Croft 09

Heres just a quick update from the race that happened last Wednesday.

We came 4th and got 90 miles. Everything went to plan, pit stops were quick (for us) all the driver changes were on time, however we still only got 90 miles, which is 10 less than we got at Goodwood. 2 reasons, 1 croft isnt a great circuit for milage and 2 we had miles left in our batteries! I will explain deeper in the race report that is coming in the next week or so.

Mean while you can look at photos from the race in the media section

Photos of misfortune

If your from another team or simply interested, here are some photos of our bodywork - being crushed by BigBear Plastics vacuumm former. To see, go to the media link, galleries and look for bodywork09. Enjoy!

Ready to race

A long time with no posting, so here is what has changed since last time I posted.

• We have now completed the body work 100%, its been vacuumm formed, painted and covered in stickers.
• We have completed out Sponsor a bolt scheme. All the bolts were sold and all have now been installed on the car.
• New Brakes! Titanium that was spare from the bolts was sent off to Claro who made us an amazing new brake disk! Also this means that a new calipers were required, which are also lighter and smaller than the old ones.
• A new Ackerman angle! This was a nice supprise to us. Not only we had put the steering mechanism on backwards, making the angles complete opposite and there fore would pop the tires in minutes, also we had made the car longer and there fore needed new steering arms. As I havent been in school, I dont know if this have come back yet!
• The last thing that is new ( and which I dont think we actually have yet) is the electronics. Improvements are being able to take the amperage output out of the batteries and calculate how long exactly is left, and therefore if the driver should change up or down gear to get the most out of the batteries. This will be the thing that should help us the most, as before it was all done by guess work which would either bring the car into the pits with power still in the batteries, or bring the car in at 2mph. This system should hopefully should wear the batteries so they die exactly on the two hour mark.

Next Wednesday we have our first race for 1.5 years, so it should be a good one! It will be at Croft. I will do a race report after. Images from the event will be available during the day on the screens around school and live timing from the event will be available from here

Bodywork now back in the workshop

After hours of sanding and filling we finally got the mould sent off to Big bear plastics to get formed. Of course it it wasnt a happy ending because on the first attempt of getting the mould formed, our beautiful masterpeice got torn to peices by the force of the machine.

However they managed to fix and re-enforce the mould and gave it a second shot and it worked! Looks just as we wanted!

However there is still alot of work to do on it as we need to cut holes for the driver, wheels, lights and re-enforce it with an aluminium frame.

Sponsor A Bolt

"Want to be involved in the Greenpower racing car project?
We need your support in sponsoring bolts that are used in the car!

Currently all bolts are steel & replacing them with either
Titanium or Aluminium will save nearly 2kg in weight.
Bolts are available at various prices to suit all pockets - see table below.

If you would like to help the KJS Greenpower team and very kindly 'sponsor a bolt',
please contact Mr Hutchinson by email: kjsgreencar@googlemail.com
or telephone Mr Hutchinson at KJS on (01423) 866061.

Thank you "

Our Sponsor a bolt in near an end now, only 6 bolts remain to be sold at one pound each!

See the status of the project here

How did we make that?

While we arnt doing alot with the car at the moment, id thought id share with you a video I put together for open evening explaining how we made our bodywork. If there are any questions about it please email me!



Also the other day, we finally got to meet the man from big bear plastics, who was going to do the vacuum forming of the mould. We have two weeks for preparation then it is being taken away! He mentioned that we may be able to get more than one mould done (but if Mr H wants another car, im afraid he's on his own!) just in case. He also mentioned that some one could have charged us in the region of £10,000 to make just the mould for it! Worth my summer holidays then. :D

Car is now back!

After its long holiday in leeds, the car has come back new and refreshed, all with new fancy electronics. I haven't yet had time to have a good close look, but it only uses three wires so it suits me. Ill take some photos tommorow.
Also if anyone is interested, it is open evening next wednesday, and like usual we will be there so if your interested come and have a look!
Final note, a video showing the process of us making the new bodywork will be on show on open evening and will be up on the website shortly after.