In October, they will defy the scorching Australian sun, 43 rival teams from around the world and sustainability naysayers to race their car 3,000 kilometres across the outback, using only sunlight as fuel. The World Solar Challenge, in its 12th edition, wants to stimulate research into sustainable vehicles, and the Punch Powertrain Solar Team is the only Belgian entry. “We’re in it to win,” said student Xu SuiHong. “That’s our aim for this race.”

Last week, the students from Group T unveiled their car, the Indupol One, at the Autoworld museum in Brussels. Under a clear sky, the sleek blue and white vehicle slowly cruised out of an inconspicuouslooking black van. With its knee-high, flat surface, six square metres of solar cells covering the deck and Formula One-style cockpit, it looks like a misplaced Star Wars prop.

“Hot in there”

After a couple of rounds in front of the stately Jubelpark arch and a handful of curious museum visitors, the car came to a standstill. Seconds later, the hood whizzed open and an exhausted but relieved-looking Aurélie Smeekens climbed out of the tiny cockpit.

Indupol One does not have air-conditioning or windows. Smeekens is one of the three team members who will drive the car in Australia. Explaining why her fellow team members weren’t clamouring to take the wheel, Smeekens, the only female student on the project, laughed: “It gets really hot in there.”

As the students crowded around the solar car to pose for pictures like beaming parents, it was tough to tell that they had pulled close to an all-nighter. In true student fashion, members of the marketing team were sorting out concerns until the very last minute – booking plane tickets to Australia and making wireless internet arrangements. “There are always these unexpected glitches,” said Ilias Viaene, noting that he had learned things he never would have in a conventional classroom. “I used to not be very good at organising things,” he smiled. “This has been such a lesson.”

This is the fifth time the Leuven engineering college Group T is competing in the world Solar Challenge, and it’s one of the most high-profile projects on campus. Ranging in ages from 22 to 24, the team members were chosen from a pool of 48 applicants last summer and divided into a technical and marketing department overseen by team manager Mattijs Plettinx.

Using innovative aerodynamic, electronic, solar cell and battery technologies, the student engineers worked with materials from Michelin, JIB Design and Melotte to create the solar car. That kind of privileged access was what made the biggest impression on Xu over the past months. “To get in touch with such top technologies as a student was really amazing,” he says. Under the tutelage of celebrity supporters like TV journalist Phara de Aguirre, former astronaut Frank De Winne and race car driver Vanina Ickx, the team also received pointers on everything from on-camera presence to circuit driving.

It’s hard to grasp that 17 fresh-faced, bright-eyed students were really the ones running the show to build the 4.5 metre, 170 kilogram vehicle from start to finish. But the past year was really taxing, said Viaene, who was in charge of PR and logistics. They initially worked office hours, he said, but they had to pull out all the stop as last week’s premiere date edged closer, working into the evening, on weekends and through the summer holiday. “You wake up thinking about the Solar Team, and you go to sleep thinking about the Solar Team,” said Viaene. “My girlfriend often says to me: ‘I don’t want to hear anything more about it.’”

Still, the work is hardly over. Starting on 6 October from Darwin in northern Australia, Smeekens will alternate four-hour shifts with two other students to reach Adelaide in the very south, and this for five days straight. The car will be set on cruise control, and a vehicle will trail it at all times. Monitoring the remaining route, the weather conditions and the energy and speed data transmitted by the solar car, the strategy manager inside the vehicle will determine the optimal driving speed. At night, the full team will camp by the road to resume the race the next day.

After the race, most of the engineering students plan to stick around to do some travelling Down Under. But then, once back in Flanders, a brutal reality awaits. Team members have to make up all the courses they did not take this year. “And we’ll also have to write our Master’s theses, unfortunately,” Viaene laughed.