The team visited Mudgee as part of its school tour that included the Sutherland Shire and Penrith High School.

They brought with them the Jaycar Sunswift III - the solar powered car that won last year’s transcontinental solar powered car race and broke the race record.

The university students are in the area doing driver training and have incorporated a tour of schools into their trip to give school students the chance to see what solar engineering is all about.

Mudgee High School teacher Peter Smith said it was a great experience for the students and may spark some interest in students to pursue a career in engineering.

Last year, Mudgee High School won the high school solar car challenge beating six other central west schools with their solar power, remote power car.

Some of the eight students who were involved in building and driving of their remote control car were keen to have a look at the real thing.

Team captain from last year, Erin Adams said that she didn’t realise how small the driver’s seat was.

Although the car will probably never be driven as a regular car, Clara Mazzone from UNSW said that like Formula 1 cars, although they are not driven like mainstream cars, a lot of the technology can be incorporated into other electrical cars.

The Sunswift runs on 1.8 kilowatts which is the power required to run a hairdryer and the wheel motor which was developed by the CSIRO is now used in electrical vehicles.

The UNSW team also visited Mudgee for the Wings, Wheels and Wine Air Show.