Northern Territory teens put their hydrogen-powered cars to the test

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A team of territory teenagers are hoping for a place on the starting grid at the world stage as they take their hydrogen-powered remote control car to a national competition on the Gold Coast. Palmerston Christian College says the competition's proved to be a very popular elective and has challenged their students to learn skills for the future.

Transcript

00:00Racing into the future. These students are putting their hydrogen powered cars through

00:08their final paces, preparing for a Le Mans style endurance race over four hours.

00:15To win it's just to stay in it as long as you can and drive the most laps.

00:20All cars must be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Each canister holds just one gram of

00:26gas. The challenge, to build a car from scratch. Their teachers say running a micro motorsports

00:31team has greatly helped in the Year 10's STEM subjects.

00:35We have made a couple of modifications to the car just to make it more efficient, such

00:40as changing the motor from brush to brushless.

00:43Yeah, the creativity some of these boys have brought to this subject has been amazing.

00:47You know, 3D printing parts, custom making bits and pieces for the car.

00:52Hydrogen fuel cell cars promise to revolutionise the motor industry by creating fuel from water.

00:58But full sized versions are yet to be commercialised at scale.

01:02My dream after school is actually to become a heavy diesel mechanic. It's actually broadened

01:05my education and it's preparing me for the fact that 20 years down the line this might

01:11be what all the heavy machinery is working on.

01:15The NT team flies to the Gold Coast next month. They're hoping to repeat the effort of these

01:20students from Gladstone in Queensland, who last year reached the world championships

01:25in the US.

01:26Look, a trip to Anaheim would be a pretty good school excursion for these boys if we

01:30can get there.

01:31Territory teens hoping for a fairytale finish.

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