Back on the Road, Well Almost!

With the Southwest Regional Heat approaching fast (23rd June, be there!) the car is almost back together after the major overhaul that's been going on since we got back from Silverstone. The most striking new feature is the new slimline look,

This has been done to save both weight and rolling resistance and with a track of over 600mm should have a minimal practical effect on stability. Other weight/resistance savings have been made in the drive train. We have switched from two cantilevered axles to a single transaxle at the rear which has let us get rid of two bearings and their supports. We have also simplified our drive train by removing the CVT gearbox, replacing it with just a regular cassette hub to act as a lay shaft. This has saved us loads of weight and resistance but we do lose out on flexibility on the the track with only a single gear.

The brakes are now mounted on the front wheels. The regulations demand two wheels be independently braked so we have had to mount them up front. This means we take a bit of an aerodynamic hit but this is more than made up for by the weight savings at the back.

The car has also had an aesthetic spruce up with a new coat of paint and brand new decals, just to finish her off properly. There are still a few more tweaks and nudges left to do this afternoon but she should be ready for a pre-race shake down at the end of the day.

RAF Portheath Test Day

The extremely helpful people over at RAF Portreath have agreed to let us use their runway for testing the car and we spent the afternoon putting it through its paces. With peak speeds pushing 30mph on the down slope and plenty of juice left in the batteries at the end of a long session we are more confident than ever about turning in a great performance at Goodwood in less than a fortnights time.

RLR1 on the BBC

Here is the video of us at Perranporth:



Check it out.

Airfield Testing

Today we went to Perranporth Airfield for some testing. We were given a nice long straight to get the car really going to get a real sense of what it can do. The car performed well but the boys defiantly need some guidance on how to use the gears effectively. The majority of our testing was documented by the local press with BBC Spotlight filming a great deal and interviewing the boys and also myself. There is also some awesome on-board footage which will look amazing on the telly. If you want to catch it we will be on Monday at 6.30pm.

The Launch

The Launch party was a massive success. There was a great turnout and everyone was very impressed with the car and the boys were excellent hosts. After a speech from Mr Lloyd-King the car was unveiled and the team was photographed with it for the local press, a chance to show off it's new red paintwork. When the lads had stopped vying to be Britain's Next Top Model, the cowlings and the bonnet were removed so the guests could get a good view of all the technical parts which are normally covered up.
With the sun shinning out in the Quad, we took the car out and the boys took it for a spin around the playground, expertly avoiding all the Lamp posts!

Crash!

We got the car out testing yesterday and it was AWESOME! Then it crashed. While we were testing on the tennis courts one of the drivers mis judged the corner and hit the chain link fence. This was his first drive in the car and he was a bit over exuberant behind the wheel! The damage looked worse than it really was with a bent front axle and track rod; an afternoon of tinkering and it was good as new. The biggest damage being the ego of the driver involved.
Back in the workshop, the nose cone is coming together.  The foam block, made from the paddle board blank from Home Blown, was glued up on Wednesday and the shaping is now almost finished. Both the rear cowling and the nose will be given a layer of the bio-resin to stiffen them up and protect them from dings as well as giving a nice aerodynamic surface.

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.