Season Opener 2011

This weekend saw another great event for the team here at Richard Lander Racing. What a great opportunity it was to be racing at the home of British motorsport, Silverstone.

After some last minute fettling on Saturday we were finally on the road and managed to get to the track in good time, time enough in fact to watch the last laps of day from some awesome sports cars, a great education for the drivers on what lines they should be taking when it was their turn the following day.

Sunday morning began with the now traditional egg and bacon breakfast and then it was on the track. The pits were a much more professional affair than we are used to, we had an enormous garage all to ourselves but we quickly made it feel like home with our flags and banners.

After a nerve-wracking time at scrutineering (the new system is certainly thorough!) and Jacca taking the car out for some practice time, it was on to the race. First out was Harrison, our own version of the Stig, who put in some very consistant lap times around the 5:30 region, almost exactly as predicted. A driver change at the half hour mark got Ben out on the track but no sooner had he made it out he was called back in by the marshals. A problem with the car's transponder cost us a couple of laps but the team handled it brilliantly, they stayed calm, took control and got the car back out as soon as the yellow coats stopped faffing around with the only part of they car they are responsible for!

A few more laps from Ben and it was then Gareth's turn to see out the last few joules from the batteries. With very little left in them, speed was way down but we had our most consistant driver in to make the most of it. A recurring issue with the drive shaft saw our batts empty 10 minutes early but we had done enough to claim 28th place from a field of 45, a great result for the first race with the uncertainty of the new batteries.

The team can be proud of their performance and they have shown a level of independence that we have not seen before from any of our greenpower teams. This team and this car certainly have a great future ahead of them and we will see what they come up with at our next race at RAF St Mawgan in June.

Preparations for Silverstone

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.

Good, then bad, then AWESOME!

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.

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.

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.