Iowa State’s solar car will be shown off this weekend for an educational exhibit at Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines.

PrISUm Cynergy, the student-built, solar-powered car, will be shown in the 24th Annual World of Wheels show.

More than 10 ISU students will help display the car each day, said Eric Flakne, a sophomore in industrial engineering and assistant director of Team PrISUm, the student organization which designs, builds and races solar cars.

“It’s going to be really interesting. There should be about 28,000 people there and it will be interesting to see the reactions of the people who work a lot on cars. I think they’ll come up with good questions about the practicality of pistons and energy efficiency, for example,” Flakne said.

Team members have been anxiously preparing for the display show, Flakne said. “To get ready, I’ve been helping the team review information about the car — how did it get started, why we have certain features on it. We’ve been cleaning up the car. We repainted the seat, touched up the paint on the body of the car and we’ve been buffing it,” Flakne said.

World of Wheels is a modified custom car vehicle show for motorcycles, custom pickup trucks, collector cars and various other vehicles, said Tom Williams, World of Wheels producer.

“There’s something here for everybody, including a good display of Harley Davidsons,” Williams said.

Team PrISUm formed as a student organization in 1988, said Allen Ihlefeld, a sophomore in industrial engineering and business manager for Team PrISUm. “We have about 50 members in the organization and about 20 very active members,” Ihlefeld said.

Team PrISUm began in the College of Engineering, but all majors can get involved with the team, Ihlefeld said. An estimated 1 million people have seen or met PrISUm through various events in local newspapers and radio, as well as with appearances on national television stations such as ESPN, CNN and PBS, according to a Team PrISUm press release.

In about 15 or 20 years, Flakne said he sees a serious possibility of more efficient solar cells being developed. At this point, solar cells on satellites have been developed to have about a 31 percent efficiency rate, Ihlefeld said. “Our cells on the car are about 14 percent efficient,” Ihlefeld said.

Energy efficiency deals with how much energy the cell is about to collect and use for electricity.

“I think it’s true that solar energy could use some more money being put into it from university research. It (solar energy) has a lot of purposes to serve; it may not be the key thing, but with hydroelectric power, wind power and solar power, I think we can find an alternative to the fossil fuels we’ll be losing,” Flakne said.

Some sponsors of Team PrISUm include Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Rockwell International and General Motors. Ihlefeld said these companies are not buying influence for future benefits.

“We feel their material and financial donations are done in good faith. The main people we talk to are the engineers out in the plants — they are not getting anything special from this relationship,” he said.

After this weekend Team PrISUm will continue building their new car, PrISUm ExCYtor, which they will use in the national Sunrayce ’97 in June.

PrISUm Cynergy will be on display today from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the World of Wheels show is $7 for adults and $3.50 for children.