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The prototype, with its solar panel and open aluminium chassis

The Prototype

Driving prototype · 2025

All cars

Why we built a prototype

  1. 2022

    Starting from zero

    DCU Solar Racing began as an idea among DCU engineering students. None of us had built a solar car, or any car, and Ireland had never had one, so there was no one else to ask.

    We were honest about that from the start: a race car would be our first car, and first cars go wrong.

    Steering and suspension

    We started with the design of the steering and suspension, the parts that decide how a car holds the road.

    The team in green DCU Solar Racing polos around the prototype, a team member in the driver’s seat

  2. 2024

    Build small first

    So we began small, we put together the knowledge we knew, built a frame, built the suspension and created something that could roll.

    In October 2024 we showed this early work and showcased it at DCU, the team gained support for the project.

    The brakes

    We made the brakes and tested them on the ground with the car rolling. A car has to stop before it can be trusted to go.

    Team members in a bare steel chassis, with a hub motor on the stand beside it

  3. 2025

    The first drive

    In September 2025 the prototype drove on campus under its own power, the first car we had built to do so.

    Every drive showed us something a drawing could not: how the parts fit together, what broke, and what we would build differently.

    Battery and motor

    Adding the battery pack and the hub motor let the car drive under its own power. Each of these steps was a step towards Solas.

    Team members gathered round the prototype at dusk, its lights on and a driver in the seat

  4. 2026

    Into Solas

    What we learned went straight into Solas, our race car. A year after the prototype’s first drive, Solas ran the full 24 hours at Circuit Zolder.

    Every lesson, integrated

    Solas brought together everything we learned on the prototype: the steering, suspension, brakes, battery and motor, integrated in one race car.

    Solas, the team’s green solar car, on the track at Circuit Zolder

  1. 0

    Experience

    We started from nothing, so we built small first and learned on every drive.

  2. 4

    Systems proven

    Motor and battery, steering, brakes and the driver display, each on a car that drove.

  3. 2025

    First drive

    The first car we built to move under its own power, on the DCU campus in September.

  4. 1year

    From first drive to Zolder

    Twelve months later, Solas finished the full 24 hours at Circuit Zolder.

The prototype, sketched

Side view
1234
  1. Motor & battery
  2. Steering & suspension
  3. Brakes
  4. Driver display
In 3D

Drag to turn it round.

  • Motor and battery

    Our first hub motor, run from our own battery pack. The prototype showed us how to get power from the pack to the wheel safely, and what the electrical system in Solas would need.

  • The catamaran frame

    Two aluminium side pods joined across the middle made a frame that was quick to build and easy to change. Driving it taught us why a single bullet-shaped body suited us better, and that is the shape Solas took.

  • Four wheels

    The prototype ran on four wheels, steered at the front. Testing it showed us how a four-wheel layout handled, steered and braked on real ground before we settled the race car’s layout.

  • Built to fail

    The prototype was a platform we were free to break. We could try an idea, see how it really worked and change it, with no risk to the final car. That is a big part of why Solas, our first race car, turned out so much better.

The DCU Solar Racing team at dusk with the prototype, in front of the DCU sign