Association Futura _________ FUTURA'S ________                                  STORY
 

                             

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It was in the year 1995 that a few friends with very few means and no experience, after having learned of the existence of a unique competition in Australia, decide to participate in the "World Solar Challenge 1996".

The competition was for solar powered vehicles over a distance of 3000 km at a speed of 40km/h in order to avoid disqualification.

Naturally, none of them had even the palest idea of how to build a solar car. They spent much of their time studying the technical regulations for the competition and at the end had clear ideas of how to build the vehicle.

They had very little time at disposition for building the vehicle and were able to work only after having finished their daily work hours, that is from 8:00pm on.

Technical aspects were sometimes unsurmountable and technical aspects were difficult to handle. The group had a clear objective and in spit of all the difficulties worked intensively to reach it.

Everything had to be ready by August 1996 in order to be able to ship the vehicle in time enough for the race. Many solutions were found at the last minute and the performance and dependability trials were reduced to a minimum. At shipment time there were still a few problems to be solved, it was decided that the car would be sent anyway while anything that was missing would be carried as baggage on the plane.

Due to logistic problems, the vehicle was sent to Melbourne while the race would start in Darwin (4000km away). The first group of two friends arrived at Melbourne with the missing parts and finished their work within a few days. There were only 4000km left to cover with the solar vehicle on a trailer behind an automobile. The distance was covered without danger along the desert Australian roads.

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