. Its proximity to all the population centres results in its intense management becoming highly politicized and the rivers have suffered.

By contrast, the mostly desert Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre basin is an untamed natural river system and one of the world’s largest internally draining ones. It covers about 1.2 million square kilometres in Queensland, South Australia, The Northern Territory and a little bit of New South Wales. Instead of flowing to the ocean it drains to Australias lowest point, a lake 15 meters below sea level. This year the lake is set to fill for the first time since I was born attracting wildlife from the whole continent. I hope to see this on my journey west.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Outback Road

Jason Benz — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 06:30:29 +0000

Outback driving is a unique experience. Even the main roads have so little traffic, passing motorists wave to each other to acknowledge the existence of other humans in the vast hot dry expanse. If you saw anyone outside here they would need the fortitude of a Mars colonist. The main ecosystem is that of the Raptor>Roo>Road-train. The latter being a large truck with typically 3-4 trailers over 50 meters long which buffet you to the sound of a Tie fighter as they pass.

They are essential for turning kangaroos into regular piles of cooking meat on the asphalt for the raptors. There are more roos in Australia than at any point in its history. This is because the cattle stations out here are the size of European countries and manage the land in a way that is good for cows and roos. They graze together as no one is crazy enough to build a roo-proof fence after the failed rabbit-proof fence of 1901.

Unlike the roos, the raptors have adapted well to the roads. As you approach they leave it to the last seconds before taking flight after which you are engulfed in a cloud of wings and claws. Except for the mighty wedge-tailed eagles who just stare at you as you drive around them. All the birds seem to have mastered the road which cannot be said for the roos who seem to defy natural selection by failing to evolve any road sense at all.

Unusually the humans are the only part of this system which is under threat as self-driving vehicles are likely to replace people long before roos learn to cross the road.

I have not hit any roos in my van yet by avoiding evening and night driving and being in one of the slowest vehicles. I will be returning to the Gold Coast to pick up some mail before a house-warming in the Blue Mountains in December.

Mount Panorama

Jason Benz — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 04:22:33 +0000

This is the Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst. This race track is also a public road, and Karen found herself driving on it by accident the first time we drove to New South Wales from Victoria. This time it was my turn to do a lap in our van.

We have arrived in Sydney now and we have started making preparations for our flight to the UK at the end of the week.