Thank YOU!

Jane's Blog

As the Team packs up this morning and flies and drives off in their various directions, our journey through the outback and our participation in the World Solar Challenge would not be complete without a few worthy 'thank you's'

THANK YOU to all our sponsors (see their links on the right hand side) for their belief in our Team. We mentioned you at all and every opportunity and hope you will stick with us for Team Ethanol 2009. We will be in touch with you when we return to Mackay, Queensland for individual feedback.

A special thanks to United Nations of Beer (www.theUNOB.com) for their fantastic stubby holders which saw us through the trip. Not only were we the only team in the WSC with team stubby holders, but we discovered they had other uses as well. Both in Darwin and in Adelaide when we had to get emissions testing done on our Saab car, the cost was 4 stubby holders. We started bartering and using the stubby holders as currency and a negotiation tool and it was so great to see other teams using their UNOB Team Ethanol stubby holders at events.

With great pride, the Team would like to thank McAlear Marketing for their amazing work. Adele McAlear ensured the smooth flow of our website, blog, photos and ensured we were kept up to date with important emails and messages. During our journey through the outback, Adele was usually the only 'outside' contact for the team. With her help, we were able to ensure our friends and family we were doing fine, which was a big relief when we were in the remotest of areas. Cheers to you Adele, may you enjoy your shot glasses obtained for you en route, with our deepest thanks.

Thanks (deeply) to our friends, family and supporters who clicked onto our Team Ethanol website regularly, read our blogs and viewed our photos. I spent many many hours compressing photos in the most bizarre locations to ensure our web was as current as possible.

We had a lot of pride in our website, blog and photos and hope you enjoyed them. There are still about 1,000 photos you haven't seen. In the next few weeks, the Team will be putting together a slide show of photos and uploaded onto the Team Ethanol website for your viewing, so please continue to check back with us.

A final note, should any one of our followers want to become an official sponsor for Team Ethanol 2009, please contact us. We're going to start early for sponsorship so we can show up like the University of Michigan Team back up trailer, resembling a rock star roadie vehicle. They sold solar cells for $50 each and every sponsor was written on the trailer. As our ethanol vehicle doesn't have solar cells, perhaps we should raise funds by 'cups of ethanol'?!! Sounds good to us.

Once again. Thanks very very much to you all!

With much appreciation

Team Ethanol 2007

Cheers to Us!

So Sunday dawned and the end was in sight. All of the travelling was done, now it’s just the all day display in Adelaide’s Victoria Square and the Awards to look forward to tonight. Still didn’t really get a sleep in, daylight saving started this morning, so we lost an hour of sleep…just can’t win!

All of the Greenfleet cars spent the night in Victoria Square with security guards in attendance. Team Ethanol was in attendance for the public display from 9am to 3pm with the Bios Fuel team and the Annesley College girls. That was it…none of the other teams bothered to turn up. Well, actually one other team obviously went to “Rent-a-bimbo” and hired a couple of tight t-shirt, spray on jeans, vacuous heads to stand in for their team’s actual presence…pity they didn’t know a damn thing about the car!

By early afternoon Adelaide’s weather was visibly disintegrating, blowing a gale with intermittent showers. But the crowds braved the elements and we had a pretty good rollup with lots of interest in the Saab, distributing the rest of our promotional material.

After the display we still had a few things to do so it was a bit of a rush to get to the town hall for the awards which were due to start at 6pm. And you guessed it, the organisers(?) had decided to start half an hour later, but didn’t get around to telling the teams. So we had hundreds of people clustered around the locked town hall doors freezing to death...brilliant!

Anyway, they finally got their act together and it was a bit like DJ’s Boxing Day sale, security flung open the doors and dived out of the way, while several hundred iceblocks with legs stampeded into the warmth!

The awards themselves were greeted with unbridled enthusiasm and the highlights were:
The Dutch Nuon solar team won line honours for the fourth time on the trot and have announced their intention to try for five.
The Australian Aurora solar teamwas the bridesmaid, also for the fourth time, but won the Team Participation Award.
The German Bochum solar team won the design award, for their stunning upright-seat solar car, with the most beautiful flowing lines…sort of reminiscent of a Cornish pastie on wheels.

There were three awards possible for the Greenfleet teams and we certainly didn’t expect to win an award, back to backing in this environment is virtually impossible. The one we took out last time (The Environment Award), was won by the Welsh Gwawr team and they thoroughly deserved it. It was basically a family project and they had to beg, borrow or steel the components to build a solar car from the ground up. The effort to energy ratio was incredibly low so it was environmentally perfect.

The Greenfleet Award was won by the Biobike, for having the lowest carbon emissions per kilometre. Almost impossible to beat with anything other than another bike. The fact that it belched huge clouds of smoke and didn’t finish the event under it’s own power, didn’t seem to matter.

The Production Class Award is the one that I really have a problem with. It should have been won by the Swiss Twike Team and instead was won by the Smart ForTwo Car. According to the WSC convenor it won because, and I quote, “every time it makes an appearance it makes a statement”. Good grief, is that the most technical judging criterion you’ve ever heard, or what! This was also the only Greenfleet car to be non-compliant with the compulsory WSC signage and rarely even bothered to turn up at the compulsory community events. You've probably seen these cars around, tiny and very upright with a flat back. And by the way in my opinion, the statement it makes is, “God I’m ugly and my bum fell off”.

Anyway it’s all done and dusted and we can’t wait to get home. The saddest part of the whole event was the tearful farewell to newfound friends from around Australia and the world.

Keep checking the website as we will be publishing our fuel economy, performance and emission testing results in the near future.

A massive thank you as well to those who followed us daily including our family, friends and new followers.

Mad Dash to Adelaide

DAY 7: PORT AUGUSTA - ADELAIDE (298 km / 185 mi)

I’d just got out of bed at 6am, thinking that at least I didn’t have to worry about a live interview today, because my next scheduled one wasn’t until Monday. Then the phone rang…it’s the ABC radio Saturday Sports Show, would I mind having a chat about the World Solar Challenge live on air. Just perfect…nothing prepared, still half asleep and trying to remember what the hell happened yesterday that might be interesting. Anyway I managed to get through it, but that used up the extra time we needed to get packed, so it was a mad panic to get to the check in point on time.

We still needed to get an exhaust emission test done, so Heather, our team leader (and my wife!) figured out how to use the Yellow Pages function on the Telstra Next G phone and found some possibilities north of Adelaide. So during the drive, Syd was ringing around to organise something. We found an Ultratune on Main North Road and the GPS led us right to it…oops, there’s now a supermarket there instead! Finally discovered that the Ultratune had relocated down a block and finally got there after rounding up the rest of our team vehicles which had become scattered hither and yon in the confusion.

Anyway it was all worth it, because the emission figures blew the machine operator away. He reckons they are the lowest emission figures he’s ever seen. And that’s on straight ULP. It should be even better on E85, but anyway even this still makes us easily the most eco friendly Greenfleet car in the event. We’ll be publishing the results soon.

Arrived at the Torrens Parade Ground checkpoint at in Adelaide about midday, ahead of the other teams (surprise, surprise) and decided to go over to the Entertainment Centre for lunch.

We lined up at one of the eateries to order and noticed that a couple of people from one of the Asian teams were behind us. Since there were eleven of us we politely suggested that they could go ahead of us. There’s an old saying “no good deed goes unpunished” and this certainly proves it. What we didn’t know and they didn’t tell us, was that they were ordering lunch for two teams (23 people). Not only did it take forever, but they cleaned out most of the good stuff. What can you do except laugh!

The ceremonial parade finish was a total schemozzle. It was supposed to be all the cars under police escort arriving at the finish line together. But of course nobody had bothered to check that this was possible…it wasn’t! The police only allow a maximum of five cars under escort at any one time…and the Greenfleeters numbered 17! So they arrived in batches of five at half hour intervals and nobody seemed to know which car was in which batch until they arrived. So I guess you could say the event finished the way it started, in total chaos! Still we managed to get some great shots of the Saab arriving.

The people I feel the most sorry for were with Ecowash, not a Greenfleet entrant, but a local company whose employees came in to demonstrate waterless car washing. They used this labour intensive method to wash all of the assembled Greenfleet cars, leaving them gleaming like new pins…for 30 minutes. Then it rained…mud! I’m not kidding, it’s the dirtiest rain I’ve ever seen and the cars are now filthy. They’ll stay on public display, under 24 hour security, until late Sunday, and we hope to distribute the rest of our promotional gear by then too.

After the stuttering parade finish we all went back to the Country Comfort Inn for a quick shower, changed into our team uniforms and headed off to the Civic Reception. We were warmly greeted by Adelaide’s Lord Mayor and the legendary Hans Tholstrup and most importantly, free food and booze!

We spent the next few convivial hours catching up with our newfound mates in some of the other teams, last minute lobbying with the event officials and laughing at the few “oh so serious” teams. They spent so much effort and discomfort getting extraordinary (but unrealistic) fuel consumption, only to be blown away by the Saab’s incredibly low exhaust emissions. Great night all round.

Tomorrow the team members man the public display in 90 minute rotations and then we all go to the Awards ceremony tomorrow night.

Long Desert Drive South

DAY 6: COOBER PEDY - PORT AUGUSTA (550 km / 342 mi)
Team Ethanol greeted the dawn of yet another gleaming desert day in Coober Pedy. We’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather this trip. Sure it’s been quite hot in some parts, but no storms and just a few spots of rain. Despite this the Telstra Next G phone has been very handy for weather updates. You can find current weather and four day forecasts for any town in Australia, just by keying in the name or postcode. So we always knew what sort of weather we were driving into…a must for this type of trip.

Had to wash the filthy Saab first thing, because there was a public display and community breakfast organised for this morning. The breakfast of course featured the inevitable sausage sizzle…after this none of us will be able to look a sausage in the eye for at least 12 months! This was by far the best public attendance we’ve had on the whole trip, in numbers, enthusiasm and intelligent questions. We handed out lots of promotional material about the car, ethanol and the Mackay region. And aside from doing my daily cross for ABC Radio, I also did interviews for both the Coober Pedy newspapers…I didn’t know this tiny town even had one newspaper, let alone two!

When the display finished some of the team went on an underground mine tour and were fascinated by the diversity of opals mined and the equipment used. It was pointed out that less than 20% of miners scratch out a living from the opals they find and less than 2% actually strike it rich. Most of it is back and heart breaking toil for nothing.

When we arrived at the official refuel point, we had a chat to the event officials. I had to chuckle when they told us that some of the other teams had been served written warnings about driving too slowly and creating a traffic hazard on the highway. One more breach and they’re disqualified. It’s just a pity that they got away with it for so long.

Today’s trip was just a medium 300 mile drive to Port Augusta, so we stopped for lunch at Glendambo, the midway point. We came across a busload of German tourists at a stop before Glendambo, did a sales job on them for the Saab, ethanol and Mackay and unloaded some more promotional material.

After lunch we took the Saab into Woomera for some photos at Rocket Park, which has a permanent display of jet aircraft and rockets from Korean War vintage onwards.

Now that we’re into the final couple of days we needed to organise Dyno and emission testing for ULP in Adelaide. It could only be done Saturday morning so we had to get special permission to refuel early tomorrow morning before the official time. We really need emission tests fhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifor both fuel mixes (ULP & E85) to give us a good standing in the final results.

Craig at CSR Ethanol has really come through with the goods as far as giving us incredibly detailed carbon footprint data for both fuels and now we need to correlate that with the car emissions. No praise is too high for CSR Ethanol, because apart from this the company is also a major financial sponsor of the team and they also supplied the E85 fuel. This is just the sort of corporate support that enthusiastic community groups like us desperately need, but so rarely find…thanks heaps guys!

Early night tonight for an early start tomorrow, again! Last leg into Adelaide for the ceremonial finish tomorrow afternoon.

Getting Sirty in SA

DAY 5: YULARA (near Ayers Rock/Uluru) - COOBER PEDY
(700 km / 435 mi)
Finally got going at 7.30 am for the big run down to Coober Pedy. Getting 11 people and four vehicles moving is no mean feat and now I know why drovers have dogs. From Ayers Rock we had to backtrack to Erldunda to get back onto the main highway south. One of our companion vehicles is a huge campervan in the Winnebago style. During that leg it had what is called an unsavoury incident with the on-board chemical toilet…suffice to say it’s the sort that wrinkles the nose, waters the eyes and creates an automatic gag reflex. Is that close to too much information? When this was reported to the rest of the team it prompted a whole raft of shall we say “crappy” jokes, which filled the CB radio airwaves between the other team vehicles. I thought I had the prize won when I suggested that we rename the campervan “The Grand Poobah”, but I was well and truly trumped when Megan, our youngest team member, christened it “Winnie the Pooh”. This was now getting kinda dangerous, because I was laughing so hard by this time, I nearly ran off the road.

The team had a “wee” break at Erldunda and then headed down to Kulgera for the official refuel stop and lunch. We started to catch up to some of the slower solar cars. They had a day off in Alice Springs when the Greenfleeters went to Ayers Rock yesterday. We passed the dog fence just out of Coober Pedy. This is the longest fence in the world at well over 4,000 miles and was erected many years ago, to keep dingos out of sheep farming country.

Coober Pedy is the home of the famous black opal and opal mining has been called the most heartbreaking job in the world, mainly because opals form in clumps, rather than seams and there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to where they can be found. You can see ample evidence of this, as the surrounding landscape is littered with a haphazard conglomerate of huge conical piles of dug and discarded dirt, as far as the eye can see. They leave the resultant deep holes uncovered as well. A rough life attracts a tough breed…this is a place where men are men and women wish they were somewhere else. There’s an old Coober Pedy saying “don’t walk alone at night and don’t walk backwards”. Sound advice on both counts.

Took the Saab out several miles to the Breakaways and got it absolutely filthy, but it was worth every speck of dust. This naturally sculptured work of art by mother nature is the result of the sedimentary crust eroding over many millennia, leaving huge outcrops of harder silcrete looming out of the dusty floor like long forgotten sentinels with multi-layered uniforms. Great backdrop for some publicity photos with the Saab.

Still waiting for the Dyno and emission test results but in the meantime we had a quick look at the fuel economy figures. We’ll need to check this properly, but it would seem that the best we did on E85 was about 10.4 litres per 100k and so far on ULP 8.6 litres per 100 km.

Tomorrow we’re off to Port Augusta, which is the penultimate leg before Adelaide.

Alice to the Rock

DAY 4: ALICE SPRINGS - YULARA
(near Ayers Rock/Uluru)(400 km / 250 mi)

Nearly missed the daily radio interview this morning… well actually I did miss it. Got caught up with late additions to yesterday’s blog entry and completely lost track of time. Luckily when I went missing in action ABC Radio called me.

We’re well into desert country now so the nights are quite cold and the days warm. There’s something very special about the desert…the days are diamond bright and the air smells like champagne tastes.

The “get the best fuel economy at all costs” fanaticism with some of the teams is getting quite farcical. We passed one driving at 70kph (on the open highway) with both side mirrors folded flat to the car body…quite dangerous, but just might decrease fuel consumption by 0.1%. And two other teams had relief drivers flown in to Alice Springs, because their current drivers are exhausted. Strange how driving at a snail’s pace, with windows up and aircon off in 100+F heat can have this effect. Marvellous what you can do with an unlimited budget…but can somebody please explain the logic to me?

It would seem that Team Ethanol is indeed the only volunteer community group in the event. All the rest are either school, car manufacturer or other corporate based employees.

Okay, okay, I’ll get off my soapbox. Today is just a leisurely 250 mile jog to Ayers Rock. We’ve officially switched over to regular commercial ULP, which makes a nice change from donning overalls and safety glasses, finding a secluded area, earthing both vehicles, displaying safety warning signs and manning the manual fuel pump.

We stopped at Erldunda, about 50 miles from Ayers Rock, for a quick lunch which consisted of using up our cold salad remnants, while fending off a determinedly hungry emu, who wouldn’t take no for an answer! The lunch turned out to be quite leisurely, because it was also an official refuel stop and of course we arrived nearly an hour ahead of everybody else, including the supervising officials.

It’s quite exhilarating driving along the Carpentaria Highway waiting for a first glimpse of the Rock. The anticipation builds until suddenly…there it is! Nope, false alarm, it’s just Mt Connor, a flat topped long mountain sometimes called the False Rock. Ayers Rock itself is a single giant basalt monolith. Strangely, when the Rock does finally come into view, you wonder how could ever have been mistaken, it has a totally unique look.

We booked into the Ayers Rock Campground, 150 bucks a night for a cabin the size of a large cupboard and a 300 yard walk to the personal facilities...sigh! Took the Saab out to Ayers Rock for some photos…25 bucks entry fee per person…double sigh! We drove around the Rock and found various different aspects for background shots. We hung around until sunset and recorded the famous pageant of colour variations generated by the dying sun…brown to glowing orange, to deep russet, to soft pink and back to brown. A truly amazing sight witnessed by hundreds of onlookers, some with tables, chairs, champagne etc. And some doing it simple like us…back the car in, flip up the lid, sit underneath the tailgate and just watch it all unfold.

Still waiting for the breakdown of results from the Dyno and gas testing, which is supposed to be emailed to us today. We’ll publish a summary as soon as we’ve done the analysis. So far we haven’t found a massive disparity in fuel economy between E85 and ULP fuel. The 450 mile run today to Coober Pedy should give us a clearer picture. The power is certainly down, the Saab is feeling decidedly sluggish, but it’s still a great car to drive and we can still get from A to B quicker than any other Greenfleet team…pity it’s not actually a race!!!

Madness in the Desert?

Jane’s Blog

Tell me the desert hasn’t driven me mad, but I love Alice Springs! It’s a beautiful place. It’s not a flea bitten dust bowl (sorry Alice!), but nestled in and around magnificent pink mountainous rocks that glisten in the sun. I’m mad at myself for believing the portrayed stereotype of the place when it’s quite the opposite. Personally, I can’t wait to go back again and I don’t say that about many places. And I don’t buy a key ring of many places either, but I now proudly count my ‘Alice Springs’ keyring as a prized possession.

It’s been quite a week. We have tried hard to keep our blog as up to date as physically possible but because of our rigid schedule, with 0645 starts mostly all day drives and displays, there’s been a few lags before updates. I’m writing this from the back of the Saab as I just finished a 2 hour driving shift.

Dinner was at The Overlander Steakhouse. Fantastic menu including camel, crocodile, kangaroo and of course steak, chicken and lamb. But the interesting thing was locals ate there too. I’m glad that I had camel, as I don’t think I’d see it on a menu again for a while. It was really good! The Team had a great time, and maybe a bit too much drink but I put it down to the desert drive. I’ve discovered that Team member Syd is quite good on playing the wobble board.

I’ve discovered a lot driving from Darwin (and heading towards Uluru at the moment). I discovered giant ant hills, (aka termite mounds) in the hundreds of thousands generously dotting the NT landscape, some taller than me.

I’ve discovered ‘whirly winds’ which are mini cyclones of sand created by intense heat. Driving from Katherine, I spotted 12 happening all at once, which were dotted around the desert landscape.

While talking to a fantastic couple, Marilyn and Warwick at the Alice Springs solar car display, had the WSC cars arrived a day earlier, they wouldn’t have made it into town. Apparently there was a dust storm and Alice was closed for a few hours. That would have been great and part of me is sorry to miss being in a dust storm.

I also love the red earth and red ochre rocks. It’s so pretty with the green bushed plants.

As for the Team, well, as the ABC says, we’re a ‘motley crew’ and they are right. There are 11 of us from various backgrounds and of all ages, from 24 – 80 and somehow, we all muddle through it all ok.

Tonight is Ayers Rock. For once I’m looking for the blanket of stars at night. (Why do caravan parks insist on all night lights?) I suspect the caravan park at Ayers Rock will have the same all night lights, but I’ll drag my swag to some unlit spot I hope.

Oh, the good news is that the flies haven’t been as bad as they could. Yeah they annoy the hell out of you, fly in your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, but not in the hundreds, so that’s good.

I’m hoping for good things from Ayers Rock. We’ll be heading to Coober Pedy in the morning for another long driving day.

There's Something About Alice

DAY 3: TENNANT CREEK - ALICE SPRINGS
(500 km / 310 mi)

Very decadent this morning… got to sleep in until 6am. We had a team breakfast cooked on the caravan park barbecue, chock full of essential vitamins… vitamin E (eggs), vitamin B (bacon) and vitamin C (cheese). Nothing like a greasy breakfast to cure a hangover…or so I’m told…

After breakfast we headed off to the refuel point, stopping on the way to pick up a damsel in distress. Apparently, she’d been deliberately left at one petrol station with a phone, by her team, while they headed onto another one, because they couldn’t remember which one they were supposed to be at. Luckily we did know.

With the refuelling out of the way we headed off to the Devil’s Marbles, about 60 miles south of Tennant Creek. This natural phenomenon consists of hundreds of giant granite boulders, strewn around and piled on top of one another, as if by giant unseen hands.

Next stop was the Barrow Creek Pub, a little tourist oasis in the middle of nowhere, with basic accommodation, general store and petrol station. It’s also most famous for being the nearest human habitation to the Peter Falconio disappearance a few years ago. The refuelling at Barrow Creek has used most of the E85 fuel in the drum. That will get us to Alice Springs where we’ll switch over to regular unleaded petrol for the second half of the event. This will allow us to compare performance and economy between the two fuel mixes.

We’ve been pleasantly surprised with fuel economy so far on E85. As I said before we are driving the car realistically, so we’ve had the aircon on constantly, driving close to the speed limits and still getting 10.5 litres per 100 km. Not bad considering that this is a two tonne car loaded up with passengers and luggage. So, either this is an incredibly fuel efficient car or the economy gap between petrol and ethanol isn’t as bad as the “experts” reckon. Time and the next 1500 km will tell.

To end the day on a high note, we desperately needed some exhaust gas analysis before we switched over to ULP. So Syd, our resident mechanical magician traipsed all over town to track down Street Torque Dyno Dynamics, the only Dyno and exhaust gas analyst between here and Adelaide. Now Syd is not easily impressed, but he came back from the testing jumping out of his skin, wild eyed and babbling nearly incoherently. Apparently the tester had never seen Dyno or gas analysis results anywhere near the Saab’s readings. Sorry to be a tease, but until we get the printouts tomorrow and check them over properly can’t say much more…except that there is some seriously good mechanical hardware under the hood!

In the meantime here are some basic details about the Saab BioPower car for our new followers:
The UK promotion car that we’re driving in the World Solar Challenge is a 9.5 Estate wagon. It’s powered by a 2 litre, four cylinder, turbo charged engine and weighs in at a touch over 2100kg. So even though it looks compact it’s actually quite a large car.

The models released in Australia this month have a bigger 2.3 litre engine, so they will certainly have a lot more grunt. The base cost for the sedan is A$61,900 and the Estate wagon A$63,900.

We all enjoyed a great dinner at the Overlander Steakhouse and tomorrow we’re off to Ayers Rock.

Into the Desert We Go

DAY 2: KATHERINE - TENNANT CREEK (700 km / 435 mi)
Early rise at 5am again.

Before the 450 mile run to Tennant Creek, we had to refuel the Saab from the E85 drum in the back of the Rodeo. This is done under the event marshall’s supervision and then the fuel tank is sealed.

During that time I did my first daily live interview on ABC regional radio. This is scheduled to happen at 6:50 am every morning during the event. We use a Next G phone supplied by Telstra to ensure clear transmission. So far we haven’t found any dead spots…most impressive.

After that we called into the compulsory checkpoint just south of Katherine, got ticked off and waved away. Next stop was to be a designated refuel point at Dunmarra about 180 miles away. But we decided to take a little detour about 60 miles out, on to the Carpentaria Highway. There’s a very old, very famous sign there which reads “Next petrol stop 500km” at Borroloola, which translates to about 300 miles. Correction, that should be “was”…some sod has put in a petrol station about halfway and when we got there and looked for the sign…there it wasn’t!

So, our bright idea for a great photo of the Saab and the Rodeo nose to nose under the old sign, with one of the team sitting on top of the E85 drum, holding up a card reading “who cares” kinda lost its impact! Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and media men… (We found a picture of the sign on the Internet before it disappeared. It would have been a great shot.)

So with pain in our heart and ethanol in our tank we continued on and stopped for lunch just out of Elliot. The heat hit us like a hammer when we climbed out of the cars. It was well over 100F but at least we were now below the tropical stickiness. Travelling south takes us into hotter temperatures but lower humidity. And from now on it’s time to break out the fly nets. Because it’s so hot and dry the little buggers are looking for moisture and crawl into every facial orifice looking for it. You don’t need fine mesh, anything moving in front of the face will stop them from landing. Hence the time honoured Aussie swagmen tradition of hanging corks on strings from their hats. Very loose open weave netting, which fits over a cap is the modern equivalent.

We hit the checkpoint in Tennant and then moved on to a community reception and display only to discover that the officials and Team Ethanol were the only ones there. Turns out that they had seriously miscalculated the time it would take on this leg (by about two hours!) and we were the only team with the speed and driving nous to meet the impossible deadline…BioPower rules! The team set up a display but it was so hot that not many people turned up. It’s said that these conditions test one’s mettle, but in this heat the mettle quickly becomes molten! In the meantime I did an interview on ABC Radio Drivetime. The organisers finally gave up and called it quits, so we adjourned to our cabins at the Outback Caravan Park for a good long soak in the pool. Tonight we’ve booked out the local Memorial Club for a multi-team dinner…and no doubt the odd alcoholic libation.

A quick note on Tennant Creek. It’s located two thirds of the way down south from Darwin to Alice Springs (which is about the mid-point of the World Solar Challenge course). Tennant is also close to Threeways, the junction of the main highway east into Queensland.

We’ve just heard that the Tassie Saab Motor Club members (thousands of ‘em) have joined our followers…welcome aboard Saabites and Saabettes. I’ll be adding some more specific details on the car and its performance in future blog entries, in your honour. Here’s a little taste to think about…as the temperature climbs our fuel economy improves…

Off the Mark at Last!!!!!

DAY 1: DARWIN - KATHERINE (317 km / 197 mi)
The big day arrived. We got up at 5am…after checking the time every hour, just in case the cell phone alarm didn’t go off! Took a quick cold shower to wake up, did the last of the packing, loaded up the cars and headed off into the dusky glow of the tropical dawn. The humidity was still high, but the temperature was less than 90 F.

We arrived at the allotted time to be greeted by chaos, with solar cars still arriving, some trying to leave and some still in bits on the ground. The disorganisation was still working well. Nobody knew where we were supposed to go and finally the Greenfleet cars were bundled into a vacant lot two car parks away from the action. Any sort of display was pointless because the spectators didn’t know where we were.

Finally the chaotic melee evolved into a complex, near miss mechanical ballet, whose intricate moves were accompanied by shouted commands, rude gestures and muttered curses. The way finally clear, the Greenfleet cars were moved to within striking distance of the assembled multitudes, so we unrolled the Team Ethanol banner and started spruiking our message to anybody who would listen. Met up with two Mackay couples who were in Darwin on holidays and had heard about their local team on one of the Darwin radio stations. We even got to meet…drum roll, blare of trumpets…Hans Tholstrup, the man who single handedly started the World Solar Challenge two decades ago. He must be close to his 70’s by now, but still has fire in his belly and looks as fit as a mallee bull.

The tension builds as the solar cars start to leave the start line at one minute intervals, but tragedy strikes one of the favourites, which has some sort of electrical haemorrhage and refuses to start. We don’t know the outcome, but if they can get it started they’ll have to start at the back of the grid and if they can’t then they’ve spent all that time, effort, money and travel for nothing.

Finally it’s the Greenfleet turn and our hearts rev up, as does the engine in front of us and the adrenalin kicks in like a blast of pure ethanol. We make our way to the start line, starter announces us, the flag drops and we’re on our way through cheering crowds which line the streets all the way out of town and in enthusiastic patches for miles down the track.

It was quite slow going in a lot of places, having to negotiate our way around some of the slower solar cars and their support vehicles, which travel in front and behind them. We noticed some on the side of the road in trouble early and heard on ABC Radio that one had had a major embarrassing “oops”…he crashed into the back of his own support vehicle!

We got a call from radio’s Australia All Over, which goes out every Sunday morning Australia wide and Syd spoke on air with “Macca”, telling him all about the event and our part in it.

Changed drivers at Adelaide River and continued on to the first checkpoint at Katherine, where we had lunch and the Greenfleet cars set up a display for the community. That was the end of the formal journey for the day and the car performed brilliantly. Syd has set it up so that we can monitor fuel consumption on the fly, distance travelled and amount left in the tank. The fuel consumption is actually better than we expected and doesn’t seem to vary whether we have the aircon on or not…now that’s a real bonus because the temperature is really starting to soar. We’ve decided to run the car as it would happen in real life, rather than some airy fairy academic exercise of no aircon, all windows up and travelling at unrealistic slow speeds.

We finished the day with a trip up Katherine Gorge, which is a huge channel carved out of sandstone with rock faces sometime hundreds of feet high. It’s actually a series of 13 gorges, each one more spectacular than the last. It’s populated with huge numbers of freshwater crocodiles, diving birds, kangaroos and fish.

Today was only about 200 miles but tomorrow is a biggie, about 450 miles down to Tennant Creek. This will give us a much better look at the fuel consumption.

A day at the Races

Brian's Blog

The penultimate day before the event dawns and the angry sun tears itself out of the horizon and leaps raging into the sky. It looks like being even hotter and stickier today than previously.

Syd is off playing knight on a white charger…actually his charger is red, he’s in the Rodeo fuel pickup. We’ve taken a Malaysian team under our wing. They’re driving a pedal trike with a hydrogen fuel cell power supplement. At a pedal rate of 70 strokes per minute they can achieve 35 mph. It’s a test bed for motorcycle mounted hydrogen fuel cells due for commercial release next year. Here’s their problem. They needed to collect four large hydrogen cylinders in a pickup…except that they didn’t have a pickup and we did. Actually they didn’t have a support vehicle at all, just the tricycle, which they had dismantled and flown out from the Philippines as hand luggage. So, as well as picking up their hydrogen cylinders we also drove them to a van hire place. Team Ethanol seems to have become the default father and mother figures for the event and we’re picking up orphans all over the place!

The rest of the team spent the morning down at Hidden Valley raceway. It’s well named, the road signage is almost non-existent and it took us ages to find our way there. This is where the solar car teams do their final scrutineering checks and lap qualifying times, to determine the starting order for the race. The Greenfleet cars are all there on display and it gives the teams a chance to get to know one another better.

An unexpected bonus came up with the announcement that the Greenfleet cars would have a chance to do a lap around the race circuit at one minute intervals. Unfortunately, the second car out broke down in the middle of the track on the second bend. By the time they got a support vehicle out there and moved it off the circuit, the allowable track time for the day had almost elapsed. So the rest of the cars can only manage a couple of single file parade laps.
Rats!!! The only bright spot is that the car behind the Saab was so slow that we could hang right back to get lots of track space between us and the cars in front. Then give it a bootfull and blast through the corners and up the straight to catch up. Even with that limited outing it’s obvious that the Saab is by far the most powerful Greenfleet car there.

In the afternoon Jane took the Saab for a promo photo shoot with the United Nations of Beer rep. More about that from Jane later.

We’ve done a trial pack today so that we know how much room we have for food supplies.

Final briefing this afternoon for Greenfleet and the media gave us last minute instructions for the start and the journey. Then back to our apartment for a quiet Thai take-away dinner and an early night. It’ll be a 5am rise to get packed and out to the starting grid tomorrow. If the 2005 event is anything to go by this one will be packed with enthusiastic spectators. The excitement is building up in the whole team and sleep tonight might be more by accident than design. Stay tuned for live updates from the starting grid…the main event is about to begin.

Darwin Team Registration and the Ghost of Ethie

Brian's post:

Up early to greet the dawn of another steamy day in Darwin and a full cooked breakfast to fuel the team’s bodily engines. Then the team splits up, with Syd and Bill taking the Rodeo to pick up the fuel from Ausfuel Distributors (thanks Justin) and Janet and I liaise with Dynamic Signs (thanks Ryan) to spot cover the Saab with sponsors’ decals. Then we cross over as the Rodeo comes in to be “decaled” at Dynamic Signs and we take the Saab into Darwin City to pick up boxes of our team stubby holders from Associated Advertising & Promotions (thanks Claire). I did a quick interview on Community Radio, thanking all of supporters and friends.

In the afternoon we head off to the Darwin Showgrounds to register the team and have the World Solar Challenge decals added to our other professionally affixed decals…more about that disaster in a minute! There are all sorts of weird and wonderful vehicles arriving for registration, including our old mates the Swiss Twikers. We’ll be adding photos of these strange machines as the event progresses.

While the team is registering I bring the Saab into the marshalling area to get its number (lucky 7) and the WSC stickers attached by the installers. When I see the result I am not a happy budgie…the old Aussie phrase “ a dog’s breakfast” springs to mind, but no self respecting dog would lay claim to this mess…on crooked, covered in bubbles and creases, with the ends curling up. I dispense my displeasure to the attendant marshalls in no uncertain terms, requesting that they supply us with a couple of spare stickers which we will have mounted professionally. After viewing this particular disaster area they agree to my suggestion…Dynamic Signs to the rescue again…the Saab is now looking like a real event winner.

All teams were invited to the Chief Minister’s reception at 6pm. This is the ideal opportunity for the solar and greenfleet teams to mingle, get to know one another pre event and swap tall stories. It’s like a mini United Nations with teams coming from all over the world. Unlike the formal United Nations this event has smiles rather than frowns, no interpreters to muddy the meanings and a feeling of actually achieving something worthwhile! Just one small sour note, the organisers have decreed that there will be no limit on numbers within a team, but the limit for those able to attend official functions is set at six. So you could be a member of a large team, spend money and time to get to Darwin and then have the very real possibility of not being able to attend the fun social functions. Dontcha just love it when bureaucrats are let loose on the real world!

Ethie section
Those who have read last event’s diary on this website or followed us in 2005, would be aware of the “saga of Ethie’s Stain of Shame”, when Team Ethanol left its mark on Darwin, in more ways than one. A quick recap. During the last Chief Minister’s reception, Ethie, our 1925 Austin ragtop was the centrepiece of the Greenfleet display in front of the steps of Parliament House in Darwin. During the evening, the team was summarily summoned by security from the reception. The finger of scorn was pointed at Ethie who, as a slightly incontinent mechanical maiden of 80 tender years, had the temerity to drop oil on on the Chief Minister’s “patio”. She was promptly banished to the public carpark in disgrace, to leak in peace!

And now two years later the evidence is still there. Last night the team revisited the scene of the crime and paid group homage to Ethie’s escapade. This year there was no display of Greenfleet cars at Parliament House…coincidence? Or is the shadow of Ethie’s mighty presence still looming large over international events!!
End of Ethie Section

Margaret arrived in Darwin earlier today and Gavin flew in just after midnight, swelling the team number to 10…just one to go for a full contingent.

Team's Arrival in Darwin

Brian's blog

Heather and I got to Mackay Airport at 6am and met up with other team members Syd & Janet Norman, Bill Young, and Ross Neivandt. Check in became interesting when Syd & Janet set off the security alarms with a small pair of scissors in their hand luggage and then Heather was selected (again!) for a personal explosives check. So, that’s one for concealed weapons and one for suspected terrorism and we hadn’t even left Mackay!

Thankfully the rest of the air trip to Darwin was uneventful until the final touch-down, which was more of a slam-down…I think we got the apprentice pilot, or his contact lenses weren’t in properly.

We took a bus to our rented apartment, checked in and then the rest of the team left to pick up the event car and support vehicles, while I got on with some media stuff. The damage to Ross’s car was not as bad as first thought…more of a flesh wound than a critical injury. Gotta say that the team at Kerry Holden, the local car dealer that looked after the vehicles, was fantastic. They treated our team like royalty and nothing was too much trouble. Thanks guys.

Late that afternoon, while I was measuring up the Saab for signage, the “egg on wheels” (Switzerland’s Twike team) arrived. They’d done the trip up the coast and west across the top end to Darwin (nearly 3000 miles), without breaking anything except a sweat. They all looked noticeably leaner after that long trip in their travelling sauna. Both teams headed off to the wharf to sample the delights of the harbour eateries, washed down with ample liquid lubricant.

Jane arrived from Brisbane just after midnight and that signalled the end of our first day in Darwin.

Team Ethanol: The Journey Begins

Well, all of the hard work has paid off and tomorrow the team’s off!
The Mackay contingent of Team Ethanol flies out tomorrow morning at sparrow fart (for our international followers that’s Australian for “very early”), bound for Darwin and the great, north-south cross country odyssey.

The next few days leading up to the event start on Sunday will be quite hectic. We have to pick up the event car, support vehicles and the fuel, attach the car signage, register the team, attend displays and briefings, give media interviews, stuff promotional giveaway bags, lay in some essential food supplies (both solid and liquid), pick up the other team members as they arrive and attend a reception at Parliament House. Whew, I’m getting tired just thinking about all that!

So now it’s sort out the last details, finish packing and have an early night, with just one thing left to do…give a huge thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors and supporters…without you Team Ethanol would have run out of fuel long ago!

Team Ethanol & Saab BioPower Car: News Report

Just Waiting for the Team

The Saab has arrived in Darwin and the Rodeo will be there this afternoon. (16 Oct)

So we have cars...we have fuel...now all we need is the team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team Shirts Have Arrived!

Blog by Jane:

We received our Team Ethanol dress shirts yesterday!

They look the biz. Totally Workwear get lots of credit for the amazing work they did on embroidering the logos on all shirts. They are fantastic.

Team Ethanol to the Rescue!

Blog by Brian:

The Twike team from Switzerland arrived in Mackay QLD last night. Twike is driving their Greenfleet vehicle from Brisbane to Darwin.

For Twike, it was an uneventful trip until about 35 km south of Sarina, when the “egg on wheels” had a malfunction with their auxiliary engine, which started misfiring and belching clouds of smoke.

After a frantic SOS call to Team Ethanol’s Chief Engineer and resident mechanical magician, Syd Norman, rode to the rescue.

The rest of Team Ethanol was gathered at Syd and Janet’s property for a barbecue to welcome the Swiss team. Some time later the Twike arrived to a standing ovation, despite being ignominiously towed in behind Syd’s Echo…score one for conventional technology!

The problem was soon diagnosed as a microscopic piece of foreign matter lodged under the needle and seat in the engine. Funny how one grain of sand can bring technology to its knees.

Damien Hooper from local ABC Radio was on the spot to conduct an interview with both teams, affectionately known as ‘Ethos’ and the ‘Twikers’. Nice to see the local media showing an interest. The interview aired at 7.15am this morning (9 October).

Later, everybody enjoyed a magnificent gourmet barbecue, washed down with a few convivial alcoholic libations…not ethanol, we need that for Darwin!

Today the Twikers head up the coast to Townsville, so if you see them on the road give them a rousing Mackay honk and wish them luck…they might need it!

(photo is of Team Ethanol's Syd Normal with Twike's Ralph Schnyder fixing the Twike with Twike member Stephen Meister looking on.)

More photos are available through the 'daily photos' weblink on www.teamethanol.com.au

Twike has Arrived in Mackay

We just got the news. The Twike Team is currently in Rockhampton and will be in Mackay late afternoon today!

So, members of Team Ethanol in Mackay have been rallied together for a bbq this evening when the two teams meet (eat, drink and be merry!)

We're also taking this time to have our final Team Ethanol meeting before Darwin. (woohoo!) Brian has found his tripod so we can get some good group photos for posting tomorrow.

You can check out the Twike Team on www.twikeklub.ch and their first set of photos after their arrival in Brisbane http://ds1.dreifels.ch/twikeklub/page.asp?DH=611

Back soon with more news.

Two Short Weeks!

The final countdown is on!

Team Ethanol flies out to Darwin in just two short weeks (18 October).

Our biggest headache (actually the pain was quite a bit lower), the fuel, has finally been resolved. Largely due to the sterling efforts of Scott Perkins from Canegrowers, CSR has come on board as a major sponsor and also supplied the team with a drum of E85 fuel, which is now on its way to Darwin. Sure beats the other drastic option of shoving raw cane into the fuel tank and hoping for the best! CSR is a great fit for the team as they a major producer of ethanol, from locally grown sugar cane, and a big fan of the BioPower cars from Saab.

The magnificent team banner is finished, thanks to Mackay Stickers & Signs…great job Jamie-lee. And Totally Workwear is currently doing the logo embroidery on the team shirts.

Next week is a biggie for us, with the Twike (rhymes with trick) team arriving from Switzerland. They’ll be coming through Mackay, hopefully around 9 October, for a get together with Team Ethanol, before heading right up the coast and across to Darwin for the event. Better them than us; the Twike is basically a battery powered tricycle with a hard top canopy fitted. They’ve fitted a 200cc range extender engine for the event and Team Ethanol will be donating some of their E85 fuel to run it. Keep an eye out for this strange looking bug and give them a wave.

We'll start taking photos and videos...we need the practice. A good start for this would be when the Twike team are here next week.

There a big things happening on our website soon, stay wired.

World Solar Challenge Countdown!

Team Ethanol has created this blog so all our supporters can read our daily reports from the World Solar Challenge and travel the distance with us.

Team Ethanol is in the Greenfleet section of the Challenge, running a Saab BioPower car run on e85. The ethanol is supplied by CANEGROWERS from the Mackay QLD region.

The World Solar Challenge goes from Darwin to Adelaide and kicks off on 21st October 2007.

For more info on our team, go to www.teamethanol.com.au

Come along for the ride with us. It will be amazing (frustrating, hot, long, inspiring, unbelievable)