By
Hillary Davis
De UA solar car club designs second vehicle in preparation for racing season
spite its reliance on the sun's rays, the UA solar car racing team hopes to claim victory with the help of a monsoon.
Members of Arizona Solar Racing Team, a University of Arizona club that designs and races solar-powered cars, is in the process of building its second vehicle, the curiously-named Monsoon.
Colin O'Connor, project leader for the Arizona Solar Racing Team, said the new car's name is decidedly tongue-in-cheek.
"Every time we go and take (a) car out, it rains, so we're trying to unjinx ourselves somehow," said O'Connor, a mechanical engineering graduate student.
O'Connor and the other club members are constructing Monsoon in preparation for Formula Sun, a track race in Kansas City in May 2001, and the American Solar Challenge, a cross-country event from Chicago to Los Angeles along Route 66 - including a stretch through Arizona, marking the first time a solar car race has been held in the state - in July 2001.
The group's original car, Daedalus, was unveiled in 1999.
Carrying a $155,000 price tag, Monsoon will be five meters long and less than two meters wide. Able to move at top speeds of 70 mph, the car will only weigh about 750 pounds with the driver and should be operational by February.
Although many of the club's members are science and engineering-minded, O'Connor said students from all backgrounds can become involved. The club has opportunities for students to be on mechanical, electrical, logistics and marketing teams.
O'Connor decided to continue his studies at UA so he could keep working with the Arizona Solar Racing Team, but he said his ultimate goal is to work with more traditional race cars - such as those that are used at the Indianapolis 500.
"I'm just a car buff, actually," he said. "My eventual goal is to go out and be a race car designer."
Josh Carnegie, a mechanical engineering junior, has driven Daedalus and said that although solar cars are very responsive, driving them is also safe and enjoyable.
"It's a lot more touchy - it's a lot more stiff," he said about the car's handling.
"Going 40 mph in it can seem sort of rickety if you look at it," Carnegie added. "But it's pretty reliable - it's pretty safe."
Carnegie recalled a time when the club made an appearance with Daedalus at an Earth Day celebration - and environmentalists tagged the car with minor vandalism because it bore a sticker from Raytheon, one of the group's sponsors.
However, disapproving activists and gloomy weather are not the only obstacles solar car enthusiasts face.
Last night, while driving Daedalus across East Speedway Boulevard to run the car around the parking lot near the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering building, Tucson police pulled over driver Tim Blake for operating the non-registered vehicle.
Blake was let go with a verbal warning.
"It's pretty funny, actually. This was the first time we took it past Speedway," said Blake, an aerospace engineering freshman.
O'Connor said after its brush with law enforcement, the car will not be seeing much more of Tucson's streets.
"I guess we'll leave it in the trailer from now on," he said.
Wildcat photographer Aaron Farnsworth contributed to this story.
