RGE joins forces with Drayson Racing

Form Technical Partnership to develop electric drivetrains with high performance and endurance

4 November 2011; London, UK: Drayson Racing Technologies LLP, the leading green racing R&D business, has teamed up with Vantage Power Ltd, the team behind the world record breaking SRZero electric car that last year drove the 26,000km Pan-American Highway in 70 days as part of the Racing Green Endurance project. Together, they will tackle the 60 mile RAC Future Car Challenge Race from Brighton to London on November 5^th 2011, and look forward to a series of exciting events in the future.

Vantage Power Ltd and Drayson Racing Technologies LLP also announced today the formation of an official technical partnership which aims to combine Vantage Power’s experience in extreme endurance runs with Drayson Racing’s knowhow in high performance motorsport, to develop drivetrains for electric vehicles with both high performance and long range.

The SRZero will be driven in the RAC Future Car Challenge by the co-founder of Drayson Racing, former Science Minister and Le Mans racing driver Lord Paul Drayson, and the Head of Imperial College’s Energy Futures Laboratory Prof Nigel Brandon.

Quotes:

Paul Drayson said: “For electric cars to really take off we need to show that they can offer the performance and range that consumers expect from modern cars. Although 60 miles is a lot less than the 26,000 km that the Vantage Power team achieved last year – and the 70 mph speed limit a bit less than the 220 mph plus we target when racing, it will be fun driving the car and competing in this exciting event. Participating in the RAC Future Car Challenge is a great way to showcase the experience and knowhow that Drayson Racing and Vantage Power bring in developing electric cars that offer both high performance and long range.”

Alexander Schey, Managing Director of Vantage Power, said: “After completing the Pan-American challenge with the SRZero, Vantage Power is looking forward to the collaboration with Drayson Racing, and building upon its extensive experience by applying it to the vanguard of the high performance electric vehicle industry. The RAC Future Car Challenge, though different to the style of driving both Vantage Power and Drayson racing are used to, will demonstrate our desire to participate in a range of events as well as our motivation to win them!”

~Ends~

Notes for Editors

About the SRZero

The SRZero was designed to be the world’s longest range electric vehicle, and over the summer of 2010 succeeded in becoming the first EV to drive the 26,000km Pan-American Highway from Alaska in the far north, to Ushuaia in the far south; the world’s southernmost city. Along the way, the project generated a huge global following that culminated in an 8 part documentary series broadcast by the BBC in over 220 countries. Following the trip, Drayson Racing and Vantage Power have worked together to prepare the car for the Brighton to London RAC Future Car Challenge, entering the car in the sports-car class of the event.  For more information, please visit: www.racinggreenendurance.com or follow us on Twitter: @RGEndurance

About Vantage Power:

Vantage Power is a start-up company formed by three Racing Green Endurance team members who, over the past four years, have accumulated substantial know how in the conceptualisation and implementation of high performance electric drivetrains. Working with components from many different suppliers, the company has acquired a broad range of experience and contacts in the electric vehicle industry. Vantage Power has focussed specifically on developing robust control, drive and energy storage solutions, and will apply these technologies to the automotive, aerospace, and marine industries. For more information, please visit: www.vantage-power.com

Media contact: Alexander Schey
alex@vantage-power.com
+44 (0)7733 223143

About Drayson Racing Technologies:

Drayson Racing Technologies LLP is a research & development business based in the heart of the UK’s world-leading motorsport industry at Kidlington, near Oxford. Paul Drayson, a former biotechnology entrepreneur and the UK Minister for Science and Innovation in the previous government, formed Drayson Racing Technologies LLP in 2007 with his wife, Elspeth, to act as a racing laboratory to pioneer the development of green technologies in the challenging environment of motor racing. Since then Drayson Racing has achieved a number of notable firsts racing second-generation biofuels and has latterly focused on the emerging field of electric racing and is currently developing an all-electric prototype race car, the 850hp Lola-Drayson B12/69EV in collaboration with Lola Cars International Ltd.

For more information please visit: www.draysonracingtechnologies.com or follow us on Twitter: @lorddrayson and @DraysonRacing

Media contact: Lady Elspeth Drayson
media@draysonracingtechnologies.com
+ 44 (0)7787 128483

As busy as everyday life gets it has been difficult finding time and resources for the SRZero. She survived the 26,500km journey from Alaska to Argentina majestically but, as those who have watched the documentary will know, she went through a hell of a lot! I remember one of the main observations from people when we were building the car was that we would never complete our journey with a ground clearance of 8cm. Well we proved them wrong but you can imagine what a beating she took – 100’s of kilometres of gravel stretches, entering numerous underground garages, on and off ferries, Central and South American monster speed bumps; not to mention the full on crash in Quito, altercation with a truck in Lima and the list goes on. Nevertheless she still drove wonderfully after getting back to the UK. However, it was clear to us that we would have to put in some serious time and money to replace the parts that had been fixed in a hurry on the trip. We were getting lots of enquiries to show and tell the car and story, so it was imperative to make sure she looked the part! So that is what we have been doing over the last few weeks and she is now looking nearly good as new although we have left some of the tell-tale scars to prove what she has been through!

The SRZero is now on her way to a large, 9 day exhibition in Hanover, Germany called the “Ideas Exposition”. It’s all about getting young people enthused about Science and Technology and showing them what is possible with it. As you no doubt know this fits in perfectly with our ideals: Sustainability, Education and Adventure. It will be a pleasure to show people what we have achieved and share some exciting stories from our own adventure!

So if you are around in the vicinity of North Germany, please come along to the “IdeenExpo” (www.ideenexpo.de). It starts 25^th August and is on for 9 days until 4^th September. Entry is free, so there can be no excuses!

Even though it was only a short leg of 215km from Rio Grande to Ushuaia, we didn’t want to leave even the slightest of things to chance! As such, we planned to leave at 10am on Tuesday morning so that we would be sure of meeting our scheduled arrival time of 4.30pm. As we wanted to have a proper breakfast, give the car a quick inspection, and do some pre-finish filming, we were up at 7.30am despite some of us getting a little nervous the night before and not getting much sleep!

However, we left on time and made our way off into the cold and gloomy horizon. As fate would have it, our last driving day was the worst weather we had had since entering Argentina over a week ago. For much of the drive, the cloud and mist was so thick that I can’t even tell you what the scenery was like. Water droplets were perpetually condensing on my helmet visor, which made the driving that much more demanding. Couple with this a road which was continually throwing up surprises, and it made for a very nerve wracking and somewhat slower than normal drive!

As you would expect though by now, the car performed perfectly throughout, and after about 120km the weather began to clear just as we entered the tiny village of Tolhuin. As it was only 12pm, we thought it wise to have some lunch here as we didn’t know when we would next eat, and also so that we could time our arrival appropriately. So, we spent our last meal on the Pan-American Highway munching down a delicious parrilla, which is a selection of grilled meats and sausages for those of you who have not had the pleasure of trying this Argentine speciality!

With lunch finished at around 2pm, we headed off for the final 104km of the journey. To put this into perspective, this equates to just 0.4% of the entire length of our journey, or 5 minutes to midnight after a long 24 hour day…this is how close we were! Yet we were still determined to stay focussed right until the very end, and despite how difficult this was with our hearts and minds literally exploding with excitement, it had to be done. It is not exaggerating to say that anything could still happen in these remaining few kilometres, and to drop our guard now could spell disaster.

Almost immediately after leaving Tolhuin we began to climb up into the mountains, and the roads became twisty again; another feature of the journey which we hadn’t experience since crossing the Andes. The scenery, perhaps appropriately for the end of such an epic adventure, started improving as well, and before we knew it we were driving through pine forests with absolutely spectacular views of the massive Lake Fagnano beneath us.

In fact, so incredible were the vistas we encountered that, in order to capture them in their full glory, we often doubled back on ourselves to ensure that Claudio could fully capture it on film. You can see a small portion of the results of this in the latest video, so if you want to get a real feel of what it was like to drive into the world’s southernmost city, I encourage you to take a look!

The time for reflection, at least for the time being, was now over as we passed between the last 2 mountains and the city of Ushuaia appeared in the distance! We had seen pictures of this place, we had dreamed of this place, and now we were driving towards it! The scenery could not have been more dramatic; with the city nestled between huge snowcapped mountains on one side, and the sea on the othe;, I could not imagine a better place in the world to call this the finish line!

But, just as we were about to enter the city limits, we had our last delay, and what else could it be other than being pulled over by the police?! Why oh why would they want to stop us on our home run! It turned out that they wanted to check our paperwork, and then escort us into the city, but as is usual with these stops, this one being our 46th, this took around 10 minutes. It was frustrating, but as soon as we pulled off and entered the city, we forgot all about it!

With the crystal clear waters of the Beagle Sound on our left, and the mountains on our right, we drove into the most southern city of the world! As driver of the SRZero, I was literally shaking with excitement, and before long a huge crowd of people who had gathered to greet us appeared on the side if the road. We drove up onto the pavement and brought the car to a halt amid a cheering crowd and clicking cameras, and, just as we did so, the clouds parted and we were bathed in warm sunlight…we could not have asked for a better entrance!

As soon as the car was stopped, myself and Toby jumped out of the car to be greeted by the rest of the team who was running full pelt towards us from the van. I honestly can’t remember what we were shouting at each other or the general order of events over these few minutes, but my lasting memory will be of all of us holding each other and jumping up and down in a state of complete and utter joy!

Right at that moment we proved to the world not just the viability of electric cars and how different they are to peoples’ perceptions, but just how much a small group of “fresh” graduates can do if they put their minds to it. And this includes those members of the team that chose to stay at home; they were absolutely crucial to this project’s success and it was a real shame they could not be there with us at the finish line.

After the hugging and screaming with delight, Toby, Nik and I retrieved a secret stash of 3 champagne bottles which we had bought the day before unbeknown to the rest of the team. And so, in front of the crowd and cameras we popped the corks and sprayed the champagne everywhere in celebration! No-one was spared from the onslaught, and before long we were all thoroughly drenched!

Before the team had a chance to be approached by the media, Claudio put down the camera for a brief moment and waded into the crowd to present us all with a surprise. Since being in Argentina, the only thing he has wanted was a penguin ambush! He had a vision of us driving along a desolate road to find ourselves blockaded and then slapped about by these flightless birds, but unfortunately this was not to happen and the best he could arrange was to present each of us with a fluffy penguin toy! The thought was very much appreciated by the team, and at this point we also had a chance to sincerely thank Claudio, Paul, Chris and Cynthia for all their help on this trip. In their own ways, they have been instrumental to the project’s success, and we thank them profusely.

In summary, the next few hours consisted of media interviews, photoshoots, and an impromptu presentation to a bunch of school kids, many who had come to see the car arrive. The finish was completely fitting of the journey we have had, and I cannot put in words how proud I am of the team for getting this far, and to each of our sponsors for supporting us to such great lengths.

The feeling of arriving in this beautiful city, for Ushuaia is really quite breathtaking, after being on the road for so long and pushing so hard is indescribable. It still hasn’t sunk in even though I write this 2 days after arriving, and I suspect it will still take some time for each of us to appreciate the journey we have accomplished. As such, this will be the one blog post that I will continue to update as our thoughts and feelings about the last 5 months crystallise, and once I find words to describe such acute emotions!

This will not be my last blog post as there are still a few things other bits and bobs I want to get out there, but at this point I would like to thank each and every one of you for continuing to read and message me about them; you have been a constant source of motivation to get these blogs up even when I have been absolutely exhausted at certain points on the trip!

However, the story is not over yet; while the trip has now finished, the project still has a long way to go in achieving its objectives. We still want to encourage the younger generation to take up science and technology subjects, and we still want to make people aware of the benefits of electric cars.

To this end, we have been fortunate enough to secure investment to produce an 8 part documentary series for BBC World News; the world’s largest TV channel with over 74 million viewers a week in over 220 countries. Each documentary episode will be broadcast globally 8 times every weekend, starting on January 1st 2011. So, whatever you’re doing on New Years Day, make sure you watch the first episode! I hope you find it just as fresh and exciting as we did whilst actually doing the trip! The website will continue to be updated with what’s going on, events that we are attending, and details of the forthcoming documentary and DVD, so please do keep checking back on our home page.

And so this leaves me with just one last thing to say; thanks to everyone and our best regards to all! This is not the last you will see or hear from us!

P.S. If anyone knows how we can sell on our support van during the next 8 days we are in Argentina, please get in touch! We’re working on a number of options, but if you have any ideas we would certainly love to hear them. Just for reference, the van is a 2009 silver Ford E350 with about 45,000km on the clock. It still works fantastically with great power and comfortable ride, and after a quick clean up it will be in great shape again!

We were received in an absolutely fantastic style as we arrived into the world’s southernmost city, and the whole day from start to finish has been spectacular!

As we are now going out to celebrate, I don’t have the time to give a full account now, but rest assured that by the end of tomorrow, you’ll have all the information of today’s action at your fingertips!

Until then, goodnight, sleep well, and thank for you all for your support over the last 2 years!

This constituted a marked change from business as usual on the trip, so we were very excited to see what was awaiting us. After a light brunch and sorting out a few pieces of work, we left the city at around 4pm and headed out into the wide open spaces of inner Argentina. The drive over there was typical from what we had seen in our drive down; huge, wide, open spaces stretching as far as the eye can see. Occasionally the view was broken up by the odd sheep or llama by the side of the road, but essentially we barely saw any man-made structure for the entire 150km drive out to Chali-Aike, the name of the farm.

We didn’t really know what to expect as we pulled off the road and made our way down the gravel driveway towards the farmhouse. What exactly are we going to do at this farm in the middle of nowhere? Part of the answer came as we walked into the beautiful old farmhouse and were greeted as family by our hosts; we were going to eat! We were shown outside to a beautiful lawn and to a massive, and I mean truly massive outdoor grill!

Here we were offered drinks as one of the staff completed cooking an entire lamb which looked absolutely delicious. After this was chopped up, we were asked to sit at a table they had prepared outside, and alongside some home grown salad, we munched to our hearts’ content on some of the most delicious meat we had ever eaten. Slaughtered only the night before from their own livestock, this was about as fresh as you were ever going to get!

While eating, Sandra and Gonzalo (mother and father of Gonzalo junior) told us about their lives on the farm and what they did here. The land that they owned, which had been passed down through the family over 3 generations and 103 years, was absolutely mind bogglingly huge!

Their land measures 25km long by 22km wide which is 550 square kilometres, or 55,000 hectares! To put this in perspective, this is over one third the size of Greater London where over 7.2 million people live! Sitting on the immaculate lawn in front of the farmhouse, which is in a slightly elevated location, everything the eye could see, and more, in every direction, belonged to the farm…the sight was truly incredible and quite unimaginable.

What do they do with this land? Primarily, they use it to graze sheep, some 4,500 of them! In addition, they also raise horses and cows, and there were plenty of ostriches running around too. The main business however is derived from sheep wool and other sheep related products, as well as a small amount of oil which has been found on their vast piece of land.

We often hear about farms with very cramped conditions where the animals are force fed and live in absolutely disgraceful confines. This was the absolute polar opposite; the sheep are free to run around wild in the 55,000 hectares, and once a year they are brought in for shearing. Our hosts were very keen to show us how this all worked, so after the meal, we were taken out into the fields. We were told to wait by one of the barns while the sheep were collected. In order to do this, Gonzalo mounted a dirt bike, and sped off with Pancho, his trusty sheep dog, who was sat upon his lap as he drove!

A few minutes later, the sheep were herded into the barn with the help of Andres. I haven’t mentioned Andres yet, and perhaps I should have because he is a symbol of the real, traditional Argentina, and we had the pleasure of meeting him over lunch a little earlier.

Andres is a real, bonafide gaucho. Despite his age of 65, he still works the fields every day in the same way as he has done all his life. Standing tall and straight in the full atire of a traditional gaucho, and replete with rosy cheeks acquired after years of work in these windy fields, he was living proof that in some parts of the world, the old way of doing things still exists unchanged after many years.

Anyway, back to the barn where Gonzalo returned upon the bike, and the sheep where being ushered into a pen by Andres. In some farms where conditions are sub-optimal, you may expect the animals to be restless or a little agitated when put in a confined space and surrounded by people staring at them at them and patting them, which of course is what we were doing. However, they were completely calm and nonchalant with the attention, and one of the newborn lambs, just 15 days old, was happy to sit in Clemens’s arms while we stroked it and took pictures of it.

Next up was something we were really looking forward to seeing; a shearing! Gonzalo walked into the pen and inspected the sheeps’ wool to see which one was due for shearing. After deciding, he plucked one from the herd, and sat the sheep on its bum and began the shearing process. Throughout, the sheep did not make a sound, and apart from the occasional wriggle here and there, it barely squirmed as the razor went over its body and removed a thick layer of soft wool.

This was done so expertly that the coat came off all in one piece, and after a few minutes it was all over and the sheep, now looking much smaller, was allowed to rejoin its comrades in the pen. Check out the pictures (which will shortly be uploaded) to see what I mean; it really was an awesome thing to see, and gives you an idea of where much of our clothing comes from.

After seeing a bit more of the farm, the sun began to set and it started getting pretty chilly, so Gonzalo invited us back into the house where we sat and chatted in the warm kitchen for several hours. Before we knew it, it was dark outside, and much of the rest of the family arrived from Rio Gallegos for a big meal. This again consisted of the delicious lamb we had had for lunch as well as some pasta and a variety of salads.

The only 2 words I can think to describe the evening, and the whole day in fact, are unique and magical. None if us had ever been on a farm like this in the absolute middle of nowhere, nor shown such extreme hospitality by a bunch of people we had never met before. We well and truly had a fantastic time!

I wish I could go into more detail about the day because I fear the above description does not do it justice. The smells, the fresh air, happy dogs running around the place, good food, great hospitality, and total serenity relaxed the team to a huge extent even though we still had a really tough day of driving awaiting us the next day. However, we probably needed the break because the following day would require every ounce of energy we had as we drove south and entered Tierro del Fuego; the land of fire!

As such, after dinner we went to bed early in lieu of the 5.30am start the next day, and our penultimate push towards Ushuaia!

N.B. The farm had no Internet hence the lack of blog and photo uploading!

As there were no activities planned for today, we had the entire day free to work on all the various aspects of the project. This was very productive and took us right up to 8.30pm when the Starbucks, whose Internet we were using extensively, threw us out as they were closing! From here we made our way to a little sushi restaurant a short walk from our hotel, and while the food wasn’t up to the Peruvian sushi standard, it was very palatable indeed. This concluded our day at the relatively early time of 11pm, and we retired to the hotel for a decent night’s sleep.

Tuesday morning brought about a mass influx of people coinciding with the end of the holiday, and streets that had been empty before were now thronging with cars. However, for a change, we didn’t need to drive to our destination as we were due at the KPMG offices which were a mere 10 minute walk from our hotel. We arrived there at around 8.30am and prepared to deliver a presentation to an assembly of KPMG staff. Traditionally we have had a large press attendance at these presentations, but this was an employee only affair, and the press event was scheduled for the following day.

The presentation, which we are used to giving by now, went well and we had a round of very interesting questions delivered by the attentive audience. With this complete, we went outside where Toby had just arrived on cue with the SRZero to display outside the office. There were gasps of surprise as the SRZero cruised silently down the wide, leafy boulevard, with the sunlight glinting off its white bodywork, and came to a stop right where we were all standing.

Toby parked the car up on the pavement, and we spent the next few hours talking to KPMG employees and passing public alike. We have done this often before, but today had something very different going on. Just before lunch, I got asked by a man why there is a Hellmann logo on the car. I explained that this is because they had sponsored the project with the transport of the SRZero and equipment from London to Anchorage. He then excitedly explained that he was actually from Hellmann’s Chile branch, and that he didn’t know anything about it and that he wanted to hear more!

It didn’t end here though as he quickly called down his boss from their office just around the corner. His boss and the head of Hellmann’s Chile division, Markus, was just as excited to see the car there, and he was vaguely aware of the project. We spent some time explaining the project in more depth, and also the coincidence that Clemens was, just earlier that day, talking to Markus’s counterpart in Argentina in order to arrange the shipment of the car back to the UK. He promised to help sort something out, possibly in return for a much bigger logo on the car, but he suggested we discuss it over dinner later that evening, and he subsequently invited the whole team out! This was a great turn of events, especially as we haven’t seen anyone from Hellmann since leaving London.

Anyway, back to the day at hand; our last engagement for the day was a big lunch at a fancy restaurant with KPMG staff as well as diplomats from the British Embassy. Sitting in the restaurant eating the delicious food and enjoying the stimulating company, one could easily imagine being anywhere in Europe or the US such is the modern feel of Santiago. It distinctly feels un-South American, with a huge number of foreigners calling the city home. People often refer to Chile as the Switzerland of South America, and sitting in this beautiful and smart area of this 6 million strong city, I couldn’t but agree!

The rest of the afternoon was spent, as you may have guessed, working. Although, on this occasion, Nik and Toby were out fixing the van’s mirror which had had an unfortunate encounter with the wall of a car park. Fortunately though, the damage was easily and cheaply fixed, and everyone was soon reunited at the hotel.

At 7.30pm, Markus arrived to pick us up to take us out to see a bit more of the “local” side of the city, outside the glitzy area of skyscrapers and plush apartment blocks. He had booked for us a table in a very traditional restaurant in a an up-and-coming area of the city, and we enjoyed a fantastic traditional meal of grilled meats and potatoes, accompanied by a great German tasting beer which, perhaps surprisingly, originated from the south of Chile. We had the opportunity to quiz Markus on the ins and outs of Hellmann as, seeing as we have done so much logistics work ourselves, we were interested to find out how the professionals do it on a global level.

As you would expect, this was a very interesting conversation, and time flew by until the food was devoured, and it was time to move on. We found a little bar off a side street and listened to some live music while sampling the local variety of the pisco sour drink; a prerequisite for anyone visiting Chile!

Our last stop for the night was something quite special; Markus took us to the top of the W tower which comprised of a hotel, restaurant, bar, and residential units. This building was on par if not exceeding anything we would consider impressive in the western world, and the view from the bar at the top was nothing short of spectacular. Before calling it a night and walking back to our hotel, we enjoyed another drink up here, and had a chance not recount some of the stories from the trip.

All in all, our stay in Santiago was really enjoyable, and the city was far nicer than what we were previously expecting! A big thanks to KPMG and Hellmann for showing us such a good time and for feeding us in such style!

However, we weren’t there yet, and we still had to negotiate a 120km drive out into a very remote part of the desert. So, leaving Mejillones bright and early, we headed back out onto the PanAm which we were expecting would lead us to the required turn off. After some time on the road though, we were still on the PanAm and, according to our odometer, we should have reached the turning by now; we were lost, it transpired!

Despite the remoteness and almost complete lack of traffic, we managed to find a trucker who pointed us in the right direction, and it was only after 30km of backtracking that we managed to reach the turn off. And this is where we began climbing; from near sea level we climbed to a height of over 2,600m as we neared the observatory; the excitement among the team was palpable!

If you consider what an observatory needs for good results such as clean unpolluted air, very low light from the surroundings, dry air, and good weather, you realise how ideal Paranal’s location is. Located in one of the driest places in the world where, in some places, it hasn’t rained for over 500 years, and around 100km from any population, there is no better place to have a telescope! In fact, as we were climbing up the steep but well paved mountain road, we could feel how dry the air was becoming, and we could actually see the sky brightening to an incredibly deep blue…this really was the purest of skies!

Finally we reached the top and we could get our first glimpse of the scale of this operation; perched high atop a peak around 300m higher was the observation platform containing a 8 of the latest astronomical instrumentation available to man. It really was an awe inspiring sight, and it was only about to get more interesting as we explored it later! For now however, we needed to register with security after which we were invited to lunch here by our contact here, Gonzalo.

You may be wondering where, on a barren desert mountain such as this, one would go about procuring lunch. The answer in this case was the Residencia; a building functioning as home to the 150 or so people that work here, as well as a hotel to guests. The design of this building warrants a blog in itself; built into the mountain with the front facing out over the mountains in the fore and ocean in the distance, a more spectacular location could not be imagined. Walking inside just further enhanced this feeling, and it honestly felt like you had stepped into the future!

From the rocky desert outside, you walk in to be confronted by a living rainforest in the centre of the hotel! A glass dome spans the lobby under which sits a whole host of trees and tropical shrubbery. The whole place had an extremely hi tech feel, and if you need any more proof as to its incredible nature, you only have to watch the last James Bond; this was a set for the final scene in the “Eco Hotel” in Quantum of Solace! We were jumping with excitement like 4 year olds on a sugar high, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one humming the James Bond theme tune as we were welcomed to the hotel!

We were given the keys to our individual rooms; the first time on the trip that we were each sleeping in our own room (quite a pleasant change I have to say) after which we headed over to the canteen with Gonzalo for lunch. Not only was the food delicious and plentiful, but it also gave food for thought (no pun intended!) as to how they get everything up here. Apparently they have 40,000 litres of water delivered daily, as well as regular shipments of food, gas, and other necessities. All this is brought by truck from the port city of Antofagasta, over 100km away, in a massive logistics effort to keep this scientific outpost fully functioning.

After lunch we had some time where we demonstrated the car to some assembled press, and this was by far the most surreal place we had ever driven the car! Instead of driving it on the road or in a car park as is customary for such demos, we were driving in the space between the telescopes right at the top of the mountain! Since the crash in Quito, we have been a little nervous about demonstrating the car in front of a crowd, but imagine how we felt with €300 million worth of telescopes around us! However, nothing went wrong and after around an hour the car was taken back down to base camp, some 300m further down the mountain in order to be put on charge.

With the car charging next to the observatory’s workshop, we joined some senior members of ESO for a tour of one of the Unit Telescopes; a giant 8.2m telescope operating in the visible and infrared wavelengths. The degree of precision and quality of engineering used in the construction of these giant machines was staggering; honestly, you felt your breath slip away when viewing the shear magnitude of operations here. I would love to go into further detail here, but I think you would be better off visiting their excellent website at www.eso.org for more information.

We were able to see the telescope swivel into position ready for the night’s observing, and it’s amazing how this 350 ton machine whirs into position without the faintest sign of overshooting; this is engineering and science taken to an unimaginable level, and we all felt like we had stepped into a far more advanced world than the one in which we conduct our normal day to day lives. We think our laptops or mobile phones are technologically advanced, but they are the equivalent to comparing a horse and carriage to a space shuttle when compared with the tech employed in these telescopes! Truly remarkable.

After having had a demonstration on how the telescope mechanically operates, and seeing the general setup, we went outside to view the sunset. We were surrounded by mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other, and as the sun dipped below the horizon, we were treated to a dazzling display of colours. However, the surprises didn’t end there as we were then told to look at a different point in the sky where we could all see Jupiter shining bright! Yet another sight which none of us had ever seen before. It was amazing how fast the temperature plummeted as soon as the sun when down, and before long we were shivering in the desert cold.

At this point, Gonzalo invited us to dinner which was, by this stage, very welcome. So, as the light began to fade, we made our way 300m down the mountain and 3km away to the Residencia eagerly anticipating dinner, but even more so the pure night sky that would await us afterwards!

Upon entering the Residencia, we got an idea of just how important it is to keep light pollution to an absolute minimum. That glass dome in the lobby that I mentioned earlier was completely sealed to prevent any light from escaping, as were all the windows as well. In fact, so important is it to have complete darkness, that ESO have liaised with the city of Antofagasta 100km away to change their entire street lighting system to ensure that there is no interference with the telescopes. The same was done with the mining companies operating in the region, and to complete the process, aeroplanes landing into Antofagasta at night are routed miles away from Paranal; a truly multifaceted effort!

Dinner was, once again, a delicious affair, and we enjoyed the company of several ESO employees who all had fascinating stories to tell. It was abundantly clear just how intelligent the people here are; everybody, be they the engineers, scientists or technicians were doing something absolutely groundbreaking each and every night. This was a place of scientific discovery, and the excitement around this is evident everywhere.

After dinner we went outside to view the night sky and to have a tour through the control room. For the umpteenth time today we were, once again, blown away.  I have never seen a night sky like this! After letting one’s eyes adjust over a few minutes, you are actually able to see in this darkness due entirely to the brightness of the stars above. The word infinity comes to mind when you stare upwards and the number of stars appears endless. So unpolluted and clear is the air that you can view the Milky Way with the stars so densely packed that it looks like a nearby cloud. We stared in absolute wonderment!

After a period of star staring, we headed back up to the observatory to the control centre where we were able to see a team controlling a telescope and carrying out research. The equipment they have is clearly state of the art, and they tried their best to explain what exactly they were doing with these telescopes. I have to profess that much of it was a little beyond our collective knowledge, but from what we gleaned we could tell that there was truly remarkable work being conducted out here.

By this time it was midnight, and seeing as we are not astronomers who lead a nocturnal life, we were yearning for bed! So, back to the Residencia we went, and we each disappeared into our respective rooms which, in themselves, were wonderful pieces of architecture; comfortable and well designed with particular attention paid to the lighting which was very soft to prevent a strain on the eyes after coming in from pitch black darkness.

As I slipped slowly to sleep, I couldn’t help but feel an immense privilege for being invited up here to this amazing place. Perhaps I don’t get across very well just how unique this place is, and certainly I could write pages more, but take it from me; this is really one of those once in a lifetime experiences. This is the best man has to offer at this time; a true pinnacle of technology and teamwork has been achieved in order to probe the vast reaches of our universe, and you can’t help but wonder what they are going to discover next!

Despite the relatively short drive we had planned today, only around 300km, we had a lot to fit in what with a visit to the University of Lima and a trip to Salvador and Fernando’s race track. So, after our alarms ringing at the hideous time of 6.30am, we arrived at the university at 7.45am with the aim of giving a presentation and mixing with the students before leaving at 9am sharp.

Despite the very late night and early start, we were all feeling great, and Toby managed to deliver a very impressive presentation completely in Spanish. We had time for a few questions afterwards, but with our deadline rapidly approaching, we thanked the university for hosting us, and we headed on our way. Our impression of the university was excellent; they had clearly invested a huge amount in their buildings and infrastructure which again, like we saw in Medellin, just serves to show how up and coming Latin America is.

The 50km drive out of Lima south to the race track was quick and easy, and before long we were back out into the wide open desert landscapes we had begun to know and love. A sharp turn off the Pan-American Highway followed by a short stretch of dirt road brought us onto the smooth, pitch black tarmac of the race circuit. It was in quite spectacular surroundings with reddish mountains on one side, and a small airfield on the other with planes flying overhead coming in to land…quite dramatic!

Initially we had planned to do some testing on the track to see if our changes to the wheel alignment had made a difference to our range, however, upon driving the circuit we realised that it was not going to be representative of the typical driving that we do and so would not give us accurate results. As such, we decided to enjoy our visit by taking Fernando, Salvador and some others for gentle laps of the track, followed by some pictures for the press that were there as well…we would save the testing for the road.

We spent around 2 hours at the track before getting back on the road with the warm desert sun on our backs. Aside from a small break for lunch at around 3, we powered on towards Ica where we arrived at around 6pm. Here we were welcomed by Giofranco who works at Revistar, a vehicle testing centre so new it had yet to be inaugurated. The facility was absolutely first class with top of the range equipment, and we were warmly welcomed and told we could charge here and conduct any work we may need to do on the car.

It had in fact transpired that the wheel alignment was not making any difference to our range whatsoever, and that there must be something else at fault. Our next suspicion was that perhaps a component had malfunctioned giving a higher electrical resistance than normal and thereby giving rise to higher currents and higher losses to deliver the same power as before. This would follow what’s called a square law whereby if one doubles the current drawn, you quadruple the energy losses, and this would be roughly consistent with our findings whereby under normal low power cruising conditions, our range is normal, but even marginal amounts of acceleration served to reduce our range noticably.. And so, we set to work on the car to try and find the solution.

Work lasted late into the night in our bid to reinstall part of the BMS which was removed in Cartagena which would enable us to isolate the problem. As is typical, we saw other things on the car which could be improved as well, and these were addressed too. But by 11.30pm we were absolutely exhausted and it was getting to the point where accidents could happen while being so tired around a live 550V battery pack! As such, we called it a night, put the car on charge, and headed to the hotel for some sleep before continuing the following day!

The first priority was to fix the bodywork which was damaged in the crash during our drive into Lima the night before. Through one of Salvador’s contacts, we had located a fibreglass guy, and through Giovanna, the marketing director at KPMG, we had got hold of a painter that could restore the surface of the bodywork to its formerly smooth and unblemished finish.

At 8am, Toby met the fibreglasser in the underground garage at KPMG, and within an hour the bodywork had been fully repaired to its former strength, and the surface sanded down to a smooth finish. Later on in the day the painter arrived, and after combining together the right proportions of white and silver paint, applied an even finish to the repair job. The rest of the morning was spent doing the “behind the scenes stuff” like emails, website updating, blogs etc until we went over to KPMG for the afternoon to prepare for the press day starting the following morning.

While myself and Clemens were meeting with KPMG to work out the precise details about who will be doing what and saying what during the press day, Nik and Toby were downstairs playing with the wheel alignment configuration to see if this would affect the reduced range we have been seeing. Through our observation of data collected while driving over the preceding days, we had eliminated the possibility of the range reduction having anything to do with altered aerodynamics. This was initially suggested because the repaired front splitter dips slightly on the left, it’s thicker than its predecessor, and is traditionally a large source of drag (purposefully) on race cars.

We suspected that after the wheel realignment in Quito, which was done to mimic the normal race car set up, that the wheels were toed inwards too much. As such, we toed them out to as straight as they would go, and also looked at other potential factors such as tyre tread and alignment of break callipers. However, we would have to wait until Thursday, when we were due to drive out of Lima, before we could test the changes.

The next challenge of the day was to move the car into the KPMG lobby so that it could be displayed during the press event. This entailed getting it up 2 small steps and then one big flight of steps around 1.3 metres high. To this end, KPMG had organised for a flat bed truck to come which, apparently, would be able to safely deliver the SRZero into the lobby.

However, we took one look at the truck when it arrived and we had serious doubts whether it would be able to live up to the expectation. We told the driver this, but he said that he had come on Friday to check that it was possible, that he has done this before, and that it wouldn’t be a problem. We were not instilled with the greatest of confidence, and our concerns were further enforced when we measured the stairs and the truck with a tape measure…it just wasn’t going to happen!

Yet the driver still insisted he could do it, and that we must just load up the SRZero and get on with it. Naturally, we were not prepared to risk the car on something we were sure would not work, and so we told him to do a dry run and show us that the truck could bridge the stairs, but without the SRZero on board.

He begrudgingly agreed and so we headed over to do just that. I can condense the following 2 hours into a single sentence; it didn’t work, not by a mile! Firstly, the bed would not extend far enough back or high enough to bridge the stairs, so then he tried reversing the truck onto unstable little pieces of wood to try and make up for the short fall. While doing so, one of his hydraulic actuators, which he had been fiddling with earlier, starting spewing out hydraulic oil all over the smart entrance of the KPMG tower; they were less than amused!

Yet he still didn’t give up, and it was only on another reversing attempt when he went too far and took chunks out of the stone staircase that KPMG finally intervened and told the guy to go home. It was a shame it had to happen like this, but infinitely preferable than doing it with the 1.2 ton SRZero mounted on top of it! And besides, our back up plan to have it just in front of the steps (but still off the pavement) was perfectly good as well, so on this note, we finished the day and returned to the hotel for a quick shower before dinner.

We were due to meet Fernando for dinner, and he had promised us to take us to some sushi which was supposed to be unmatched. Given our previous experience with Peruvian seafood, we certainly had high expectations, and we arrived with our appetites fully whetted! Sharing a large assortment of different dishes, we had an extensive taste of what the restaurant was capable of, and the verdict was unanimous incredulity! Quite unlike normal sushi, these delicious morsels were infused with ingredients not normally found in Japanese cuisine, such as parmesan for example, and the result was truly exquisite!

After dinner, Fernando took us for a quick tour of the city, and contrary to what we had heard about Lima being a grey and ugly city, we were very pleasantly surprised. Sure, there are large areas of the city which are somewhat less than attractive, but the area along the coast and parts of the old city further inland were very beautiful indeed.

With the tour complete, Fernando dropped us off at our hotel where we all took an early night. Many thanks to Fernando for showing us a great time, and to the flatbed truck driver; sorry my friend, better luck next time!

The next day was the standard press day affair; long, tiring but always enjoyable! We had 2 presentations to give; one to the press, and the other to KPMG staff. These presentations were separated by viewing time of the car when anybody could come along, meet the team, ask questions, and take pictures with the car. This continued uninterrupted apart from lunch where we were treated to a delicious meal by the British Embassy.

This provided for an extremely interesting time as we quizzed the Deputy Head of Mission about some of the things which, with our prior involvement with the embassies along the way, we had been thinking about. What travels in the diplomatic bag? How are communications with the UK conducted in a secure manner? Do their mobiles have secret encryptions to prevent people from tapping their calls? Do they ever get MI6 agents stopping by?!

There were things which he couldn’t divulge of course, but he gave us the general gist in most cases and it certainly is fascinating area of the civil service! Peru isn’t exactly a hotbed of secret diplomatic activity though, at least as far as the UK is concerned, so the embassy here is more focussed on enhancing ties between the 2 countries through trade and investment.

After returning to the KPMG building and finishing with the press day, we had to move the car over to the university where we would be giving a quick presentation early the following morning. To ensure the car was not going to be damaged in the apocalyptic Lima traffic, we surrounded the SRZero in a convoy totalling 5 vehicles including one police motorbike. Progress was fairly slow; it took about half an hour to complete 7km, but we made it there safely at least! We drove it into the large and incredibly impressive university campus (La Universidad de Lima), and parked it up ready for the next morning.

From here, we had just one more engagement for the day; eating! KPMG took us out to a smart restaurant right on the beach, and ordered for the whole table round after round of delicious sushi. Yes we had had some the night before, but this was just as good! The atmosphere was really enjoyable as 5 of us and around 15 KPMG staff chatted away. We also had the opportunity to try something very interesting; un pisco de coca. Pisco is an alcohol made from grape which is mixed into a drink traditionally known as pisco sour. Containing lime, sugar and egg white, it is a potent but delicious concoction which we had the pleasure of trying over previous days. However, on this occasion, the restaurant had on offer the aforementioned variation which was flavoured with coca leaves!

In Peru, coca leaves are completely legal and are predominantly used in tea and for chewing. Apparently this releases a chemical (not cocaine!) which acts as a stimulant in much the same way as caffeine. This effect was not noticed in the pisco de coca, which tasted much like alcoholic green tea, but it certainly provided for a delicious flavour!

After dinner, we went out to a party with some of the girls from KPMG which Fernando had invited us to, and this concluded a long but very enjoyable day! Many thanks to KPMG for hosting us in such style, including our hotel which was fantastic, and for allowing us to use their garage as an impromptu workshop!

Today was a day which we were all looking forward to considerably. We had something on the agenda which was completely different to what we had done at any point on the trip so far, so we woke up in Troy’s apartment looking forward to the day’s events.

Firstly though we had to eat, so we started asking our hosts where we could take some breakfast. However, it turned out that our Lauren, Gabriela and Hannah had prepared us breakfast at their house mere metres away, so we walked over and indulged. Breakfast was delicious, and once we had finished we went over to the university to do a presentation to the students and staff there. This was a deal that was organised the night before when they offered us a place to charge, but prior to this we had no plans to visit this university.

As such, we were perplexed as to how a whole contingent of students could suddenly have procured custom printed Racing Green Endurance t-shirts! Literally, they must have been printed out overnight because not even we knew that we would be going to the university but 12 hours before! Anyway, we delivered the presentation which went very well after which we demonstrated the car in the car park, without crashing this time! Despite the amount of press rushing to talk to us, we really had to leave for our other engagement which for us was very important to meet.

Troy and the girls from Ayni had organised for us to go to a small, poor village around half an hour out of Piura for us to get a sense of some the real life conditions off the highway. Every day we are either on the road or in big cities and we have never really had the chance to see how people lived in the rural parts, so this was really a special opportunity to do so.

Upon arriving, a whole gaggle of children around 10 years old rushed out to greet us; apparently white people in these parts are pretty rare! They were so eager to play and to test their limited English on us, and while lunch was being prepared we played football with them in the sandy streets. This being in the middle of the desert, everything is sandy, dusty, and very hot. The people here are living in real poverty, but nonetheless had a glowing smile on their faces and were perhaps the best demonstration of how you don’t have to have a great deal of possessions to be happy.

Anyway, further revelations were to come later as for now we were ushered into Ines’ home, a lady from the village who coordinates the volunteer effort. She and other women from the village had heard we were coming and had prepared us a delicious meal of lamb, rice and potato salad. Despite having so little to eat they were still unbelievably generous with their food and managed to put together a meal to feed all 14 of us! The meal was accompanied by checha, a local alcoholic drink made by fermenting corn. It tasted a little like beer and was not that bad, although I don’t think any of us will be asking for it the next time we go down the pub for a pint!

After lunch, the library, where the children are taught English and learn games and suchlike, was opened and we were allowed in to play games with them and see how they interact with each other. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the trip; completely unlike anything any of us had ever done before, and a real eyeopener. So eager to learn and engage with new people, it was a real glimpse of true community life which in some cases has been forgotten in our big prosperous cities in the West.

After spending some time at the library, we went into one of the houses where the Ayni project is really improving the quality of peoples’ lives. Traditionally, they cook food over open flames inside their homes which is not only a dangerous fire hazard but also very bad for their health, especially so for the children. So one of the things Ayni does is to teach them how to build stoves out of cheap local materials; something which has immediately and directly improved the standard of living in these very primitive living conditions.

While we were in the house we could really see how similar we all are despite the huge wealth disparity. One of the children’s school timetable pinned up to the straw wall while the other was sitting on a bed, which is shared with all the children in the family, doing her homework. This would be the same scene in any household pretty much anywhere in the world; sure, the conditions are lightyears apart, but it shows we are all doing the same things effectively. The children are trying to learn while the adults are working to provide for their families in order to provide the simple things we all need.

Much as we were really enjoying our time here, we still had some driving to do, so after saying our goodbyes to everyone, we headed on back to Piura to pick up the SRZero and head on south towards Chiclayo. At the university we said goodbye to our hosts, and headed back out of the city to rejoin the Pan-American Highway.

The road was, as we have become used to in Peru, absolutely perfect as it stretched its way through the desert. The landscape was spectacular with sand dunes coming right up to the road and a horizon so flat it looked like an ocean. In fact, on one occasion the desert overcame our desire to keep on pushing forward, so we stopped alongside the deserted road and went for a run in the desert. The sand was fine and soft, and it was only a matter of time before we ended up all rugby tackling each other in the sand…such fun!

A few hours later and we pulled into the local university in Chiclayo where we were able to charge up. For the first time since Mexico, the charging point they had for us had no earth which makes the case of our chargers live and is hence not safe. So we did something that we had always thought we would have to do; make our own earth! In Mexico we had wired onto a local water pipe, but with none of these available we had to get a long metal stake and drive it into the ground outside. To this we wired into our earth wire, and we were good to go!

After this we went to our hotel, dropped our bags off, and went to a restaurant with Frankie from the university. He assured us this would be some of the best chicken we would taste, so we were eager to see what was going on. Lo and behold, when we got to the restaurant, it was exactly the same as our Nandoes back in the UK, except it was called Pardoes! It was very nice actually and a delicious way to finish a very interesting and perspective-altering day!