The first race of the season is only a few weeks away and things are starting to get a little tense here at Richard Lander Racing! Our new gear hubs have arrived, thanks to the immense generosity of the guys at Fallbrook, and have been fitted and the datalogging system is pretty much complete also. there should even be time for a quick test session over at RAF Portreath after the Easter holiday just to bed everything in and get the drivers a few more hours behind the wheel.
The Season Opener is on 1st May and will be the first Greenpower event to be held at Silverstone. With the Corporate challenge being held on the same day it will be a great weekend of racing. Entry for spectators is free so feel free to make your own way up or join us in convoy on Saturday morning. We will be leaving from school at 9:00 and camping at Silverstone on the Saturday night. Make sure you bring an inflatable or camp bed as Silverstone doesn't have the best camping facilities!
The schedule for race day is then as follows:
- 0730 - Teams sign in
- 0815 - Scrutineering
- 0845 - Team briefing 1
- 0930 to 1030 - Practice
- 1040 - Team briefing 2
- 1110 to 1230 - Season Opener Race
- 1330 to 1730 - Corporate Challenge Race
- 1800 - Awards ceremonies
We look forward to seeing plenty of our supporters there and hopefully we can come away with something for our trophy cabinet. For more information and to book space for camping feel free to contact myself at dpascoe@richardlander.cornwall.sch.uk or contact Greenpower direct by going to their website by clicking
HERE.
We will be there to! Racing the Opener and Corporate now. Our cars getting there, when I return from uni in a few weeks the last touches will be done.
ReplyDeleteReally good news about your Nuvinci...s! Have other teams had problems with leaks because weve thought about getting one but I'm not so sure now.
Good luck with your testing and see you at Silverstone!
I have never heard of nuvincis leaking before and they seemed a bit surprised when Ben talked to them about it. They are a nice bit of kit from a great company but like anything it has its advantages and disadvantages. It adds a shedload of weight and rolling resistance but if used effectivly you should get this all back plus some by always being in the perfect gear. Obviously the 'if used effectivly' is the difficult part!
ReplyDeleteIf you get one and build it into a wheel like it should be then you will almost certanly not have the same RPM issue that we had. We run ours in a lay shaft arrangement which is the crux of the issue.
Gearing might be our albatros this year with the new batteries combined with our hub problems, but I'm confident we will have it sorted in good time, our first crack at qualification is not until June.
Like everything added to these cars, its good if used effectively! Sometimes the cheapest and most simplest can out preform the expensive supposedly great systems. Its just all about how you set it up.
ReplyDeleteAh I can see now why it may have leaked. The initial gearing down must take its toll, do you know if other teams have experianced this?
I think the idea of lay shafts are good but it really dose simplify the problem if placed in a wheel. All the setups with gear hubs weve used have always been in a wheel. For you however this isnt an option due to your design, however what you could do is input another layshaft to initially gear it down and then run that to the nuvinci and then run a 1:1 to your axil, that way the nuvinci would be travelling at a speed its more designed for.
Gearings going to be an interesting one for us to as there is no real know starting block, a few things have been on the forum but nothins set in stone.
The race in June will now include us! We have joined forces with the team I worked with last year at CSCC to now enter M6 into all 3 categories this year!
The Southwest Heat is getting more competative every year, it really is driving up the standard of the Cornish cars. Hopefully we can keep up and return a podium finish each year.
ReplyDeleteWe had a bit of a poor start at St Mawgan last time round and had to work hard to get a 3rd place finish, we really could have done better and we are hoping to this year.
Silverstone is going to be an important test session for us, then it's all about optimisation for the heat in June.
I totally agree, Vaughans work over the years has really shown Cornwall as a big player in Greenpower, we just need a high profile win to put the final stamp on things.
ReplyDeleteThe the school car last year we had a tough time at St Mawgan to. If it wasent for the steering breaking and costing us an hour and a half to fix it we would have probably been in the top 3.
Same for us, and with us, you and Penair racing in the Season Opener it will be a good indication of whats to come in June!
As the regional heats event organiser, my dream has always been to make the Cornwall College Greenpower Regional Heats the largest event in the UK, an event that people from the Greenpower community will all be talking about.
ReplyDeleteThis could never happen, without the hard work and commitment from teams like you guys. I can't wait to get to Silverstone and see you all in action. I am absolutely confident that the way the South West event is growing and how you guys are raising the bar,there will be a Cornish team on the podium sooner than everyone thinks.
We have, at present. 15 F24's registered for the regional heats and most of them are Cornish, not bad in such a short time that Greenpower has been in the county.
I wish you all the very best at Silverstone, just remember you are already making history, by being the first ever Cornish school to race at the World famous race circuit.
I'm not used to emotional outbursts, but I'm proud of all of you!!
Thanks Vaughan!
ReplyDelete15 cars sounds a bit scary, we had better get the car running on top form to get that qualification place.
We took the car out to RAF Portreath today, I'll probably post about it when I've sorted some photos. The car ran well, we had issues with the steering and the drive shaft but both are pretty trivial and will be fixed tomorrow.
Just 4 days left!
I know this year's circuit is going to be a bit tight, but hopefully things will be different next year. I have been given a contact details for the base commander of the Royal Marine Base Chivernor, who might be interested in running a F24 & F24+ event there. My thoughts are to next year dedicate Newquay to the Goblins as we are potetially approaching 80+ cars by next year and try out Chiverton.
ReplyDeleteThe idea, is to if possible, is to have a two day event. the first day would be a test day, then sleep in one of their accommodation blocks. Then the 2nd day we would do the race.
I believe it would really build up the amount of teams in the county,what do you think?
I love the idea!!! What Cornwall needs is a close place for an F24+ heat. Having done it with the school and doing it again this year out of my own pocket travel is not cheap so at least one close heat would help lift the load. Also it would help get more Cornish F24+ teams involved.
ReplyDeleteThe testing day and camping idea I think is a great idea that would bring in a lot of the big teams. Once you start getting the likes of Sandbatch coming to an event then the masses will follow. Also even if its not racers and just teams wanting to test thats still going to bring people down.
In regards to this years F24 its going to be tight with our steering. It doesn't seem like we have much but there is surprisingly quite a bit but I'm just not sure how well it will cope on the tight Newquay course at it was set for sweeping circuits to start with then the school got on board. Plus the number of teams involved will surly play its part. Should be ok though. Going to be an interesting race.
My final comment, I myself may be too old to stand as a school student team member on the podium but it doesn't mean someone in my car cant. Fail that I'll have to be the first Cornish independent team up there but either way I wont stop until I'm and I hope you wont to. Its drive that will get us Cornish teams up there and I'm sure between us we have what it takes!