ISU Solar Car News Story, 1990

you're looking at what may be the car of the future these engineering students in Iowa State are designing a car that is solar-powered they're gearing up for the first ever race across the country filled only by the power of the Sun it all starts in july with Iowa State just one out of 32 teams allowed to compete we feel that we have a lot of engineering talent here in the state and we feel that we are the representative of that and we've sort of taken that to heart and we hope to do the state proud the race starts in Florida and will end up in Michigan that's more than 2,000 miles of highway to cover with no gasoline and the challenge is really tremendous because students have to design build and operate a card that will drive across the country on the power of a small electric hairdryer the students have been working on the project now for about a year they say they still need about fifty thousand dollars to get the project done we've had our stops and starts the project has always progressed the most difficult part has been the fundraising this is a scale model what the final project will look like this summer money-wise that means more than one hundred thousand dollars will have been invested into the project but can this really be the solar-powered car of the future students working on it sure think so oh yes the technology is there it just needs to be refined and and the need is there for an environmentally sound vehicle so you will see it in your lifetime oh I'll see it I'll Drive one in my lifetime now if the Iowa State team wins then they'll go on to Australia for the world championship when it's all over the car will return to Iowa State for more experiments and improvements in ames Ron Fowler Channel 5 News