A look across the scrutineering floor. Each entrant is carefully examined for safety and engineering integrity and each vehicle is pulled apart and put back together in the process.

One of the sleek entrants, this one from Chile. In all there were 37 vehicles entered this year representing 20 countries.

A more colourful offering from Turkey.

Closer to home, the entrant from TAFE South Australia. Radically different from most other entrants, this one can carry three people.

Coinciding with the scrutineering, Engineering Australia organised the Sunchase challenge for school kids. Some 230 students raced 60 solar powered model cars and model boats that they had built themselves.

Back to the scrutineering floor and a look under the cockroach shell of a Canadian entrant. It’s light, lots of high tech electronics and air conditioning consisting of some ducted pipes to keep drive and batteries cool.

The teams take this race very seriously and some are extremely well supported. This Japanese team looks more like they are about to race in Formula One decked out in full racing suits!

RiAus doing its bit presenting Science Outside the Square. Steve Kern introduces David Kitching from the World Solar Challenge to another group of school children.

RiAus presenter Kiran Shettigara takes some keen students through the construction of a simple motor.

Also at the scrutineering were Robert Habel and Cole Larsen, the artists behind our current exhibition Energy Landscapes. Cole films Robert working on their next portfolio that will feature the solar cars.

And this is the prize, the trophy for the Veolia World Solar Challenge on display in the middle of the scrutineering floor.