World Solar Challenge, 1987

This video contains no dialogue.

Fade in on a farm windmill silhouetted over a sunrise. Text onscreen reads “PENTAX WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE 1987”. Upbeat 1980s synth music plays in background.

Panning shot of a streamlined three-wheeled vehicle with a hoop-shaped hull on display in a mall. Text fades in: “SCRUTINEERING / CASUARINA SHOPPING CENTRE / DARWIN”

View from above of the cockpit of a streamlined vehicle being attached to its hull, which is covered in solar panels. Crowds of onlookers watch. Several other solar vehicles are visible at the edge of the shot. Text fades in: “SUNRAYCER / GENERAL MOTORS”

Crossfade to the same vehicle speeding along a roadway in the Australian outback in daylight, with onlookers watching.

Crossfade to a car with a wing-shaped upper surface driving down the same roadway. Text fades in: “AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC / TEAM MARSUPIAL”

Crossfade to an angular, wedge-shaped car driving in the same area. Text fades in: “GOOD WOOD HIGH SCHOOL / JUST MAGIC”

Abrupt cut, with music stopped, to a close-up of a person’s hands recording notes with the roadway in the background. Text fades in: “SPEED DETERMINES GRID POSITION”. Race statistics are listed, with “GENERAL MOTORS” in first, “JOHN PAUL MITCHELL” in second, and “FORD AUSTRALIA” in third.

Crossfade to a wide shot of several electric vehicles, including the GM Sunraycer and the hoop-shaped car from previous, arranged along a starting line. Overlay text reads “START / RACE DAY / 3047 km to go…” Triumphal synth music plays.

Montage of panning shots and stills over several cars, being assembled or serviced before the start of the race. All have large adjustable solar panels.

Abrupt cut to video, with background audio, of the race starting. Police motorcycles and a pace car drive by, with considerable engine noise, followed by two silent solar cars. Upbeat synth music resumes.

Cut to GM Sunraycer driving quickly down a rural road. The camera seems to have some difficulty keeping up. Cut to a front view of the same car coming around a turn on gravel, with a convoy of cars, trucks and RVs kicking up a cloud of dust behind it.

Cut to a car with a wing-shaped adjustable solar panel, moving slowly at the edge of a dirt road. Text on screen reads “2.10 pm / DARWIN INSTITUTE”

Cut to another car with a much larger solar “wing” mounted high and at an angle, moving bouncily along a bumpy dirt road with a van following close behind. Text on screen reads “10.30 am / SPIRIT OF BIEL”

Panning shot past a solar car with a gondola-like front end and a U-shaped solar roof. Cut to a view of the same vehicle through the rear-view mirror of a pace car.

Cut to a wide shot of a low-slung rectangular car passing a mountainous bluff on a desert highway.

Crossfade to the same vehicle parked on the side of the road. A woman climbs out from under the solar panel, smiling and stretching out her t-shirt, which reads “SOLAR VEHICLE PROJECT CHISHOLM”. 

Image freeze-frames, text fades in: “PLACE / ENTRANT”. A list of entrants is shown. In first, “GM Sunraycer U.S.A.”, in second “Ford Motor Co. AUST”, in third “Biel SWISS”. Text scrolls down through fourteen entrants. Text fades out, as does music. New text fades in: “11 Entrants did not finish the race.”