Winnipeg will throw out the red carpet on Saturday to welcome the strangest cars to ever travel Manitoba highways.
VIDEO: RRC shows of solar 'Raycer'
The solar-powered vehicles, which have turned heads since they left Texas on Sunday in a cross-continent challenge, include a student team from Red River College.
Race officials have planned a celebration at the college between noon and 3 p.m. Saturday, with dignitaries including Minister of Technology Jim Rondeau and Red River College president Dr. Jeff Zabudsky. The public is invited.
The nine-person Red River team was in South Dakota Friday morning, with their car running reliably in the North American Solar Challenge despite a shortage of sunshine, said team captain James Doell.
The team with their flat, black, four-metre-long road-hugging machine, dubbed the Red River Raycer, was in eighth place Friday in the timed cross-country rally. The student team has long days on the road -- typically 10 hours -- but four team members take turns as driver switching every two or three hours.
“The car’s been running really well,” said Doell in a telephone interview Friday from Sioux Falls, SD. “The only issue is that we haven’t had enough sunshine. If we don’t have sunshine there’s not a chance for us to recover our battery charge.”
They’ve had no mechanical problems -- only one flat tire which they quickly repaired, Doell said.
One of the best part of the race has been cooperation with other teams, Doell said, who jump in and help their competitors if they need it.
“And the other thing has been just talking to Americans that we meet along the way,” Doell said. “When we’re stopped and charging, people will just pull up in their cars and see what we’re doing. People are pretty pumped all the way along.”
“Everybody says with the price of gas, the way it’s going, this is the way of the future.”
Race rules dictate that solar charging of the car’s battery can only be done for 1.5 hours in the morning and 2.5 hours in the afternoon, Doell said. Despite that rule and the cloudy weather their car has averaged about 50 kilometres an hour, he said, over 1,490 kilometres since the race began Sunday morning in Plano, Texas, just outside Dallas. Solar cells on the car generate close to 1,000 watts of electrical power in peak sunlight, Doell said, about what it takes to run an average iron or hair drier.
Ahead of the Red River Raycer team lies another 1,360 kilometres of highway with required stops in Brandon, Regina, Sask., and Medicine Hat, Alta., before the finish line in Calgary which they expect to reach Tuesday.
will.tremain@freepress.mb.ca
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