First cuts

The first plywood panels were cut today, we are now well under way on the construction of the floor pan, the side pannels and the internal bulkheads, that's all the panel components except the bonnet all out of two sheets of ply.
The picture is the panels held in place to get a feel for size, all the internal panels will be cut to match the hoop shaped one and the whole lot will then be glued together using biodegradable glue and then laminated.
Massive thanks to Woodstock in Penryn who have very generously provided us with all of our wood absolutely free of charge, this would be a much more difficult build without their help and support.

Wheels

Bike Chain in Redruth have agreed to build our wheels for us, they will have 20mm Hope hubs and they are looking into super narrow 20" rims for us which are normally used on recumbent bicycles. It's great to have Bike Chain back on board again, they were really great as sponsors for the V24 and we are looking forward to working with them again on the new car.

Tested to Destruction

We got to test the different backing materials today. We have been making test pieces for the last couple of weeks consisting of right angles of ply, laminated with bio-resin and different backing materials. What we learnt today was that cotton and muslin really sucked but the silk was very nearly a match for the glass fibre, in fact it was so good we are now defiantly going to use it on the car. The chassis of the car will now be fully biodegradable, we are definatly putting the green into Greenpower.

RLR 1 Design

Here is a nice CAD shot of the new car design, all the work of Mr Lloyd-King. Its a monocoque construction of birch ply and bioresin, probably with silk acting as the backing material for the resin.

New blog!

Well, this is the very first entry in the Richard Lander Racing blog. This is where we will be posting updates on the build process of the new car as well as our progress when we finally get racing in the coming season. First, a bit about Greenpower, the competition we will be racing in. Greenpower is a competition for young engineers, aged 11-16 to build and race an electric car. Everyone starts with the same motor and batteries but beyond that the teams are free to build the car in whichever way they choose. The races are endurance races, lasting 4 hours with no charging of batteries allowed during the race and no adults are allowed to work on the car during pit-stops.

The V24 was our entry in the 2008 season and made it all the way to the final at Goodwood motor circuit in Sussex. Hoping to do even better this year, construction of RLR 1 is already under way, albeit at the very early stages but stay tuned for updates and photos from the build as it happens.