When you think of the Cannonball Run, you probably picture a group of people getting from the Red Ball Garage in New York to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach in the shortest (and often most dangerous) time possible. Police encounters, lack of sleep, zero rest stops, a spare gas tank or two, and a few gallons of energy drinks are often the motivation for these attempts to complete the roughly 3,000-mile route in record time.
But something is missing from recent successful attempts: conventional gasoline. That’s because speed wasn’t the goal for these three friends, who built a solar-powered car and crossed the country in a record-breaking time of 13 days, 15 hours and 19 minutes.
While this is more than 300 hours longer than the 25-hour record set by a modified internal combustion engine car in 2020, it is the first time a solar-powered vehicle has completed the route. Meet Cannonball Sun, a project four young engineers from Michigan decided to take on this summer.
“No one has done this before. It’s a challenge for everyone involved,” said Danny Ezzo, a Michigan Tech student and one of the engineers who helped build and drive the solar car. said after arriving in Redondo Beach Sunday night.
This isn’t the first time Will Jones, Kyle Samruck and Danny Izzo have built a solar car together, nor is it their first attempt to complete a route from New York to Los Angeles with such a vehicle. The three young engineers attempted a cannonball run in 2021, but a motor controller failure forced them to cut short their trip in Logansport, Indiana — still 2,284 miles away from their goal.
Jones and Sam Rucker had previously built and competed in the Solar Car Challenge together in high school, and the two met Ezzo while running cross country in college. Jones has been chasing the Suns during his time at Michigan. During fall break in 2023, they decided to try another Cannonball Run, even though they went to school eight hours apart. “All it took was a little convincing and some pizza,” Jones said.
“No one has done this before”
The team learned from its failed attempt to fly from New York to Los Angeles in a solar-powered car in 2021 and made significant changes to the new vehicle. Ezzo said they used more efficient components, making the vehicle 48 percent lighter, and took a 600-mile road trip around their home in Michigan to iron out any issues. “It took a total of five months from the time we decided to do this to the time we drove a solar-powered car that was up and running in New York, so the timeline was very tight,” Ezzo added. “We were ambitious, but maybe a little naive.”
It turns out they were driving a vehicle called the Sun Chaser. It’s made from pipes welded together, corrugated plastic (also called coroplast), various 3D-printed parts, a homemade 320-cell battery pack, three motors (reduced to 2.5 working motors by the end of the trip), and eight solar cells The panels were donated by HighTec Solar, a Michigan-based solar panel manufacturer.
The three wheels (two in the back and one in the front) are actually bicycle wheels, and the team said they would reconsider this choice if they ever did a long run again because the spokes kept breaking.
The team designed the cockpit to fit the tallest drivers, with the position tilted back like a recumbent bike. There’s an accelerator pedal and a front brake pedal, but most of the braking is handled by a pair of mountain bike brakes located at the rear. Everything is connected mechanically. The Sunstrider doesn’t have a steering wheel, but is driven via a set of handlebars inside.
“We were ambitious, but maybe a little naive”
I had the opportunity to take the car for a brief spin in the parking lot of the Portofino Hotel before the team loaded it back on the trailer for the long trip back to Michigan, and while it has a large turning radius, it easily benefited from Clear plexiglass bubbles and precise steering. From the cockpit, the solar car is about the same width and length as a Ford F150, but weighs only 560 pounds. In order to turn, the young man must get out of the car and push the vehicle into position.
The Sunstrider is registered as a motorcycle in the state of Michigan, so it’s completely street-legal, but the team can’t drive it on major highways because it can’t actually go faster than 55 mph. The team said the highest speed they saw on the descent along Angeles Crest toward the Pacific Ocean was 51 mph. The team said the car cost a total of about $12,000 to build, 90 percent of which they funded themselves. They crowdsource funds to pay for food and lodging across the country and accept sponsorships for other incidental expenses.
The team battled high temperatures in the desert and had to replace the charge controller when it failed in the middle of the desert. They also have to endure temperatures of up to 128 degrees in cars without air conditioning. They brought along another friend, Brett Cesar, who helped Samruck and Jones build their first solar car in high school, to be the fourth driver. On a good day, the fleet rotates driving time approximately every two hours. While traveling through the desert, the team must change every 30 to 45 minutes to avoid heat stroke and dehydration, while other members follow in a chase vehicle.
Jones’ father, Brian, drives the trailer and makes sure the team is hydrated, fed and housed during the trip. They started calling him “Papa Sun.”
It wouldn’t be a cannonball run without explaining to the law that the team was stopped twice at Ohio State, both times for being too slow. Ezzo said an officer took some photos of the car and told them to speed up because they were blocking traffic, even though they were reaching the speed limit. The police didn’t issue any tickets.
On the road, people gawked at the spaceship-shaped vehicle, taking photos and honking their horns, according to the team. One man even rolled down his car window as the team approached the finish line to ask about their projects. When they told him they were doing a cannonball run, he cheered them on and honked his horn as they passed.
Overall, Ezzo and Jones said they learned a lot from their successful trail run. They might try driving a new solar-powered car on a route through Alaska or the Pan-American Highway, but real life might get in the way. Jones got a job at SpaceX, Sam Rook got a job at Ford, and Ezzo was still a student at Michigan Tech.
“It means a lot to us as a team,” Ezzo said of being the first solar car to complete the Cannonball Run. “The 100-hour work weeks, missing family gatherings and the sacrifices we make are all worth it.”
