Media Releases

Get the first peek of B‑7, Blue Sky Solar Racing’s newest solar vehicle

June 18, 2013

TORONTO, ON — The Blue Sky Solar Rac­ing team is unveil­ing its newest state-of-art solar car, B‑7, ready for the 3,000-kilo­me­tre race across the Aus­tralian out­back. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to based team will be head­ing Down Under this fall to com­pete in the 2013 World Solar Chal­lenge, pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion tech­nolo­gies.

For the past 18 months, Blue Sky mem­bers have been design­ing and build­ing B‑7, a new solar- pow­ered vehi­cle to race against over 40 oth­er teams from around the globe. B‑7 fea­tures the lat­est advance­ments in pho­to­volta­ic tech­nolo­gies, a brand new aero­dy­nam­ic design, and improved vehi­cle dynam­ics sys­tems, weigh­ing about 20 per cent less than its pre­de­ces­sor. Due to dras­tic changes in race reg­u­la­tions this year, B‑7 is the first U of T sin­gle-seater, four-wheeled solar car with an upright dri­ver-seat­ing posi­tion.

On June 28, you will get the first chance to see B‑7 in action on the track, includ­ing intro­duc­tions to the vehicle’s new fea­tures and a demon­stra­tion dri­ve. You will also get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet and speak to the team mem­bers who designed and built the car as well as the team’s spon­sors and sup­port­ers.

EVENT DETAILS

WHEN: June 28, 2013

TIME: 1pm — 3pm

WHERE: Var­si­ty Cen­tre Field,
299 Bloor St. West, Toron­to

How to get to Var­si­ty Cen­tre

Var­si­ty Cen­tre is locat­ed at 299 Bloor St. West on the south­east cor­ner of Bloor St. and Devon­shire Pl. (one block west of Avenue Rd/Queen’s Park) at the north end of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Var­si­ty Cen­tre is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble by pub­lic tran­sit, just steps away from the St. George and Muse­um sub­way sta­tions.

Park­ing

Metered street park­ing is avail­able on Devon­shire Place or at the St. George under­ground lot. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact the U of T park­ing office at 416.978.7275.

About Blue Sky Solar Rac­ing

Blue Sky Solar Rac­ing is a stu­dent-run orga­ni­za­tion whose goal is to design, build and race solar vehi­cles in inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions. Nur­tur­ing inno­va­tion and best engi­neer­ing prac­tices, the team aims to pro­vide stu­dents at Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in a large-scale mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary engi­neer­ing project that they would nev­er expe­ri­ence inside a class­room. Our mem­bers span all dis­ci­plines in Engi­neer­ing as well as var­i­ous Arts and Sci­ence pro­grams. The team began in 1997 with its first car “Blue Sky Project”; and has since par­tic­i­pat­ed in the World Solar Chal­lenge in 2001, 2007 and 2011. Stu­dents who have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the project often go on to become top engi­neers, entre­pre­neurs and lead­ers in their fields.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:
Tiffany Hu
Chief Advance­ment Offi­cer
Tel: 416–455-5003
advancement.bluesky@utoronto.ca

For more infor­ma­tion about World Solar Chal­lenge: http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org