Hi guys,

I'm not sure I understood it all (I used Google Translate), but if I did, I wonder...How sure are you that this crash wasn't caused by the fact your car was wrecked the day before?
From what I understood, your steering system was pretty much broken during quali. Would this have nothing to do with it?

Ciao,

Andrea

Hi Andrea,

During qualification a ball joint in the front suspension came loose and caused the car to crash. That same day all parts that could have had some wear (due to the crash), were replaced. The car was scrutineered again that same night, and passed all the tests.
During the race, at the first media stop everything was checked, and every single part of the car was still as new. The 'Willy Willy'-effect caused the car to become uncontrollable. After analysing the wreck the same conclusion was drawn.

Cheers!

ps: Google Translate did a good job!

Well, that was a scary video about the crash itself! Very courageous to publish it.

On the day after, you wrote that the car was difficult steerable because of the crashes during qualification, but you removed that post later. In this post at SolarWebsite.nl, Diederik Kinds indeed noted that the car was swinging/oscillating dangerously on the first day. Maybe because of the damaged body/wheel caps? If the wheel caps couldn't swing smoothly along with the wheels, steering surely was difficult.

I don't question the strong winds; many teams experienced these and mentioned it. And I remember that in 2007, Nuon reported that the Nuna4 was sucked sideways by one metre or so during a test drive.

I'd just like to point out that when a car's steering system is smooth and perfectly responsive, it is better able to do the necessary actions to retain grip on the road in extreme circumstances. Then, chances are much better that it can survive such a 'willy willy'-attack (but it's no guarantee though, I admit).

Hope that 2011 will include a brand new Umicore competitor! Your cars are beautiful and powerful, a worthy opponent for the other teams!

I also happen to notice some kind of censoring on this forum. One day after the crash there was an article about the crash on this forum. Written by the team. There were some spicy comments, because they discussed the possible causes off the crash (and yes the broken suspension was mentioned). A lot of questions were raised about the safety and the responisibilties. It seems the team wasn`t up for it because they removed it whitin a day.
As vincent already mentioned ; no doubt about the strong winds, but was it the only factor? was driving at those speeds (mentioned in the vanished article) with a damaged car safe? There were 3 crashes during qualification and you made the car overnight so it looked 'as new'? We may not think at what could have happend when there was a roadtrain involved.
The truth is outthere...

Ha I am quoted here, so I will also respond :)
First of all: it is a great documentary, very well done, compliments to the Sylvester guys and I am sure it will Inspire many people who see it. That is always our common goal of course.
Secondly, yes, I saw the car swerving on the road in Oz, and other people saw it too. I think the documentary tonight proved that I wasn't blind.
I am not going to draw any conclusions here, but in my experience of driving thousands of kms behind solar cars, I thought it was all over the place, it swerved just a tad too much for my liking.
But it's not up to me or any outsider to determine the cause of the crash, and I am sure, and it was shown that, the Umicore team has done a thorough analysis of the crash. And fortunately, everyone walks away unhurt and a bag of lessons to learn for their 2011 challenge. We have always considered the Umicore team as a dangerous opponent - but we'll gladly fight alongside them now to take the crown back from Tokai ;)

With "dangerous opponent", I meant of course: dangerous enough to take the Cup out of our hands eh ;)
I suddenly realised this word might be a bit strange in this context. Je m'excuse.

And let's give Umicore some credits here: they built a beautiful car. Aerodynamically, it must have been great. They probably had super solar cells. We were scared of them; that's a fact :)
If we didn't have any glitches, if they stayed on the road: it would have been an awesome battle for 1st with Tokai.
And then: what they went through, is something you don't wish for anyone to happen. Nuna crashed 3 weeks prior - but there were no trees. I am sure it was scary, but this looked even scarier. I drove ahead of our convoy, and think I was the first 'foreign' car on the scene of the crash - I felt heartbroken about what I saw.
I am very glad that we were able to drink (lots of) beer in the Belgian Beer cafe with the Umicore guys after the finish. And guys, promise you'll be back in 2011. We have some things to settle ;)

Ik volg de World Solar Challenge al enkele jaren van op afstand. Het concept spreekt mij aan omdat het jonge mensen de zinvolle uitdaging biedt om hun energie te richten op milieuvriendelijke mobiliteitsoplossingen.
Het was voor mij dan ook een psychologische opdoffer toen ik onze Belgische deelnemer zag crashen. Vooral de ontgoocheling op de gezichten van deze gemotiveerde groep jongeren deed mij pijn aan het hart.
Sedertdien denk ik elke dag na over de oorzaak, maar vooral over de mogelijke aanpassingen aan het ontwerp om zoiets in de toekomst te voorkomen. Het laat mij niet los en ik ben er vast van overtuigd dat ik hiertoe een bescheiden bijdrage kan leveren. Daarom ben ik graag bereid om mijn 30-jarige ervaring met de baanligging van motorfietsen ten dienste te stellen. Aanvaardt Umicore Solar Team mijn aanbod om mee te denken aan een oplossing? Ik houd alvast dit forum en mijn inkomende e-mails in de gaten!

Happy New Year and a fresh and open mind to everybody on this planet. A New Year to work on New Dreams! Have You set Your target already?

Beste Solar Team,
Er zijn mij toch heel wat opmerkingen opgeborreld bij het zien van de documentaire over de Solar Race 2009. Ik heb in het kader van mijn afstudeerwerk een windtunnelstudie gemaakt en ben al sinds mijn 15 jaar begonnen met studie van alles wat met ophanging en aerodynamica van F1-wagens te maken had. Een mijner ontwerpen heeft ooit het bureau van Colin Chapman van Lotus gehaald. Ik durf zeggen dat ik er wel 'iets' van weet. Maar men weet nooit alles, natuurlijk. Ik kan wel een opsomming maken van de fouten die -naar mijn bescheiden mening- in jullie ontwerp geslopen zijn. Een verkeerde verhouding SCx bvb. en ook qua ophanging en sturing, downforce en rechtuitstabiliteit zou het totale concept moeten herzien worden, vrees ik.
Ik weet niet hoe ver jullie al staan met de wagen voor 2011.
Ik kan misschien een bijdrage leveren met een nota over eventuele verbeteringen die -enkel op het vlak van ophanging en aerodynamica- kunnen aangebracht worden. Jullie mogen me altijd mailen, ik zal graag wat tijd voor jullie project vrijmaken. Alvast veel succes!