Thousands of hours of engineering come down to a few days on the track and thousands of kilometres on the open road.
UBC Solar builds some of the world’s most efficient vehicles to push the limits of what can be achieved with sunlight.
FSGP 2024
ON TRACK
2024
Speed matters. Efficiency matters more. And none of it matters if the car stops.
Solar car racing forces teams to balance aerodynamics, electrical efficiency, battery performance, vehicle dynamics, weather, strategy, reliability, and human execution into one system that has to work for days at a time.
FORMULA SUN GRAND PRIX
FSGP is a closed-course competition built to prove roadworthiness before speed. Cars first clear scrutineering, where inspectors test electrical protection, braking, and dynamic stability. The track result is simple: the car completing the most laps wins. At the 2026 event at Brainerd International Raceway, batteries were sealed outside permitted charging windows, and every failure cost track time, from quick hot-pit work to longer cold-pit repairs.
SCRUTINEERING
MOST LAPS WINS
HOT PIT
COLD PIT
AMERICAN SOLAR CHALLENGE
American Solar Challenge is the next test: a multi-day, 1,550+ mile road challenge from Minneapolis to Amarillo, following the Great River Road and Historic Route 66. Teams manage energy, weather, traffic, logistics, and strategy as the car travels between checkpoints and stage stops.
CONVOY
WEATHER
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
LOGISTICS
UBC Solar was founded in 1997. Progress did not come all at once. Each generation took us further, taught us more, and raised the standard for the team that followed.
WE SHOWED UP.
Raven brought UBC Solar to Formula Sun Grand Prix in 2017. The car did not pass scrutineering and therefore never reached the track. But getting there mattered. It gave the next generation something real to learn from.
BEFORE THE CLIMB
Team records also list Formula Sun Grand Prix entries in 2001 and 2009. The cars, entry status and results from those years are still being verified against the team archives, so they are noted here rather than claimed as milestones.
OUR NEXT CHALLENGE
Brightside proved that UBC Solar can compete.
Cascadia is being built to prove how far we can go.
AEROSHELL
The exterior form that has to move a person through air on roughly a kilowatt.
PACKAGING
Chassis, battery pack, roll structure and suspension, resolved inside that form.
IMMEDIATE TARGET
Return to FSGP with Cascadia. Prove roadworthiness through scrutineering, keep the car on track, and rehearse every service procedure until downtime is measured in minutes.
THE OPEN ROAD
Take Cascadia beyond the track and back onto the American highway, built for the endurance, efficiency, and reliability required to race across the continent.
The race lasts days. Getting there takes years.
Every PCB, composite layup, weld, simulation, test, late night, failure, and redesign has one purpose: put a better car on the starting line than the generation before us.
UBC S
LAR
manager@ubcsolar.com
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