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THE CHIEF PARTICIPANTS
Hans Tholstrup
Hans cleanly the solar panels at Springwood, the night before the triumphant finish at the Sydney Opera House
Pioneering was nothing new to Hans when he took on the BP Solar Trek. Aged
36 at the time he had already made his mark with his exploits, having arrived in
Australia in 1965 from Denmark on a round the world trip, but he never got any
further than Australia:
- in 1970 he made an epic voyage circumnavigating Australia in a tiny open
fibreglass speedboat (called the 'Tom Thumb'), and captured the imagination of
the media and public by shattering world distance and endurance record;
- he flew a single-engine aircraft solo around the world;
- crossed Australia west to east (there very few 'roads') in a diminutive four wheel drive Daihatsu;
- crossed the treacherous Bass Strait in a Mini-Moke strapped to a rubber craft;
- rode a motorcycle around the world in 27 days;
- drove Dick Smith's Flying Bus over the top of 16 motor cycles;
- rode a motor cycle from Rockhampton to Perth over deserts;
- crossed the North Atlantic in a speedboat, knowing that the survival time in water with icebergs was one to four minutes;
- drove from the northern-most point of Europe to the southern tip of Africa, experiencing minus 20 degrees centigrade temperatures above the Polar Circle to 50 degrees in the Sahara Desert;
- drove in the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial in a Chevrolet Pickup and finished 67th - a fine feat after a disastrous start when he crashed into a stump on the very first stage at Tooberac (north of Melbourne) and then the differential broke. Like so many others in that gruelling event, his determination got him through it tot he finish line two weeks later;
- raced at Bathurst in the 70s;
- drove in the Total Oil Economy Runs in the 70s;
- he regularly drove vehicles to achieve the best possible consumption figures to prove just what could be achieved;
- developed the concept for the 1981 BP Commercial Vehicles Economy Run, conducted after the second fuel crisis between Melbourne and Sydney to test the consumption of the latest trucks and buses.
Whatever this adventurer set out to
achieve, it was no slap-dash, devil-may-care exercise. Every voyage and new
adventure was carefully planned, meticulously prepared for, because he left
nothing to chance. His determination to win through, to beat the odds was
extreme, compared to most people.
A devout supporter of Australia and everything Australian Hans developed a
passionate desire to help develop alternative energy sources in an effort to
conserve oil supplies, particularly in light of the oil crisis of 1973 and 1980.
Over the years Hans became interested in solar power and its potential as an alternative energy source to oil.
His philosophy to the BP Solar Trek, stated at the time was:
"I agree with my critics that this journey has no more benefit than the flight of the Kittyhawk, but we all now know what the Kittyhawk led to. It may take a lot longer to see what the BP Solar Trek may lead to, but if it will motivate just one more idea and thought in the development of solar power, then the venture will have been well worthwhile."
Larry Perkins
Larry steering the Quiet Achiever. Together with his brother, Garry, and Hans, they developed the concept of the vehicle and then constructed it.
33 at the time of the Solar Trek, Larry had spent all of his adult life
involved with developing motor cars. His father was an engine fitter in the Air
Force during the war and there were plenty of opportunities on the family farm
at Cowangie (near Mildura in Victoria - hence the name "Cowangie Kid"
that Larry wore for many years) for Larry and his two brothers to learn all
about mechanics from him.
- Starting circuit racing in 1970, Larry won a 1971 'Driver to Europe' series
award driving Formula Fords;
- In Europe in 1973 he first raced Formula Fords and then switched to Formula 3,
and was ranked third by the end of the series;
- In 1975 he won the European Formula 3 Championship Series;
- In 1976 he turned to Formula 1 and contested a number of races throughout the
year and finished eighth in the Belgium Grand Prix;
- In 1977/78, and again in1978/79, he contested the Tasman Series in New Zealand and Australia, winning in the latter year;
- in 1978 he co-drove a Porsche Carrera at the Le Mans 24 hour Endurance Race and finished second in his class;
- For the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial and and brother Garry built a special Volkswagen and were running fifth after a few days. He rolled the car and this out them out of the event (but there is more to tell about the Volkswagen in the 1985 Wynn's Safari!);
- in 1979 he was second at Bathurst and then, in 1982, after teaming with Peter Brock, won the coveted race.
Larry had not spent all his time in the motor racing scene. In 1980 he built a vehicle for the Shell Mileage Marathon, which was then conducted on an annual basis. The vehicle had a bulbous body, where everyone else had a cigar-shaped vehicle. It had more frontal area than the others, but far less drag though the air. He beat the then world record with a consumption of around 1700 miles per gallon, and then the following year, with some minor modifications he achieved 2300 miles per gallon.
This was the sort of engineering ability that Hans was looking for when de developed the concept of a solar power crossing of Australia.
"We knew what power would be available from a practical size solar module and we therefore designed the solar vehicle characteristics to suit", Larry said at the time. "This meant a particular rolling resistance and a particular minimum aerodynamic resistance. When we did all the sums we reckoned we could design and build a vehicle which would do the journey in the time allotted."
BP AUSTRALIA
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Roger Goudy, Head of Government and Public Affairs for BP Australia, was greatly instrumental in getting Hans' and Larry's dream a reality. Roger, shown here with the intrepid duo, is testing the effectiveness of the solar modules. |
BP was a resources development company working on increasing the efficiency
of solar cells so that the use of solar power, which is virtually inexhaustible,
silent and environmentally clean and acceptable, could be of greater benefit to
the community.
At the time of the Solar Trek solar cells were only
11 percent efficient - that is, only 11 percent of the power is collected from
the total energy of the sun's rays striking the cells. Laboratory samples were
achieving almost 30 percent efficiency, and 50 percent was being aimed at in the
forseeable future. This meant greater power output, or smaller and more powerful
cells could be utilised for a great range of products which used fossil
fuels.
BP backed the Solar Trek concept
because it could see it was a very practical demonstration of the use of solar
power, although it did not envisage solar power vehicles for many years to come,
if indeed they did. The purpose of BP involvement was to stimulate research and
accelerate the development of solar power.
Frances Birtle
Hans almost always had some 'hero' or 'heroic feat' to look to and inspire
himself. For the Solar Trek journey it was Frances Birtles.
Born in 1881 Birtles completed some 90 extended trips in and around Australia.
He was the first person to cycle around Australia; following his
transcontinental drive he drove from Sydney to Darwin, Darwin to Adelaide, and
perhaps his greatest achievement was pioneering an overland route from London to
Melbourne.
The journey of the Solar Trek would coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first crossing of Australia by a motor car - when Frances Birtle drove a Brush car from Fremantle to Sydney, in 28 days. Thus, this period gave Hans and Larry a target to aim at, and to achieve this they would need to cover, on average, 150 kilometres (90 miles) per day.
The Brush had a hickory timber
frame, which sounded fragile to the motorists of the day, and the car's agents
were keen to prove its stamina in the toughest possible way.
Accompanied by the Brush agent Sydney Ferguson, a dog named Rex and a massive
load of supplies and equipment, including a bicycle, Birtles left Fremantle on
............. in 1912.
The two men immediately ran into
trouble with sand, which was so soft in places they spend a whole day travelling
only a few hundred metres.
Most of the outback, of course, was virgin country and any tracks that did exist
were mostly made by animals. Many clumps of grass disguised objects which
battered their car such that Birtles often had to make improvised repairs.
On one occasion the crankshaft snapped in two, leaving them stranded miles from
anywhere. The bicycle proved its worth - Birtles cut it up and fashioned
temporary repairs which got them going aagin.
A snapped axle and a broken timber chassis rail continued to keep the two men
busy as they limped through South Australia and into New South Wales, via Broken
Hill. A four weeks they arrived at Sydney.
Like Birtles and Ferguson in 1912, Hans and Larry, on the 70th anniversary of Birtles crossing, would begin the first ever solar crossing of a continent on December 19 and hoped to make it to Sydney within the 28 days it took their predecessors. Like the 1912 intrepid duo, the 1982 duo would be more concerned about blazing a trail, rather than with speed,
Frances Birtles
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Frances Birtles, with Syd Ferguson and the terrier, Rex, on their epic journey from Perth to Sydney in 1912.
Story and photographs courtesy of Pedr Davis' "Wheels Across Australia" , 1987
