The Good - It's been a busy week at Richard Lander Racing. We have finished work on the electrics, the bodywork, the datalogger, the steering and we have even built a rolling road type test rig. With all this complete we got the car up and running on the rig with all the cowlings removed. This however exposed a major problem...
The Bad - as Mr Arney was inspecting the drive chain during testing he suddenly noticed he was getting splattered by some sort of fluid. This turned out to be the transmission fluid from the NuVinci hub. Turns out we may have been spinning it too fast and fluid has been escaping from the seals. The fluid turns out to a custom component and therefore irreplaceable. It was looking like we were about to take a massive financial hit...
The AWESOME - Mr Lloyd-King got to it and made contact with Fallbrook in the USA, the manufacturers of the NuVinci hubs, and told them about our problem hoping they would give us some advice on how to repair it. Their response totally blew us away, they were so interested in the whole project that they are sending us out not one but two replacements! America really is the home of customer service. Thanks to this amazing level of generosity we will be back on the road with minimal downtime. For those who want to know more about Fallbrook and the great piece of engineering that is the NuVinci hub click HERE.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Nearly There...
The car is so close to being ready to test, the team has been working hard on several parts of the car at the same time in an attempt to get the car fully functional again and ready for testing after half term. The new electronics system is almost complete, the speed controller being replaced by a more simple relay, although I'm still trying to change the teams mind on this! We have also upgraded to more heavy duty cable which is important due to our long cable run.
At the same time, some of the team have been working on the steering column and tie rods. This too has had some tweaks, the column length has lost about an inch and the whole assembly has been moved forward to meet the new solid bulkhead. This will give us a much more ergonomically positioned steering wheel as well as giving more room to get larger drivers in and out.
The car had picked up a few war wounds in its maiden season and some of the team had been working on this as well. The most damaged parts were the foam sections, the nose cone and the rear cowling picking up plenty of dings between them. A few hours with some surfboard repair paste and a fair bit of sanding and they are both ready for a fresh lick of paint and new vinyl graphics.
At the same time, some of the team have been working on the steering column and tie rods. This too has had some tweaks, the column length has lost about an inch and the whole assembly has been moved forward to meet the new solid bulkhead. This will give us a much more ergonomically positioned steering wheel as well as giving more room to get larger drivers in and out.
The car had picked up a few war wounds in its maiden season and some of the team had been working on this as well. The most damaged parts were the foam sections, the nose cone and the rear cowling picking up plenty of dings between them. A few hours with some surfboard repair paste and a fair bit of sanding and they are both ready for a fresh lick of paint and new vinyl graphics.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
The New Bulkhead Is In
The team got to grips with the new battery bulkhead today, having glued on the cedar fillets last week they fitted it to the car this evening. We used the animal glue again, just as we did with the original bulkheads, which has been a great oppertunity to introduce the new members of the team to the 'unique' smell of molten hooves!
We are hoping to get the front axle in place by Thursday evening so that the car looks roughly car shaped for the Year 9 options evening, an ambitious task, but I'm pretty sure the guys are up for it. At this rate we should get all the mods done by half term, leaving us shedloads of time to catch up with our friends over at our test spot at RAF Portreath.
Friday, 17 December 2010
2011 Race Calender
The dates of the coming season's races have been published over at www.greenpower.co.uk. We really want to focus on racing this year so as well as the Season Opener we will be entered for 3 regional heats. The dates for our races this season will be:
- Season Opener @Silverstone - 1st May 2011
- Southwest Regional Heat @RAF St Mawgan - 23rd June 2011
- Somerset Regional Heat @RNAS Merryfield - 17th September 2011
- Western Regional Heat @Castle Combe - 2nd October 2011
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
Season Opener
The date for the Season Opener has been set for the 1st May 2011 and will be held at Silverstone. We have jumped at the chance of getting the car on such a high profile track and will be taking RLR 1 for its first real stretch with the new spec batteries. The Season Opener will be a short race of only 80 minutes, using just a single pair of batteries and will be using the National Circuit track layout. The main event of the day however will be the Corporate Challenge in the afternoon where the top 15 teams from last season take on real, grown up engineers from such companies as Jaguar/Land Rover and Bently.
To find out more about the Season Opener, click here:
http://www.greenpower.co.uk/news/index.php?id=000460
To find out more about Silverstone, click here:
http://www.silverstone.co.uk/track/circuit-maps/
To find out more about the Season Opener, click here:
http://www.greenpower.co.uk/news/index.php?id=000460
To find out more about Silverstone, click here:
http://www.silverstone.co.uk/track/circuit-maps/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)