Preparations are underway for the "Alternative Fuel Vehicles Contest," which will be held by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) in Kocaeli from Aug. 26-27.

The contest, which will be conducted at the İzmit Körfez Circuit, will host more than 900 students from 57 universities countrywide who will compete in the categories of electricity and hydrogen fuel cars.

Currently, university teams are busy with set-up preparations for their cars being set up in tents. After completing the enrolling process for the race cars, the participants' cars were subjected to a technical test.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), the head of TÜBİTAK's Science and Society Programs, Mustafa Orhan said that the Alternative Fuel Vehicles Contest is one of the most important events sponsored by TÜBİTAK.

Reiterating that this is not their first time organizing solar car contests, Orhan informed AA that TÜBİTAK gave up organizing solar car contests amid concerns about the difficulty of benefiting from solar energy production in the automobile sector.Orhan noted that TÜBİTAK has supported universities which are establishing a team for the very first time with TL 35,000 ($10,000) - TL 10,000 of which has been allocated for travel expenses. Stating that teams ranking the highest will be awarded with TL 80,000 in total, Orhan added, "The contestants design their cars on their own and develop them with the support of their sponsor. In the context of track races, we will award the ranking ones under two categories titled, 'Local Production' and 'Local Design.' We award the local production and local design vehicles especially. Nearly 100 percent of the vehicles you will see here have been produced by students. Among the vehicles presented to us for the contest, we choose the vehicles that meet specific technical requirements. Now, we are checking to see if the vehicles meet contest requ

irements. For now, our acknowledged experts who are members of the TÜBİTAK Advisory and Assessment Authority are testing the vehicles in a laboratory environment to determine their suitability for contest conditions. These technical tests will continue until Friday. The vehicles which are not deemed suitable for contest requirements will still have the right to participate in the contest, on the condition that they compensate for their shortcomings."

In the context of the contest, hydrogen fuel engines will compete on Saturday while electricity-powered engines will compete on Sunday. Those that are granted a ranking in the contest will receive their awards on Sunday.