Lead up to Merryfield

After a long work filled holiday, M6, the car built by my current team GDS Racing, is almost ready to run once again in the hands of Camborne School. The change from a chain driven gear hub to a single gear belt drive is finally setup but hasn’t been without its issues.

After repositioning the motor to sufficiently tension the belt, we then encountered the problem of it twisting on its mount. It however gets worse! On inspection of the motor we then discovered the shaft was moving in and out, something that should not happen. This will require a motor replacement on the morning of the race, not great, but with easy access to its mount it won’t take long to install.

If this wasn’t enough to think about, our first test run brought to light the issue of the belt slipping when under the tension of pulling away. On close inspection this was due to driving before full reassembly so easily fixed. This highlights the issue with a bolt together frame. To further help I also increasing the acceleration time on the controller, a more gradual force is now applied helping the car to pull away without the slipping.

All in all I’m quite happy with the prospects of the weekend, obviously not too happy about the morning motor replacement, but needs must. Also thinking levelled headedly, a win is not really on the cards with the teams that will be racing on Saturday, but I feel the aim of 80 miles is more than achievable, as long as we don’t encounter any issues…

If you want to follow the race see http://www.bbk-online.net/gpt/race50.htm

Wheels

It seems we’ve been going around and around trying to sort the wheels for the new car. The rears have been sorted for some time now but didn’t come without their issues. We’re using a cantilevered set up for the rear drive so thick axles were needed, however trying to find a brake disk hub with a 14mm axle was none existent so modifications where needed. With this done we now have the perfect rear wheels, it’s been the fronts that are causing the issue now! Firstly it was the choice to go with smaller at the front. This meant a new set would need to be purchased which at the time didn’t seem a big issue and the finding of the perfect bike, two wheels for £5, what a bargain. If only it were that simple. Fully aware of the difference between the front and rear hubs on a bike we thought we could get both wheels from the one bike with minimal adaption, what wasn’t realised was how different hubs are on a child’s bike. With this in mind the search was on for another but the price compared to a new set that had spring up on ebay meant brand new wheels where the better option. It’s meant we have lost the “green” credentials from the reuse of the second hand bike, but the new wheels are much more suited for their purpose. Now that the wheels have finally arrived work can now begin on setting up the steering, we can only hope we don’t stumble into anymore problems…

2012 Regulations

The 2012 Regulations are now out! So with these now read the final design touches can be added to the car. Some interesting changes this year, the 6 second exit has been scraped and photovoltaics are now aloud. This has had some mixed reviews on the forum but it think it is taking Greenpower in the right direction. I will also take this time to give new teams a word of warning, dont get to far into a design until the new regs are writtien. There is a few things I now have to change, thankfully nothing major, but its still an inconvenience. Anyway, take a read from the link above and good luck with your builds.