Cambridge Team's Motor Hopes

The task they face is to race 1,877 miles through the Australian Outback, from Darwin down to Adelaide, using cutting-edge environmentally-friendly technology that will hopefully make the jump to the next generation of consumer-focussed electric cars.

The Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) team have created a car, or technically speaking a craft, codenamed Bethany, which can cruise at 60 mph using, incredibly, the same amount of power as a hand-held hairdryer - about 1500 watts.

The independent student team, sponsored by Cambridge Precision and HP, hope to give fans something to cheer about by securing the UK's best ever finish in the 3000km endurance race. However, competition will be stiff as some of the rival corporate teams they will be facing have budgets of over 1 million at their disposal.

The CUER team have managed to design a craft that weighs just 160kg and sports the world's highest efficiency silicon solar cells. In layman's terms the car uses up to 50 times less power than a normal petrol car. In fact, if conditions are suitable the craft could effectively drive forever without stopping.

CUER's Team Manager, Anthony Law, said: "At a time when the automotive industry is being forced to look at a low-carbon future, our vehicle demonstrates the enormous potential of electric vehicle technologies. Transportation currently accounts for around 35% of the UK's energy use so this is obviously an area in which we can have a big impact on climate change."

Last year the CUER team designed and made a prototype vehicle called Affinity and it made history by being the first solar-powered car to be driven legally on UK roads. In June 2008 the team drove Affinity from Land's End to John O'Groats and has used that success to aid their development of the Bethany design.

Yet, competition will be strong. The previous nine championships have been dominated by the Netherlands and Japan with three wins each respectively. The last race in 2007 was won by Ashiya University in Japan in a time of 32 hours and three minutes, with an average speed of 93.57 km/hr. Therefore, training for the Cambridge drivers during the summer will be both mentally and physically draining as they prepare to cope with the intense heat of the Australian sun and their awkward seating position inside the car.

The team of four drivers will rotate via four-hour driving shifts and will solely be in charge of steering the car and maintaining their concentration as the vehicle's state-of-the-art cruise control system automatically adjusts its speed according to the road conditions and weather forecasts.

The race has a 20-year history spanning nine races, with the inaugural event taking place in 1987. The first-ever winner was a craft called Sunraycer powered by General Motors, representing the United States.

Here's hoping it will be the team from Cambridge and their car's lucky year.