First Competition was a Bust :/

Week 10

After coming back from the competition, Josh and Coleman informed me that the first competition in Tennessee was disappointing, as the brakes on the car failed to pass inspection, so the team couldn't participate in the five events.

However, the team did perform very well on the presentations to the judges, and can only improve from here. Hopefully, they'll perform better in the next two competitions in May and June.

Although it is disappointing to have no practical evidence from the actual endurance races, this senior research project was a new and exciting experience for me, and I'd like to thank everyone who made it possible.

Off to the First Competition!

Week 9

This week, we helped the team make finishing touches and pack all of the necessary equipment for the competition.

The car isn't the only thing that the team takes to the competition. They also pack extra parts in the case of an emergency, and pack parts from the old cars to demonstrate their tweaks in design from previous years.

What surprised me the most was that the team also packed broken parts that malfunctioned during the testing process. These parts are taken to describe the engineering and testing process to the judges and to explain considerations that the team had to make while building and modifying the car.

The Car is Gold!

Week 8

     Because of the impending competition next week, the team had a lot of work to do this week. First they sent out the finished chassis for a paint job.

Here's the chassis after the paint job:

     After the chassis got back, we had to install all of the other parts. Suspension parts had to be attached, the engine and the throttle cable had to be installed, and the transmission and seat had to be fitted. Jason taught me and Jared how to vinyl wrap the outer panels of the car using an alcoholic solution and a heat gun.

The task of finishing the car was tremendous, but somehow, we finished building the car by the end of the week.

Here's the final product:

The Car's Almost Done!

Week 7

     The outer body of the car was finished this week. There's only one week left until the first competition, so the team will have their work cut out for them next week. The testing of the practice car is almost done, and the problem with the toe links has been taken care of.

Here's a picture of the outer chassis of the final car:

Throttle Cables and Soldering!

Week 6

     This week, the Baja team was selling their oldest car. However, the car's throttle cable broke and the team didn't have a replacement, so we went to the bike shop to get a bike cable, which worked just the same.

     A throttle cable works by using mechanical impulses. One end of the throttle cable is connected to the gas pedal and is fed through sheathing to the engine, where it is connected to the throttle lever. A push of the gas pedal pulls on the cable, which in turn pulls on the lever and causes the engine to make the car accelerate.

     The old throttle cable had frayed ends, so Coleman taught me how to clean the ends using rosin soldering flux. The rosin flux is a kid of jelly that is applied to the cable and sticks to the residue on it. The soldering iron is then used to evaporate the jelly, which cleans the residue off of the cable. The solder (a metal with a lower melting point than the cable) is then melted onto the cable with the soldering iron and cooled to restrengthen the cable's ends.

This is the rosin soldering flux:

This is the soldering iron:

This is the solder metal that is melted onto the wires:

     The practice car is still being tested while the new chassis is being built. The tie rods and toe rods, which connect the steering system and the back of the chassis to their respective wheels, are the parts breaking most during the testing. The team is trying stronger metals for the rods, at the expense of extra weight, in order to prevent them from breaking during the actual competition.

Testing the Car!

Week 5

     Having finished building the practice car over spring break, the team moved on to testing the car for any flaws out in the open. On Tuesday, the team conducted two test runs and repaired the car after each one. Unfortunately, I cannot post any footage of the practice car or the building of the new car, as the team will properly unveil the car in mid-April. However, I did observe during the second test run that every small detail of the car matters. In that case, one small piece of the car that was loose-fitting instead of tight-fitting caused the front left tire to lose alignment. In order for the car to perform well in the races, every small flaw has to be ironed out before April 14, which calls for extensive endurance testing.

     I also worked with the machines in the C & C lab for the first time this week. The machines in the lab can be programmed to take a raw material and fashion a part out of it. For example, the automatic lathe machine...

...can be used to create parts out of cylindrical rods to create parts of a cylindrical nature, like these high misalignment spacers that we were making...

...out of this rod of raw material.

Although the machines are always run with a closed door and coolant splashing after almost every step, Josh ran it at a lower speed so I could capture the work of the machine on the rod. Here's a video of some of its steps:


The raw material used for these spacers is made of a material that is technically stronger than last year's material, but weighs less. Each spacer now weighs 1.67 grams, as compared to last year's 3.33 grams. Although the change in material doesn't decrease the weight of each spacer by much, the combined result of all 32 spacers on the car help the team reach it's goal to reduce the weight of the car, as a reduction in weight will allow for a better performance in the acceleration test.