Medudula and the Prosper Engineering Team are among 20 groups of high schoolers that arrived at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on July 13 for the 2023 Solar Car Challenge.
The rigorous safety tests make sure all cars are highway ready and can travel at least 20 mph. Each solar car is accompanied by 3 standard vehicles for added safety. If a car breaks down or traffic is bad, a trailer is ready to tow them. “People have certainly shown that you can make it work,” he said. But these design constraints mean it is difficult to make a solar car that most consumers would buy.
“All the way back from Denton, all they could say [was], ‘Doc, can we please build a car? Can we please build a car?’” Marks said. Marks says it’s pretty simple to sell this opportunity to students. “High school kids want a car,” he said, so he asks them, “Don’t you want to build a car? Don’t you want to power it by the sun? And don’t you want to drive it at the Texas Motor Speedway?”This pitch worked for this year’s students, many of whom have been participating in the Solar Car Challenge since starting high school. Excitement was in the air as they prepared for their race on Friday.