Australian students from University of New South Wales have designed what they claim to be the world’s fastest solar car Sunswift Ivy by clocking a speed of 88 kilometers per hour after smashing a previous Guinness World Record of 79 kilometers per hour speed.

They have managed to smash the world solar car speed record at the HMAS Albatross navy base airstrip in Nowra city of Australia.

Sunswift IVy produces about 1200 watts, the power that is required to running a toaster. Ivy, which normally uses its cells to charge a 25 kg battery was removed for the record attempt.

“We broke the record at 10.32 this morning. The Guinness World Book of Records adjudicators were on hand, so it's all official. We've even been handed our certificate,” Daniel Friedman, project manager of Sunswift was quoted as saying in a local daily, adding that the team was excited over the car’s performance.

“We were expecting to get our peak sun at noon, so the fact we broke the record so early was a great result. We hope the news will spur a lot more interest in solar energy and the debate about renewable energy technology, Friedman said.

Professional racing driver Barton Mawer and Craig Davis from electric carmaker Tesla’s European operations, were drivers for the attempt although students are also usually the drivers of the carbon-fiber race vehicle.

We were confident, we only needed a little bit of sunshine and that was enough. I've been lucky enough to drive racing cars all around the world but this was right up there as a buzz. To grab the world record is just great for the whole team, and the University of New South Wales put in a big effort to get this done and hopefully we can keep chipping away at it to raise the bar, Mawer said on the feat.

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