Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 9, 1990                   TAG: 9007090208
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

TECH'S SOLAR CAR READY FOR ITS DAY IN THE SUN

Thirty-two solar-powered cars built by engineering students from the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada will zoom away from Epcot Center today and travel over secondary roads in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

They are to end up July 19 at the General Motors technical center in Warren, Mich., just outside the motor city.

The competition, called GM Sunrayce USA, is designed to demonstrate the technology that may one day rule the road. Virginia Tech is one of the schools entered in the contest.

Although experts believe solar-powered vehicles will evolve slowly, they are seen as one practical answer to gasoline in the alternative-fuel movement. Solar research is on the increase in view of the world's energy worries.

In full sunlight, the cars' solar cells supply most of the power needs. A special array of storage batteries provides additional power, especially when the sun isn't shining.

The combination of direct sunlight and stored energy can propel some of the vehicles at high speeds for limited distances. Although the cars entered in Sunrayce will travel within posted speed limits, the university students also have their eyes set on the 1990 World Solar Challenge race in Australia later this year.

The top two finishers and a third selected for technological innovation will be sent to Australia by General Motors.

The Sunrayce will be won more by strategy than speed, however.

Each day's leg of the race will vary between 80 and 180 miles along secondary and back roads rather than interstate highways. Race winners will have the lowest elapsed time for completing the course.

A dress-rehearsal run by GM's own solar vehicle, Sunraycer, had a combined average speed of slightly more than 30 mph for the 11-day run last year.

"Each car was conceived, designed and built from the ground up" by some of North America's top engineering and science students, said Vice President Donald L. Runkle of GM's advanced engineering staff.

Some of the cars cost upwards of $250,000 to build.

Along with Virginia Tech, entries include MIT, California State Poly, Stanford, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida Institute of Technology, Waterloo-Ontario and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez.

GM considered more than 100 schools, received 60 detailed design proposals and selected the 32 entries in April 1989. Some of the cars took more than a year to build.

GM is providing a chase support vehicle and a lead car for each entry.

Sunlight is the only power source, but battery charging from the car's solar array is allowed daily in the morning and late afternoon.

Each of the 32 schools received $5,000 from General Motors and $2,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy as seed money, but each car cost thousands more to build.