More Modifications

With the experience of the Season Opener under our belts and now knowing how we will be affected by the battery change, the team have been making some modifications to the car to improve the performance ahead of our local qualifying race in June.

One of the major changes, due to the overall reduction in speed is that aerodynamics has become slightly less important but weight has become more important. With this in mind we have put the car on a crash diet. We have removed as much material as possable from the rear sub frame without compromising its strength. This includes the replacement of the cantilevered drive shafts with a single through axle.

This allows us to remove two bearing blocks and theirssupports from the frame but it does mean moving the braking system to the front wheels. One of our kind sponsors, Teagle, have offered to make our new steering assemblies which will now include the necessary mounting points for the brake calipers and also give us much more control over the precise geometry of the steering system.

While the car has been stripped down the team have also been working on the surface finish. We are trying to get a perfectly smooth finish to reduce turbulence as the air flows over the surface. With only a few weeks left until our next race we will have to get cracking to get all these mods completed but we will be working every lunchtime until the car is back on its wheels once more.

Our Sponsors

With the car progessing so well, we are soon going to be thinking about decals and sponsor logos so I thought it would be a great time to reaffirm our thanks to all the companies and individuals who have helped us to get this far.
Ladds Concrete have supplied us with epic amounts of funding, without which we would certainly be struggling to complete this project, especially to the high standard we have set for ourselves.
Woodstock have donated, free of charge, all the ply and cedar used in the chassis construction as well as providing thier expert advice on some construction techniques.
Teagles, especially Callum Evans, have machined the drive shafts and bearings as well as some smaller machining jobs, not only providing labour for free but also sourcing materials at thier own cost.
Our aluminium subframe was constructed by Mr McReady's contact at the Rotary Club, again supplying materials and labour free of charge.
Bike Chain in Redruth have also been helpful in supplying wheels and brakes at reduced cost.
We are extremely grateful to all these companies for their help and support and now that the regional heat is approaching we hope to repay them with a great result.

Drive Shafts

We had a visit from Calum Evans from Teagle Machinary today and he brought with him the rear drive shafts theat he has been working on for us. This is a really exciting stage of the build now as the outsourced components are coming in and the hard work that has been put in by everyone really starts to show. Also I think Mr Beech is alot happier now that he has some metal to work with!

Epic Update

Well, so much has happened since the last post that I am not sure where to start! First of all we have a new sponsor to thank, Teagle Machinery of Blackwater have very kindly agreed to machine our drive shafts for us and have also volunteered to sort out the bearings for them too for which we are very grateful.

We also had several deliveries over the past couple of weeks, we are now the proud owners of a new motor and race batteries. At the same time the Nu Vinci gearbox arrived, a purchase made possible by the generous funding provided by Ladds of Redruth, a big thank you to them.

 
And finally perhaps the most dramatic piece of news; a major leap taken just before the half term, with the bulkheads finally complete the chassis could be glued together with the bone glue. It was all hands on deck for this with everyone pitching in to get the bone glue on before it cooled and then clamped into the jig.