Blake's Brainiacs: Local Students Build Race Car on Solar Power

National Competition Held at Texas Motor Speedway

SAN ANTONIO – A group of local high school students has harnessed the power of the sun - for a race car!

The Engineering Team at Southwest Legacy High School has constructed an electric-solar power car. The car seats two, has a horn, blinkers, and hazard lights, and can reach speeds of up to 40 mph.

The team - made up of seniors, sophomores, and freshman from Southwest Legacy - has been working on the car for months in preparation for a competition at Texas Motor Speedway. The Solar Car Challenge invites teams from all across the country to bring their cars and compete. What's unique about this challenge, however, is that it's not about how fast your car can go. Rather, the students will be looking to make their car the most efficient on the track. This will be achieved by making the most out of their solar-powered batteries.

The Solar Car Challenge competition will take place from Thursday, July 11th to Thursday, July 18th in Fort Worth, Texas.

We wish the Southwest Legacy Engineering Team the best of luck!


About the Authors:

Kaiti Blake is a child weather-geek-turned-meteorologist. A member of the KSAT Weather Authority, Kaiti is a co-host of the Whatever the Weather video podcast. After graduating from Texas Tech University, Kaiti worked at WJTV 12 in Jackson, Mississippi and KTAB in Abilene.

Andrew Wilson is a digital journalist and social media producer at KSAT.