This student design and competition event involved 32 university teams from North America which built and raced solar cars along a 1644 mile route from Florida to Michigan. General Motors was the major sponsor of the event and Chevrolet, the Department of Energy, and the Society of Automotive Engineers were co-sponsors. After three days of solar car inspections and testing, the school teams began eleven days of racing. The average race day covered about 165 miles and included a mandatory pit stop at the halfway point. The solar cars were allowed two hours of solar charge before and after each race day. The universities of Michigan, Western Washington, and Maryland were the top three finishers. The race had 32 winners, as evidenced by the fact that the schools produced operating solar cars which delighted and inspired the thousands of youngsters who saw them.
