Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 11, 2008

INUVIK - Marcelo da Luz recently became the first person to drive a solar powered car across the Arctic Circle on his way to setting a world distance record for such vehicles.

"What we're doing here, people would say it is impossible," said da Luz.

What he and his team have done is navigate the entire Dempster Highway in a car built for paved roads at best. He certainly came prepared with a supply of 75 spare tires in tow. It turned out he only needed five of those while making his trip up the Dempster to Inuvik.

His solar car, the Xof1 was built from scratch mainly out of fiberglass. The car has three tires instead of four, handlebars instead of a steering wheel and sits about three and a half feet off the ground. The tires are about two inches wide and, inside the cab, it only has room for the driver who must lay almost flat in the vehicle.

It took da Luz and his team 49 days to reach Inuvik from Buffalo, N.Y. - the only jurisdiction he could find that would issue him plates.

If they're able to complete the return trip, the car will have travelled more than 10,000 km, which he said will establish a new distance record among solar vehicles.

His trip up the Dempster was no picnic. Though the car's top speed is 120 km/h, it averaged just 60 km/h on pavement and a mere 30 km/h along the Dempster.

It took him five days to get from Dawson City to Inuvik.

He also had a run in with a wolf along the highway when he and his crew had stopped for a break to give the car's batteries time to recharge under the sun.

They went for a walk and when they returned to their car, a wolf was sniffing around the vehicle.

"I started walking towards the wolf and the wolf started walking towards me," he said. "I thought he was friendly, but I guess that wasn't the case when he tried to bite my leg."

When he arrived in Fort McPherson, he said most of the people he spoke to were more interested in the wolf than the car itself, although it did attract many onlookers.