Form follows function, so the multinational visionaries who designed, built and jockeyed solar hot-rods should be proud of the irregular fleet of flattened cupcakes scuttling like oversized dollar-store toys on Japan's Suzuka Circuit at Federation Internationale de l'Automobile's Alternative Energies Cup and Dream Cup race in the name of science. Proving the endurance of vehicles powered by Sol's renewable resources, the eight-hour event was a Jetsons' mockup of the Grand Prix, trading the sexily abrasive roar of internal combustion for the dignified wonderment of an epicene, electric flit. There were adoring fans, breakneck straightaways, pit teams and a requisite champagne dousing at the awards ceremony for champion Ashiya University Solar Car Project A. In its fourteenth year, the Dream Cup met its correspondingly economical objective, "making eco-friendly automobiles." Making them a commercial reality? — no, but surely a curious attraction. Did a robot wave the checkered flag? No? Maybe next year.
