Highlights from the 2005 Tour de Sol

For many, the highlight of the 2005 Tour de Sol was New York Governor George Pataki’s visit to the Tour de Sol.

“This is the future – this is not just making some symbolic statement, this is talking about our country and its future.  It is absolutely wrong that in the 21st century 95% of U.S. transportation is powered by petroleum. We have to break that dependency on foreign oil, on unrenewable fossil fuels, and hydrocarbon sources of energy. We can do it. We can do it through innovation, through the commitment of government leadership, and, most of all, we can do it through creativity.”

Governor Pataki also chatted with sponsors and entrants.

 

There were many other exciting moments that lead up to this grand finale – and many FIRSTS!

For the first time the event was organized almost entirely by volunteers – and three of them, Jim Dunn, Gilles Labelle, and Craig Van Batenburg, created a new competition – the Monte Carlo-style Rally for hybrid and biofuel vehicle owners. It was a tremendous success – with 40 entries!

Another first is that we held the entire event in New York State. Our “Home Base” was at the beautiful historic Saratoga Spa State Park, and on Saturday, the Tour de Sol joined the Saratoga’s Spring Auto Show for a great display. This was made possible by the generosity of two new partners, the Saratoga Spa State Park and the Saratoga Automobile Museum. The setting could not have been more beautiful, or more perfect for all our needs.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

The event began on Friday, May 13.

For the Tour de Sol Championship entrants, this was tech-testing day.  In the morning, we held the usual safety inspections, specs checks, acceleration, braking, and cone tests.

 

The car from West Philly was a real head turner!

After all the safety inspections were complete, we moved to another FIRST - a Hill Climbing event. The  cars lined up, and then accelerated to the top where they had to stop within a designated “box.” The burning rubber at the starting and finishing lines kept us all riveted to the spot.

 

Friday evening brought another first for the Tour de Sol. Teams made presentations about their vehicles. The presentations were a great hit! We also had a great supper prepared by Jim Dunn’s relatives and friends!

On Saturday, various exhibits from sponsors, the participants in the Monte Carlo-style Rally and Around Town Vehicle competition joined the Tour de Sol Championship entrants for the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s Spring Auto show, which showcased over 300 vehicles antiques, muscle cars and much more. The Tour de Sol displays were pretty spectacular. We also offered workshops about advanced vehicles for the over 5,000 attendees.

 

At the end of the show, we presented trophies to the Monte Carlo-style Rally winners. People turned in spectacular efficiencies in all categories, which included Honda Insights and Civics, Toyota Priuses, Ford’s Escape Hybrids, and a Lexus RX400h. One very interesting modified vehicle was #36, a Prius modified by Valence and Edrive to be a plug-in hybrid. Overall, several vehicles neared the 100-mpg Challenge!

 

After the Auto show, we moved to an Autocross event organized by the Mid-Hudson SCCA. Just about everyone got involved!

 

Sunday, May 15 was range and efficiency day for the Tour de Sol Championship vehicles and the Around Town Vehicles. For the first time the Around Town Vehicle Competition was held in a large parking lot, so we got some great photos. There was tremendous variety of vehicles. Optibike took fist place in the three-hour range event. We also held one and two-hour range events, and presented trophies.

 

On Monday, May 16, we traveled to the New York State House in Albany for our final display and awards ceremony. Over 40 exhibitors joined us for the event, with hybrid, fuel cell, and alternative fueled production and prototype vehicles as well as other clean vehicle technologies and programs. New York State is a leader in investing in clean vehicle technologies and it was a tremendous display. And, as mentioned at the start, Governor Pataki’s participation was icing on the cake.