We ended up completing last years (GreenPower F24) final with a car running, in position 37. We were pretty pleased with ourselves, but also a little disappointed, another lap, lost when a driver decided we needed a random extra pit stop in the closing stages probably cost us quite a few places.
So on to 2012....
At the begining of March there was a test day at Goodwood so in preparation for this we began work on prepping and modifying Eco-2.
It seems our drivers have got taller since last year, the first job was to extend the body tub by 200mm, so we didn't have to chop their feet off.
The gearing was also altered and special ceramic bearings installed, that apparently have 30% lower resistance.
At the test day the cars performance was very promising. If it had run as well in the 2011 final we would have been in the top 20.
Our team has also just secured funding for this year, to build another car (Eco-1 has been scrapped and pillaged for parts) unfortunately this confirmation didn't come until Monday, so we have six weeks to build the car, including whatever lead time there is on the parts that need ordering!
We have been discussing ideas for the car for a while, but obviously it was time to get something down on paper. I produced some drawings over the weekend and yesterday afternoon a couple of the team and I cobbled together a 1/10 model of what will become Eco-3.
It's going to be constructed in a similar fashion to Eco-2 but will be an open wheeled design, reducing frontal area, and will have the plywood tub formed into a more aerodynamic shape.
More as the materials arrive and the build starts....
