Rotary Racer 8 in its First Race at Goodwood

2009-07-12

Rotary Racer 8 has been in production since October 2008. We needed a new car, with enough internal space, to take the drivers as their height was increasing dramatically! Rotary Racer 8, code named:  Renovatio, was born. There are some details of its design and construction here.

We had always set the Goodwood race on the 12th of July as the first race for RR8. As the date became nearer time seemed to slip away! Apart from lack of time, we had a few issues close to the end, including rollbar aluminium which would not bend. However, after stirling efforts by the team we managed to get a car "finished" on 11th July. Unfortunately there was no time for the planned testing, driver experience testing, gear ratio testing, pit stop practice ..... All the car got was a couple of 100 yards up and down a small lane. The plan for this race was a testing day, to test out the new car and fix things as we went.

We arrived at goodwood with no labels or stickers on the car as the paint was not fully dry! However that was soon sorted out and off to scruiteneering we went. The car passed this fine, with only a minor recomendation, which was a relief. The following practice laps went without any major hitches, although the seating arrangements for the smaller lads was not ideal. We ended up tightening up the seat and using a neck pillow to assist. We had geared the car the same as RR7e at its last race at Goodwood to start with. The initial telemetry data showed that, despite the high wind on the day, we could lower the gearing ratio. So this was done prior to the race.

The lads managed to get the car onto the front of the grid next to another Chipping Sodbury car RPodS SSC. The race started well with both of the Chipping Sodbury cars getting away well. RR8 had its speed control set on the low current side and RPodS SSC pulled away for the first lap. This current limit was reset shortly afterwards and RR8 started gaining again. It looked like the cars were fairly evenly matched. RPodS SSC had undergone extensive modifications for the CC race back in April which had improved its performance significantly and it had acheived an excellent millage of 120 miles there. So we were very happy when RR8 was close to its speed in the conditions of the day and on its first outing. It looks the time spent with the Virtual Wind Tunnel while designing the car was worth it.

The first drivers stint went without any issues and the pit stop, although slow, worked. Confidence in the new car had risen steeply now that it had actually completed some real laps and was going so well. The practice day started to turn into a race as RPodS SSC was not to far ahead. About halfway through the third driver however, we noticed that the motors temperature was getting high at about 70 degrees. So we reduced the power levels to prevent a motor failure. Luckly the car computer had increased power to the secondary smaller fan and that kept the motor from melt down! On coming into the pits for the next driver change Gareth had a quick look and found that the main cooling fan had jambed. With a bit of force he managed to get it working, although afterwards it was quite noisy and not up to full speed. However, we carried on with a slightly reduced current level to reduce the heat buildup.

The rest of the race passed without to many problems, apart from losing the neck pillow at one point. The lads drove excellently in the new car taking care while gaining expierience with its handling. The steering worked well, although the angle of the joystick was rather high, as did the new twin front disk brakes using the home made brake balancer.

Things got a little nerve racking at near the end of the race as RPodS SSC's batteries started to dwindle, while we still had a little bit of power left. Its 2 lap lead was soon down to 1 lap and we were gaining. At the final flag RPods SSC won by about 40 seconds, an excellent 1st place for them.

This was an excellent day for Rotary Racer as well. The new car worked well with only minor issues even with very little testing and managed to get second place with 115.2 miles beating our previous best at Goodwood of 112.8 while in much windier conditions. With this position we have now achieved a place in the Greenpower Final in October. We now need to spend some time optimising the cars performance and fixing the few issues that appeared on the day. All in all a good day and worth all of the hours that the Lads and Dads have spent in design and construction.

As well as the first and second places for R-PodS SSC and Rotary Racer another Chipping Sodbury School car, Wacky Racer came in in 9th place. An excellent result for the school.

Rotary Racer was built and driven by Daniel Iles, James Allington, Daniel Dando, Gareth Barnaby, Tom Allington, and Ben Miller along with their dads.

Rotary Racer's Sponsors:

Thanks go to all of our sponsors, including:

Rotary Club Chipping Sodbury (funds)
Town's Land Charity Chipping Sodbury (funds)
Shipp Engineering, Chipping Sodbury (Metal)
BLD ltd (Helmets and gloves)
CTEK (Battery Chargers)
Kemble Air Services (Car testing on airfield)

More Information

Rotary Racer 8, Renovatio's design:

http://www.greenpower.beamweb.co.uk/files/RotaryRacer/RotaryRacer8

Chipping Sodbury's Greenpower website:

http://beehive.thisisbristol.com/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=12856

Some photos of the Rotary Racer:

http://www.greenpower.beamweb.co.uk/showcase

Some Photos of Ypod? And Rpods

http://picasaweb.google.com/thepodmovement

The Greenpower Website race Report:

http://www.greenpower.co.uk/racing/results_detail.php?type=2008_2008NATIONALFINAL_501367

The pupils and parents work in the DT Labs of Chipping Sodbury School on Tuesday evenings as well as extra time in their garages at home. The Teams are organised by Brendan McMorrow, a teacher at the school. The parents and pupils get involved in all of the science and engineering aspects of the design of efficient electric racing cars.