On Friday 10/9/15 my team in Tampa realized we had one week to make a race that was on Saturday 10/17/15. All we had was a crooked frame from the four wheel car and a front axle that was not installed correctly.
In 6 work days we were able to build the whole car and race it.
This was the car after the first build day, the front axle was tact welded in and the rear wheel just had clamps holding it, there were no supports for the rear wheel. At this point my teacher had very little hope we would make it. We left school around 7 each day.
We had to get the rear wheel on, which in itself took a full day making a mount for it. Along with an incorrect measurement making us re-do it. We the next day we added the motor, but the slots for the wheel were not cut correctly and opened downward so the chain could not be tensioned and the chain could only be cut to an even number of pieces, one to much was really loose, one to few was to tight and we couldn't use what we needed. We had to run it a little so it would stretch, lucky for us it did the perfect amount.
When the wheels were all done steering was added, we use a rack and pinion. The battery mounts are a little unique, the go under the drivers legs. We put the batteries here because in our old 4 wheel car we had a huge problem of under steering. We also added some old paneling, the sides are from our old car and riveted on.
On Friday, 12 hours before the race we were able to finish. This picture is from the first time we set the car on the ground. We got REALLY lucky, we have 1 9/16 inches of ground clearance at the very front. Our first test drive we raced one of our schools resource officers and his golf cart, we learned we are geared pretty low, we were really quick but not the fastest, but still faster then his golf cart. That same night was our homecoming football game and at half time I was able to race the principal, which resulted in yet another win, this one not even a close race.
Our car has a lot of character, no time was put into looks, but all function. At our race we got a few comments. But we did find some problems with the car at the race, one was our gearing was way to low, we had 2 long straight-a-ways and some tight corners, in corners we were fine but we went to slow going straight. The other problem was steering was difficult, it required a lot of strength to turn the wheel and after the 2 races my arms were tired. But lucky for us this was the first race in my schools history with not large mechanical problems. Our old 4 wheel car rarely finished both races and when it did it took a month to fix. We were able to finish 4th of 7, beating my school's sister team and another school with 2 cars. My team could not have been happier to be able to race a car after only 1 build week. And since there is very little to fix my team and I will finally be able to build another car, hopefully this time with a straight frame.
-- Edited by Nitoragro on Wednesday 21st of October 2015 01:09:19 AM
Congratulation on the Big improvement your team has made.
i would enjoy seeing your pictures but they do not show up (checked with Safari and IE). If I click on them, it tries to get me to sign in to Goggle Mail.
it has always been my experience that it is easier to optimize a running car then to build a new car. It might be wise to try and improve this one more.
For example, is there a way to increase the leverage on the steering? Either at the hub or the steering wheel? That might make steering easier.
It works with chrome on my phone and computer, we will defiantly be improving our car but my team is growing, 10-12 people and they all need something to do. As for helping with steering we could modify the spindles so that the distance the tie rods push from the kingpin is more. We also need a larger steering wheel. I won't be at the next race but my teams secondary driver will be driving, he has never driven, but lucky for us we have a very easy track and not much turning so he won't need to muscle it. But next race the car will be re-paneled, no more balsa wood panels from the old 4-wheeler and new sprockets and LOTS of testing.