Very cool. I watched a few minutes from an episode and was completely hooked. Solar cars race in Australia. They can only recharge the batteries with the sun panels. Furthermore they have to do 30 min stops in various locations and then also figure out where to spend the night as you want a good spot for your tents during the night when you are not allowed to race. Each car group has like 15-20 people on the road.
The race and fight for places is just totally exciting. At times I watch F1, Tour de France, various tournaments. Just people trying to get first place is enough to make a story interesting which is why even cheap sport movies can often work. You constantly see solar cars pass other cars here. There are a few accidents with the leading car burning down right before the end and 2 other cars flipping over. One car is repaired and is back on the road.
Team Michigan is the big event. They decide to use their lead truck, that's there on the road with the solar car, to block the Japanese car so that it can't go past them. They speed up every time the Japanese car wants to pass. And when it's illegal to pass they slow down. Meaning that their solar car can catch up to Japan after just being passed. Genius tactic really and so damn evil. But team Michigan is extremely arrogant and even claim that they are the best team from USA and ergo a top team in the world, proclaiming themselves to be geniuses. So it's expected they would use such tactics. At the end Japan gets 2nd place a few minutes after the winners. So they could really have used the minutes they lost here. They lost way more time at a period where the organizers proclaimed the speed limit at max 80 km per hour. So the Japanese car designed to handle strong winds was not allowed to drive fast. Meanwhile the flatter cars that couldn't handle the wind could just keep the lead with zero work. After 2 hours the Japanese team showed the organizers their design. They built a car for Australian wind conditions taking all of this into account while the other teams did not and instead relied on old safe designs and that meant 2 cars flying off the road before the speed limit that lasted 2 hours. This is another event that also maybe cost Japanese the victory. But it's a small competition you do for fun. Hundreds of people travel with the cars and have worked full time for years to build them. But at the end of the day winning is just a small honor for the university and means very little. Still, very fun doc.
Honestly would watch a season 2. I hope some car team or another Youtube channel creates small docs on other races because this is super fascinating. This race takes place every 2 years. Next one is moved to 2023 if they don't cancel it as Australia has extremely strict Covid-19 laws and you don't know what the country will do then. But right now a ton of new cars are just lying around after the cancelled event and the students who built them will likely be out of the university when the race comes around so they are likely not too happy.
The race and fight for places is just totally exciting. At times I watch F1, Tour de France, various tournaments. Just people trying to get first place is enough to make a story interesting which is why even cheap sport movies can often work. You constantly see solar cars pass other cars here. There are a few accidents with the leading car burning down right before the end and 2 other cars flipping over. One car is repaired and is back on the road.
Team Michigan is the big event. They decide to use their lead truck, that's there on the road with the solar car, to block the Japanese car so that it can't go past them. They speed up every time the Japanese car wants to pass. And when it's illegal to pass they slow down. Meaning that their solar car can catch up to Japan after just being passed. Genius tactic really and so damn evil. But team Michigan is extremely arrogant and even claim that they are the best team from USA and ergo a top team in the world, proclaiming themselves to be geniuses. So it's expected they would use such tactics. At the end Japan gets 2nd place a few minutes after the winners. So they could really have used the minutes they lost here. They lost way more time at a period where the organizers proclaimed the speed limit at max 80 km per hour. So the Japanese car designed to handle strong winds was not allowed to drive fast. Meanwhile the flatter cars that couldn't handle the wind could just keep the lead with zero work. After 2 hours the Japanese team showed the organizers their design. They built a car for Australian wind conditions taking all of this into account while the other teams did not and instead relied on old safe designs and that meant 2 cars flying off the road before the speed limit that lasted 2 hours. This is another event that also maybe cost Japanese the victory. But it's a small competition you do for fun. Hundreds of people travel with the cars and have worked full time for years to build them. But at the end of the day winning is just a small honor for the university and means very little. Still, very fun doc.
Honestly would watch a season 2. I hope some car team or another Youtube channel creates small docs on other races because this is super fascinating. This race takes place every 2 years. Next one is moved to 2023 if they don't cancel it as Australia has extremely strict Covid-19 laws and you don't know what the country will do then. But right now a ton of new cars are just lying around after the cancelled event and the students who built them will likely be out of the university when the race comes around so they are likely not too happy.
