MIT's "Eleanor" The Solar Car

The folks at MIT should be proud. They given birth to "Eleanor." Eleanor is the solar car MIT will race in Australia in October of this year in the "World Solar Challenge" a mind numbing 7 day 3000 km race in the Australia's outback.

She can get up to approx. 50 to 55 mph without straining herself but it they want to "drain" her battery she could go up to 70 to 80 mph. Eleanor has a 1200 watt capacity and weighs less than 500 lbs which allows her sleek aerodynamic design to help her speed down roads just as fast as any gas guzzler.

Says Physics major George Hansel "Our battery pack is composed of more than 600 cells from laptop batteries. They are lithium-ion cells and they give us an equivalent of about 6 to 7 times that of a normal car battery but is only twice to three times as heavy."

My Fox D.C. has a video (on the left side of the page) of Eleanor in all her glory HERE.