Client: TR50 Team/ Ken Bird Cycles
Project Start: March 1993
Project Delivery: November 1993
The late Ken Bird, former Tour de France mechanic for the British team, headed a small team that entered its design as a competitor for the 1993 World Solar Challenge 3000km race across Australia, from Darwin to Adelaide.
The challenge was, of course, to design and race a solar car successfully over the entire distance, while staying within a limited budget of £11.000.
Chris Hornzee-Jones, who by then already had extensive knowledge of self-built recumbent bicycles, designed the arrangement of the solar car, carried out performance predictions and constructed all the composite parts. The team made it to Australia, where the TR50 won the prize for “greatest achievement with the least resources”. This was no mean feat, given that the project's budget by comparison, equalled the first placed Honda Team’s hotel bill in Darwin.
