The Solar Car that Raced to the Starting Line

Students from the University of Toronto’s Blue Sky Solar Car team have announced their new car, the B-7. Amazingly, the 50 student team only started designing the car 13 months ago.

The car is competing in the 2013 World Solar Challenge (WSC). The race through Australia will last 8 days (ending October 13^th) and 3021 km (1877 mile). 42 competitors from 24 countries will be competing.

Image courtesy of Blue Sky Solar Racing.

New WSC design constraints stipulate that cars require a four wheel configuration and an upright driver. This will inevitably increase the drag and introduce new challenges in design.

In the past, designing cars for this competition has taken competitors up to 4 years. The increase of difficulty coupled with the expedience of the design and production shows the commitment and ingenuity of the Blue Sky team.

The Blue Sky team’s secret was Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE. Dassault Systèmes’ products are well-known for 3D digital Mock Up, 3D design, and Product Lifecycle Management. The design and simulation systems simplify the process via consolidation. Within the 3DEXPERIENCE program electrical, mechanical and aerodynamics can all be simulated through one interface. This makes for easy and effective teamwork and design.

Blue Sky’s B-7 does look impressive. Time will tell whether the B-7 is as fast to the finish line as the Blue Sky team was in getting it to the start.