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SolarCar

SolarCar at Virginia Tech designs, builds, and races human-driver solar-powered electric vehicles to compete against other colleges at various national competitions.

The Solar Car moving quickly on a track.

What is SolarCar?

SolarCar at Virginia Tech is a student-led team that aims to participate in Solar Car Racing competitions against over 60 university teams from across the world. The team competes in prestigious events put on by the Innovators Educational Foundation (IEF) such as the Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) and the American Solar Challenge (ASC). The ASC is a cross-country endurance race covering a distance of 1500-2000 miles over 8 days requiring the cars to travel through multiple states over real state roads. The FSGP is a track event that is held on Grand Prix or road-style closed courses and tests the limits of solar cars in handling curves, braking, and acceleration. Rankings are decided based on most distance driven in the least amount of time.

Team members removing the Solar Car's diver's canopy.
The solar car moving quickly on a track.
A student works on the open cockpit of the solar car while another student sits in the driver's seat.
The team works on the Solar Car on the track with the cockpit canopy open.

Who can join? 

Anyone from any major with a passion for innovation and engineering

Fast Facts

Team size: About 55 members
Department Afiliation: Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Workshop: Virginia Tech Swing Space Building