Norton Festa gets solar powered

A display of hundreds of Italian cars, motorbikes and scooters as well as the launch of a solar powered car known as eVe will be featured as part of Norton Street Italian Festa’s ‘Auto Festa.’ Don’t miss your chance to come along and find out more about the future of transportation…

Auto Festa will become one of the main attractions at the Norton Street Festa this year. Featuring a vast collection of vintage and contemporary cars, motorbikes and scooters that demonstrate the ingenuity and snappy style of the Italian people, this exhibition is fun for people of all ages. With a focus on green design this year, Auto Festa is the perfect opportunity for gear heads to have a look at the future of sustainable car design and construction.

Sunswift is a student-led volunteer project from the University of New South Wales that comprises students from a wide range of courses including engineering, business, science and industrial design. The team first formed in 1995 to compete in the World Solar Challenge, a 3000km race from Darwin to Adelaide. In this race, with their first generation Sunswift solar-panelled car, they finished 9th out of 46 entries. Since these humble beginnings, the Sunswift team has designed and constructed four more solar-powered vehicles, including the eVe that is being showcased at the Auto Festa.

The team has continued to see success in the World Solar Challenge, placing in the top 10 more than once. On top of these accomplishments, the Sunswift team has also broken two world records, both of which have yet to been beaten. These records are the fastest transcontinental crossing of Australia and the speed record for a solar-powered car (88km/h). This second record was beaten with their previous car, the IVy, which was specifically designed for speed.

For their next project the Sunswift team is going commercial. As their project manager, engineering student Sam Paterson, says, “We want to go beyond the spaceship type cars we’ve built in the past and create a sort of car you could drive anywhere, all while keeping the design cool and producing zero emissions.”

Their next-generation car, dubbed the Sunswift eVe, was designed in the Cruiser Class, meaning it has a focus on practicality, rather than speed. Vehicles in this category must have four wheels, rather than three, and must have seating for both a passenger and the driver. Project manager Paterson of UNSW’s Sunswift says, “The ultimate goal is to design and build a solar powered car that can meet the requirements for road registration in Australia”.

For more information visit the Norton Festa website: www.nortonstreetfesta.com.au.

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