Student race speedy solar car

It might not have been the fastest car under the sun, but the solar-powered Liberty Belle constructed by a team of University students came in a close third place at the annual American Tour De Sol race last weekend. Tour De Sol, a nationwide contest for electric and solar-powered cars made by college and high school students and private corporations, raced from New York City to Philadelphia between May 22 and May 28. The race was organized by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Contestants were judged on efficient use of energy rather than speed, Tour de Sol spokesperson Jack Groh said. But the sleek, bullet-shaped Liberty Belle impressed many passersby as it shot past the finish line at the Franklin Institute. "It looks like a jet," said eight year-old Kevin Cox, who said the Liberty Belle was his "favorite" of the more more than sixty cars at the event. "I wish I could go somewhere in it." Landing the "Most Efficient Vehicle" award, the Liberty Belle was defeated by only Salisbury High School's Photon and Dartmouth College's Sunvox IV -- called "the cream of the crop and the best in the world" by Groh -- for the highest cumulative score. Sitting in the cramped, one-person battery- and sun-charged vehicle and resting his hands on a miniscule dashboard in which "Penn Rules, Baby" appears under the speedometer, Engineering senior Tony Estrella said he was "really happy" to have driven the car to the finish. He added that although Dartmouth received a higher cumulative score, the Liberty Belle swept past the Sunvox IV within 100 yards of the finish line. Scott Smith, a 1994 Engineering graduate who raced in the opening stretch of the Tour De Sol, said he enjoyed racing through the Holland Tunnel in New York City, which was shut down especially for the race. Engineering senior Candace Smugeresky said she wished she had been behind the wheel during the race. "Everyone who worked on it wished [to drive it]," she said. Electrical Engineering emeritus professor Martin Wolf said electric rather than solar-powered cars will be the wave of the future, because the "energy flowing from the sun is limited." But Patricia Stewart, a Philadelphian who watched the race, said she can not wait to buy a solar car of her own. "They're enormously practical," she said. But Stewart wondered where she would fit her grocery bags in a super-compact car like the Liberty Belle, or how she would fit the vehicle into a parking place "with those big [solar] panels."