A team of North-East students hope to fly the flag for Britain by racing their futuristic car across Australia.

The engineering students from Durham University have spent three years developing the tiny, single-seat, solar-powered car in preparation for the 1,800-mile race from Darwin in the North to Adelaide in the south of Australia.

They are the only British team taking part in the biennial challenge in October.

The car has a tubular steel chassis and carbon fibre body shell. It has a maximum speed of about 50mph.

Energy from the sun is stored in batteries attached to the car.

Project manager Richard Flint, 23, an engineering undergraduate from Doncaster, said a dozen engineering students were working on the prototype in between attending lectures and studying.

He appealed for sponsorship to ship the car to Australia, where some of the students will take turns to drive it during the race, as well as monitoring its progress from a back-up vehicle.

To ship the car out to Australia, and to complete work on it, the students need at least £25,000.

Mr Flint said "If we don't get the money it means we will have to wait another two years to enter the race, which would be a terrible shame considering all the work we have put in. It would be good if we could enter this year because it is the 20th anniversary of the World Solar Challenge and it is also the 175th anniversary of the university.

"The future, as far as cars are concerned, is electric. We are not suggesting that cars like this will be the cars of the future, but some of the electrical technology could be used in future.

"The car of the future may not carry its solar panels around with it like ours, but solar energy could be used to power its batteries," he added.

• To sponsor the project visit www.dur.ac.uk/dusc