Leuven-based Agoria Solar Team breaks world record in home-made solar car
The Agoria Solar Team broke the world record "most kilometers driven with a solar car in 12 hours" with 1.051 kilometers on Sunday in Lommel. The previous world record was 924 kilometers, held by the Dutch Solar Team from Delft. With one and a half hours to go, the Leuven student team already managed to break the previous record, and eventually set a much higher world record.
The attempt by the KU Leuven student team started Sunday morning at 7:31 a.m. on Ford's closed test track in Lommel. The engineering students had until 7:30 pm to cover as many kilometers as possible with their solar car. It is the first time that the student team has attempted to break the world record.
After 305 kilometers, the Leuven students were on track according to their strategy, but more clouds were appearing. With 5 hours and 45 minutes to go, the solar car had already covered 549 kilometers. After 700 kilometers, there was a flat tire, which was repaired by a mobile pit crew, after which the team decided to accelerate slightly to 95 km/h. One and a half hours before the end, the solar car was on the road. An hour and a half before the end, the new world record was a fact. After 12 hours, the solar car had covered no less than 1,051 kilometers, well better than the previous record.
With the same car, the BluePoint Atlas, the students from Leuven participated in October 2021 in a race of 2,500 kilometers through Morocco. The student team finished second. They then decided to continue working on the existing car rather than design a completely new one. Those improvements to the car, along with the weather on Sunday, paid off. The next international race for the team is scheduled for the fall of 2022.
Source: Agoria Solar Team
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