Harvey was involved with the testing and development of the Sunraycer at the General Motors Proving Ground in Arizona.
Roger Smith, the CEO of GM, was interested in the idea and agreed to fund a study to see if a solar powered car could be built within 10 months.
A month later, AeroVironment engineers concluded that a highly competitive car could be built within the time available.
With this in mind, AeroVironment produced a design that proved to be very lightweight (only 585 lb (265 kg)) and created a very low drag coefficient (cd: 0.125).
[citation needed] The engine was created for the Sunraycer by GM using a brand new electric motor based on Magnequench permanent magnets.
This kind of rare-earth magnet was invented in 1983 independently by the GM physics department[1][2] and Sumitomo Special Metals.
The race course followed the Stuart Highway for nearly the entire trip, going past Alice Springs in the middle of the continent.
The Sunraycer, driven by John Harvey, won the pole position with the fastest speed of all the 24 contestants (109 km/h), remaining in first place for the entire race.