How Scott Bader’s Advanced Composites Powered a Record-Breaking Solar Car

Covering more than 3000 kilometres across the Australian Outback, a student built solar car from Canada has achieved a top ten global finish in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. This is an amazing achievement showing endurance, engineering and innovation. Behind the success were Scott Bader’s structural adhesives and advanced resin technology which played a critical role in enabling the team's lightweight, high strength vehicle design.

Find out how the collaboration between Scott Bader and the Solar Car team was able to meet extreme performance demands. From construction and automotive to renewable energy applications, it's an incredible demonstration of how Scott Bader drives innovation across industries.

The Challenge: Building a Solar Car for Global Competition

The World Solar Challenge is recognised as one of the toughest tests of solar powered engineering. Teams involved must design and build a car capable of travelling thousands of kilometres across harsh terrain in the intense sun with unpredictable weather in the Australian Outback, while maximising the efficiency of the build.

The Canadian team has set themselves ambitious goals
• Create a lightweight aerodynamic vehicle

• Build a vehicle capable of surviving extreme temperature variation

The decision behind each individually chosen material was a meticulous process. Every component needed to meet demanding performance criteria while remaining reliable and delivering strength and a high quality finish.

The Solution: High-Performance Products from Scott Bader

To support the team’s goals, Scott Bader supplied a range of resins, adhesives and fairing compounds designed to meet all the above requirements with their previously proven reliability.

Utilising Scott Bader’s technical team, they were able to guide the Solar Car team over the 18 month build process, through the correct solutions and any challenges as they arose.

The Materials: Scott Bader Products in Action

Crystic VE671 (High HDT Version):
Chosen for its ability to withstand the high temperatures needed for epoxy prepreg curing, delivering the required stability to manufacture accurate, repeatable moulds for the vehicle

Poly-Fair F26 Fairing Compound:
Used on plugs to create a smooth, refined surface before moulding, which is essential for reducing finishing work and improving the vehicles aerodynamics.

Crestabond M1-05 and M1-20 Structural Adhesives:
Both of these Structural Adhesives provide a strong, fast curing bond for any brackets or fixtures, helping with weight-reduction on the vehicle, while remaining high performance.

The Results – Global Recognition and Awards

The team from Canada completed the 3000km race in a total of 38 hours, 51 minutes and 36 seconds! This secured the team 9^th place in the race.

This incredible achievement earned them the following
• Eberle-Selwood Championship Arrow Cup
• Safety Award

Combining all of the benefits of using Scott Baders products, the structural reliability, thermal resistance and overall durability supported the vehicles overall performance and ultimately contributed towards the incredible result in the race, demonstrating how advanced materials can impact the overall performance under pressure.

The Partnership: Technical Support and Seamless Collaboration

The involvement in this partnership was more than just material supply. Colleagues provided full technical support across the 18 month project build, sharing advice and support on application and use of product. 

This partnership has helped the students gain the confidence in working with advanced composite materials and structural adhesives, while ensuring they had all products and tools required to bring their build to life.

The Future: Supporting the Next Generation of Innovators

The solar car project is part of a longer journey for the Canadian team, who are now working on further developments on the car for future competitions.

Scott Bader continues to be proud of supporting small teams like this by making high performance, sustainable materials accessible to teams and projects such as this one. Demonstrating how this support and resource can inspire the next generation of innovators.

This case study highlights how Scott Bader’s composite technologies, from high-temperature tooling resins to structural adhesives enable world-class innovation under extreme conditions.

Whether developing next-generation transportation, renewable energy systems, or advanced industrial solutions, the right materials make measurable differences in performance and reliability.