ANN ARBOR, Michigan—For the University of Michigan College of Engineering Solar Car Team, Thanksgiving will be celebrated 10,000 miles away from home in the Australian Outback. Beginning Nov. 18, the team will be racing its M-Pulse solar car against 38 other university, corporate and private teams in the World Solar Challenge.

The team will sprint 1,870 miles from Darwin to Adelaide, across some of Australia’s most desolate terrain. Although the strong Australian sun and mostly flat, north-south route of the race provide almost ideal solar racing conditions, the trip will not be without its difficulties. Grueling heat, intense competition and even the occasional kangaroo carcass are expected to be obstacles on the road to victory.

Earlier this year, the Michigan Solar Car Team won the 2,300-mile American Solar Challenge, which raced from Chicago to Claremont, Calif. Since then, the team has tweaked the car’s solar array for a 15 percent increase in efficiency, reduced the car’s weight to a lean 350 pounds and designed a backup steering system. Sporting a more powerful and reliable car and hard-won wisdom from the road less traveled, Michigan is looking forward to competing against other top engineering teams from around the world.

The team hopes to be among the top competitors who should reach Adelaide by Thanksgiving Day, but admits that the race is totally unpredictable. Weather and road conditions will play a key factor in how fast the car can go. Under ideal conditions, M-Pulse has a top-speed of about 80 miles per hour and can accelerate from zero to 60 in 12 seconds using the same amount of power as an electric hairdryer.

The U-M College of Engineering is consistently ranked among the top engineering schools in the world. The College is composed of 11 academic departments: aerospace engineering; atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences; biomedical engineering; chemical engineering; civil and environmental engineering; electrical engineering and computer science; industrial and operations engineering; materials science and engineering; mechanical engineering; naval architecture and marine engineering; and nuclear engineering and radiological sciences. Each year the College enrolls over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students and grants about 1,000 undergraduate degrees and 600 master’s and doctoral degrees. To learn more, visit Web site at www.engin.umich.edu.

Team Web site: www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar

Race Web site: www.wsc.org.au

College of EngineeringAmerican Solar Challengeaerospace engineeringwww.engin.umich.edu/solarcarwww.wsc.org.au