2004/2005

Rotary Racer 2005

 


Rotary Racer 1
Rotary Racer 1 started life as a Green power eagle kit car, since then it has changed many times and has been continually improved, in fact it has been changed for every race we have entered. Below is a short history:-

Sept 2004 - May 2005
Took over car from previous team (Team Rotary Speed Demons), car changed considerably. Drastic weight loss and converted to chain drive (this involved making a separate sub frame to mount the motor and brakes on) with 20inch BMX rear wheels, geared for a theoretical top speed of 22 MPH.
Entered the best of the rest race, coming tenth, covering 72 miles (four hour race).


May 2005 - July 2005
Realised from last race that car needed more changes if we want to go faster. Steering radically changed to centre point steering geometry (zero scrub radius), we used the top tubes and steering head bearings from two push bikes. Gearing changed to a theoretical top speed of 25.5MPH and the aluminium bodywork changed to plastic film (used for engineering drawings) stuck on with double sided tape and sellotape.

Entered the Avon heat and came fourth covering 130 miles.


July 2005 - Sept 2005
Realised from last race that car was suffering from poor aerodynamics, car was totally rebuilt over the summer’s holiday with a longer nose section allowing a more aerodynamic profile, this also allowed the drivers to lie down more, so getting out of the airflow. Raised the gearing to a theoretical top speed of 27MPH.

Entered the North West heat and came first covering 138 miles, qualifying in ninth place for the national finals.


Sept 2005 - October 2005
New larger 096 type Batteries (thanks to Airbus UK) installed as two of our 028 type batteries had failed during last race, this meant major changes as we had to find a way of changing the batteries quickly. Gearing raised to 30MPH as we felt that the car was capable of going faster seeing as it coped so well at the North West heat.

Entered the national finals but came thirty fourth covering 117 miles, this was a disappointment as for the first three hours the car performed really well, holding its own and was on target for about 150 miles, however we over estimated the battery capacity and under estimated how much power the car would need to cover this distance! the result was flat batteries and the next three hours was spent continually changing batteries as we tried to keep the car going.



ROTARY RACER MK5
Rebuilt over the winter of 2005, the mk5 version was basically a test vehicle to prove some thoughts over shape and wheel size, it was very successful in this and led to the team building the 2006 car. We used the car at the handicap race where it managed 146 miles and we entered two sprint races where it's light weight and small size was a big advantage and it won both sprints.