First Drive of '13

Last Sunday was a fun day for the team. We test-drove the car for the first time this year. Let's chronicle the adventure.

Getting the car out of the shop was a lot easier this year, since the accumulator container
has moved. Most of the team still showed up  to held move the car.

The car fits perfectly in Dave's new truck. This also made it a lot easier to transport to the parking lot we test in.

There were a last few tasks before we were ready to drive, such as attaching the impact attenuator, fueling, bolt check.

Finally she's ripping. We had a couple pit stops to adjust chain tension and electrical harness.

Test driving on Sunday gave us a chance to really see our progress this year. We were able to test a lot of new systems, including pedal box, steering column, shifter, brakes, fuel system, accumulator container, firewall, engine harness, HV lines, and more.

This first iteration represents a lot of hard work so far, but it is not the final racecar. There is still a lot more work to be done, including the design report. Driving the car is the first step to the car we really want.


And just to give some more detailed updates on the race car, here are a few things we've worked in the last couple weeks and over spring break.

Here's a prototype of the rear box that will hold the motor controller and ECU. It will
eventually be replaced with an aluminum box.

A mock-up of the firewall.

The new routing for the HV cables is here and looking clean. Fuel system
 and LV battery are also visible.

Let us know what you think!